The name on Trinidad's most iconic soft drink wasn't even his idea. He just couldn't afford to change it.
Back in the early 1930s, Serjad Makmadeen was delivering bread by bicycle in Port of Spain, saving every cent he had. He scraped together $350, borrowed $250 more, and bought a tiny soft drink plant in St. James. He and his wife ran it completely by hand — boiling syrup, washing bottles, filling and capping them one at a time.
When he tried to grow the business, he wrote to soft drink producers in England for advice. Nobody replied. Not because his questions were bad. Because his name didn't sound like someone worth replying to.
So he changed it to Joseph Charles. The letters started coming back the same week.
Years later, bottles got scarce, so he bought up leftover stock from a factory shutting down in Montreal. Only problem — those bottles already had a name and logo stamped on them. A pilot, mid-flight, drinking from a bottle. The name was "Solo." Rebranding would've cost money he didn't have, so he kept it.
"That's the real origin story. Not vision. Not branding genius. Just a man doing the math and picking the cheaper option."
Today, it's not just a soft drink. It's a cultural staple. Honestly, if you eat doubles without a Red Solo, I don't trust you.
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