The mystery of the Trinidad Red Solo

“What you drinking with that?”

“A red solo please”

It really doesn’t matter if you’re eating a roti, doubles, or even a hops bread and buljol…an ice cold red solo will wash it down just right! But to the die-hard Trini, the red solo must be in a heavy Solo glass bottle.

The red solo drink or red see-drink

Joseph Charles Bottling Works and Investments Ltd. - a local soft drink manufacturer in Trinidad produces the Red Solo - a red colored carbonated beverage that is popular in Trinidad. The company was founded by Joseph Charles, the son of a Punjabi father and a Martiniquan mother, and is currently owned by the Charles family.

The beginnings... with bread

Joseph Charles, the eventual founder of Joseph Charles Bottling Works and Investments Limited, first entered the business world as an employee in 1922. In that year, Joseph's parents moved from Icacos to Belle Vue (near Dibe in the hills behind St. James) with their six children. It was here that the young Joseph began working in a bakery on Queen Street in Port of Spain. He quickly moved up from baking bread to becoming a salesman, serving his customers by bike. It was at this point that Joseph's unusual entrepreneurial instincts began to take shape. He knew how to please his customers. He started keeping a policy of giving every customer who bought more than twelve loaves of bread one extra loaf free, from his own commission.

From bread to beverages

The move towards the soft drink industry began when Joseph discovered that there was a small, hand-operated soft drink factory for sale on Patna Street in St. James. He borrowed $100, combined it with his savings, and bought the factory. The brand name of the soft drink that was produced by the factory was 'Delaware Punch' and Joseph continued producing soft drinks under that brand name after the factory aquisition. The entire production system at that time was manually operated. This was what the process was like. Used and returned bottles would be hand-washed using a bottle brush. The imported syrup would be mixed by hand and measured out into bottles to be carbonated by manually inserting and removing a carbonator, after which the crown cork would be pulled down onto the bottle top.

World War II and the Solo brand

With World War II, there was a shortage of bottles, since the bottles were imported instead of being manufactured in Trinidad. Joseph became aware of a soft drink factory in Canada that was closing down. He bought the bottles from the Canadian factory and shipped them back to Trinidad. The brand name printed on these bottles was 'Solo' and the logo included a picture of a pilot drinking a soft drink after a solo flight. Joseph kept the brand name and design for the manufacture of his soft drinks with the traditional heavy Solo glass bottles. Joseph Charles got where he did not just by ingenuity, but by hard work. The work day began at 5:00 am so that by 5:30 am, trucks loaded with Solo beverages would be deployed to travel the rough, narrow roads of those days to deliver the soft drinks to groceries and shops island-wide.

So the red solo is as widely known across Trinidad as the red TTT logo shown in the picture above.

But what’s the magic? Why the need for it once you’re eating roti?? I mean there’s home favourites like Cream soda, Banana and Apple J which is tart, refreshing and loaded with pure apple juice for goodness sake! Perhaps the need for a red solo with roti or bread is embedded in the history of its creation which was preceded by bread?

I tried looking up the ingredients for red solo and came up empty-handed. So I can only conclude that it is in fact sweet, red, fizzy magic when paired with roti or hops bread. Speaking of hops bread now……