Author: SimpleBev

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How to Build the Perfect Party Snack Table

Overhead view of a party snack table with bowls of chips, candy, popcorn and a tub of iced sodas

Every great party has one gravitational center, and it is not the playlist. It is the snack table. People orbit it, meet at it, return to it, and judge the whole evening by it. The good news is that a genuinely great one is not about cooking or spending a fortune. It is about structure.

We have watched a lot of parties get stocked, because SimpleBev delivers soda, snacks, and candy by the case across the Los Angeles area, and party orders are our favorite genre. This is everything we have learned about building a snack table that keeps people orbiting all night, without spending the whole day shopping for it.

Party this weekend? Everything below arrives at your door in one order. Browse everything we deliver and use GET10OFF for 10 percent off your first order.

Overhead view of a party snack table with chips, pretzels, popcorn, candy and a tub of iced sodas on dark wood
The gravitational center of every good party, seen from above.

Start with the rule of three textures

A great snack table needs crunchy, chewy, and melty. If all three are represented, nobody leaves the table disappointed. If you only have chips, you have a bowl, not a table.

Crunchy

Your volume category and the backbone of the spread. Cover the classic and the spicy lane: Doritos Nacho Cheese for the traditionalists, Takis Fuego for the heat seekers, Lay’s Classic as the neutral everyone respects, and Smartfood white cheddar popcorn because popcorn vanishes at parties. Pretzels round out the salty end. The full chips aisle runs more than 80 products deep if your crowd has stronger opinions.

Chewy

Candy, gummies, and everything that stretches. Haribo Gold Bears are the diplomatic choice, Sour Patch Kids bring the sour faction onboard, and the candy aisle has more than 160 options beyond those.

Melty

Chocolate. Hershey’s Kisses are practically made for bowls, and M&M’s Pretzel cheats by being crunchy and melty at once. Browse the chocolate aisle for the fancier stuff, and keep it out of direct sun, this is Los Angeles.

Anchor the table with a drink station

Skip the two liter bottles that go flat in an hour. Individual cans and glass bottles in a big ice tub let everyone grab their own, and they look great doing it. The formula that covers every guest:

Galvanized tub of ice filled with plain colorful soda cans and bottles under string lights at dusk
The drink station: a tub, a bag of ice, and instant self service.

The quantity math that actually works

Under buying is the classic party mistake, and it is completely avoidable with three rules of thumb.

  • Drinks: two to three per person for a normal party. More if it is hot, long, or outdoors, which in LA is most parties.
  • Chips: one big bag or four single serve bags per four guests. Single serve packs have a hidden advantage: no giant half eaten bag going stale at midnight.
  • Candy and chocolate: one case covers a party of twenty with leftovers, and the leftovers store themselves for the next one.

This is exactly why ordering by the case beats grocery runs. A 24 pack covers a party of ten with cold ones to spare, the per unit price is better, and nothing about it requires a shopping cart with a broken wheel.

Lay out the table so it flows

Layout is the difference between a snack table and a snack traffic jam.

  • Put drinks at one end, not the middle. The ice tub is the highest traffic stop, so give it its own corner, ideally on a separate surface entirely.
  • Spread the anchors. Chips at one end, candy at the other, so people naturally circulate instead of clustering.
  • Duplicate the favorites. Two smaller bowls of the same chip at opposite ends beats one big bowl with a crowd around it.
  • Keep napkins and small plates at both ends. Nobody crosses a party for a napkin, they just wipe their hands on their jeans.
  • Leave dead space. A table packed edge to edge has nowhere to set a drink down, and setting a drink down is half of what people do at a snack table.

Bowls, not bags: the seventies move that still works

Put the candy in bowls, not bags. It is a tiny thing, but a bowl of bright candy says party in a way a torn bag never will. Same goes for chips in big bowls with the bag hidden underneath the table for refills. Presentation is 90 percent of the compliment, and it costs nothing.

Glass bottles earn their keep here too. A tub of colorful glass soda bottles on ice is functioning decor, which is why it shows up in every party photo shoot you have ever seen.

Bright candy in glass bowls on a festive party table with guests in the background
Same candy, different container, completely different table.

Cover every guest without asking

A great table quietly has an answer for everyone, so nobody has to announce their preferences.

  • The kids: gummies, a fruity soda, and if you really want to be the hero, Ramune. The marble bottle is a toy and a drink in one.
  • The no sugar crowd: sparkling water in glass, so skipping soda does not feel like a downgrade.
  • The heat seekers: one spicy chip is mandatory. Takis or a chile limon anything.
  • The grazers: pretzels and popcorn, the snacks people eat without noticing for three hours.
  • The dessert people: chocolate, plus a secret weapon: root beer from the glass bottle and a tub of vanilla ice cream turns your snack table into a float bar in the last hour of the party. Nobody forgets that party.

The timeline: one order, twenty minute setup

Here is the entire workload, in order.

  • A few days out: place one order covering drinks, chips, candy, and chocolate. Check your delivery zone with the ZIP checker in the site footer. Our post on how SimpleBev delivery works covers zones and minimums in detail.
  • Party morning: buy ice, and nothing else, because everything else already came to your door.
  • Twenty minutes before: bowls out, bags hidden, tub loaded, bottle opener tied to the tub with string so it cannot wander off.
  • During: refill bowls from the hidden bags, restock the tub from the garage. Total effort: minutes.
Bowls of tortilla chips, gummy candy and chocolate pieces on a wooden table
Crunchy, chewy, melty. Three bowls and the rule is satisfied.

Three theme upgrades when you want to show off

Once the basic table works, a theme is the cheapest way to make it memorable. Same structure, different cast.

