Ironbeer, a Havana soda made in Miami
One delivery, 1917 to today.
Four cases
“A mule drawn, wooden wagon arrives at a popular cafeteria in Havana, Cuba. This wagon delivered the first four cases of a new soft drink, Ironbeer, that would soon be called ‘The National Beverage.’”
Printed on every can we make
Ironbeer left
The Cuban government was taken over by Fidel Castro. Like many Cuban companies, Ironbeer moved to Miami.
The drink came over with the people who drank it.
A man bought it
Pedro Blanco took over Ironbeer and doubled the company’s sales in his first year. Selling it was not what he was after.
He wanted to make the drink himself, and for that he needed a plant.
He would spend thirty years wanting it.
Then he built it
Blanco travelled the United States looking for equipment, found it, and put up a soft drink manufacturing company. Thirty years after he bought the brand, Ironbeer was made by the people who sold it.
He named it Sunshine Bottling.
One plant, then a catalog
In 1994, an unexpected opportunity led the plant to can juice, and that work became Sunchy. His own sodas and maltas followed in 1995.
In 2005 he made his son, Carlos Blanco, president, and Teresa Mesa vice president. In 2007 Teresa created the private label department.
Pedro Blanco died in 2011, leaving behind more than he had dreamed of fifty years earlier.
His son, Carlos Blanco, owns and runs it today.
Nothing about it changed
Ironbeer is still made in Doral, to the same recipe that left Havana. Sunchy and Lanio come off the same lines, and so do other companies’ beverages.
The wagon is retired. The drink is not.
One building, three brands
Everything we sell is made at 8447 NW 54th St in Doral. Cans and glass, carbonated and still, with a tunnel pasteurizer that lets a drink made with real fruit or other ingredients remain shelf stable.
The same lines run beverages for other companies. If you have a formula and you need someone to fill it, that is a door we keep open.
The line
Try one
Ironbeer, Sunchy and Lanio are on supermarket and neighborhood market shelves around the country.