NORKA Beverage, the soda named after Akron but spelled backwards.
Although the company wasn’t in operation from 1962 until Michael Considine started to revitalize it in 2014, the NORKA president is carrying on a legacy that is, in part, familial.
Considine shares a connection with NORKA’s founder, Jacob Paquin. Considine’s grandmother, Gene, was friends with Paquin’s daughter, Olive. The two walked to the NORKA manufacturing plant after school, Considine said.
“The orange was their favorite,” he said. “So, they would pick up an orange and continue their walk home.”
This year, Considine is celebrating NORKA’s anniversary with his friends, including some who are also clients.
He’s consistently restocking the popular pops at the Peanut Shoppe in Akron, where he and store owner Marge Klein, the first customer he sold to in 2015, both said they’re “like family.”
And he’s keeping up with deliveries to Ali Hovan, co-owner of HiHo Brewing Company in Cuyahoga Falls, who called Considine a friend.
“We want to promote each other, always,” Considine said from HiHo’s parking lot during a delivery there.