The taqueria table

Mexican glass bottle sodas in the tub, chile limon chips and Doritos Dinamita in the bowls, tamarind and mango candy on the sweet end. If you are catering tacos, this is the only correct drink station, and our Mexican soda ranking is the build sheet.

The throwback table

Everything in glass, nothing invented after 1980. Grape soda, cream soda, root beer, Nehi, and a candy spread heavy on the classics. Grandparents become the most popular people at the party, which is a feature. Our retro soda guide has the full roster.

The float bar finale

The showstopper. In the last hour, bring out vanilla ice cream, tall cups, spoons, and a lineup of root beer, cream soda, and orange soda. Guests build their own floats. It costs almost nothing, takes one cooler of prep, and it is the thing everyone mentions when they text you the next day.

Frequently asked questions

How many cases do I need for a party of 20?

Roughly two to three drink cases and two snack cases. That is 48 to 72 drinks for 40 to 60 expected grabs, plus chips and candy for the whole night. That order also clears our free delivery threshold in the closest zone, so the math tends to work itself out.

Should I get cans or glass bottles?

Both, honestly. Glass looks better in the tub and drinks colder, cans are lighter and safer around pools and kids. A mixed tub with glass sodas and canned sparkling water covers looks and practicality at once.

What drinks do parties actually run out of first?

The fruity soda and the wildcard, every time. Classics are predictable, so people buy enough of them. The fun options are the ones that get discovered mid party and swarmed. When in doubt, double the wildcard.

How far ahead should I order?

A few days ahead is comfortable. Drinks and packaged snacks do not go stale, so ordering early costs you nothing except garage space, and having it all delivered before the week of the party removes the single biggest errand from your list.

Do you deliver party orders anywhere in LA?

Across Los Angeles and most surrounding cities. Within about 20 miles of our warehouse orders start at 5 cases with free delivery at 10, and from 20 to 50 miles orders start at 10 cases with free delivery at 20. The ZIP checker in the footer gives you your exact zone instantly.

What did we forget?

The four things every party table forgets, in order: ice, napkins, a bottle opener, and cups for the float bar. Ice is the only one that has to be bought on party day, so put the other three in the same box as your delivered cases the moment they arrive and future you is covered.

What about drinks for the kids specifically?

Smaller bottles win. The 200ml Ramune bottles and 8oz glass sodas are kid hand sized, harder to spill, and low commitment, so a half finished drink is not a tragedy. Put them low in the tub where short arms can reach them, because kids will not ask, they will climb.

What about leftovers?

Leftovers from a case order are not a problem, they are a pantry. Unopened cans, bottles, and sealed snack bags keep for months. You are not overbuying, you are pre stocking the next party, or a very good month of Tuesdays.

You handle the playlist, we handle the gravity

The whole table, drinks and all, can show up at your door in one order. Cover your three textures from the chips, candy, and chocolate aisles, build the drink station from the soda collection, and use GET10OFF for 10 percent off your first order.

Need help picking the drink lineup? Our ranking of the best Mexican sodas and our tour of retro sodas that deserve a comeback are both basically party menus in disguise.

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Retro Sodas That Deserve a Comeback

Wooden crate of colorful vintage glass soda bottles on a retro diner counter

Some sodas are not just drinks, they are time machines. One sip and you are ten years old again, sitting on a curb in summer with a cold glass bottle sweating in your hand. The strange part is that most of these drinks never actually died. They just got pushed off the shelf by whatever was newest, and kept quietly being excellent somewhere else.

We would know, because we stock them. SimpleBev delivers soda, snacks, and candy by the case across the Los Angeles area, and the retro corner of our catalog is where the most emotional reorders happen. People do not just buy these sodas, they reunite with them. Here are the classics we think deserve way more fridge space in 2026, and yes, every one of them is on the site right now.

Want to browse instead of read? The whole soda collection is nearly nine hundred products deep, retro section included. Code GET10OFF takes 10 percent off your first order.

Row of colorful unlabeled vintage glass soda bottles on a weathered picnic table at golden hour
The lineup. Every one of these flavors has outlived at least three soda trends.

What counts as a retro soda

Our definition is loose but honest: a drink your parents or grandparents would recognize on sight, that modern soda marketing has mostly forgotten. Usually that means glass bottles, real character, and flavors that predate focus groups. Some are American classics that used to own entire regions. Some are imports that have been doing their thing for a century. All of them share one trait: hand one to somebody and their face changes.

That face change is the entire reason to buy them. New sodas get tried. Retro sodas get remembered.

Ramune: the soda with a toy inside

The Japanese classic with the glass marble in the neck, invented in the 1880s and still going. You pop the marble down with the little plunger, it rattles around the pinched glass while you drink, and the soda itself is a light, floral citrus fizz that tastes like summer festivals.

Every kid who tries one becomes obsessed, and most adults do too, because opening a Ramune is a tiny ceremony. We carry the Sangaria line in the classic codd neck bottle: start with the original, then branch into strawberry, melon, or lychee. An 18 pack disappears at a birthday party faster than the cake.

Ramune codd neck glass bottle with its marble resting in the neck chamber on a sunny picnic table
The marble is the toy, the bottle is the fidget, the soda is the excuse.

Cream soda never left, it just got quiet

Vanilla, bubbles, and pure nostalgia. Cream soda is one of the oldest American soda styles and it never actually went away, it just stopped shouting. A cold glass bottle of cream soda with a burger is one of life’s most underrated pairings, and the range we stock proves how much room the style has.

For the classic deli version, Dr. Brown’s Cream Soda in glass is the benchmark, pouring exactly like it did next to a pastrami sandwich in 1950. The Iron Horse cream soda plays it rich and old fashioned, and Capone Family Secret leans into the speakeasy theatrics. If you want an orange creamsicle in bottle form, Cicero orange cream is dessert with a cap on it.

Root beer in glass is a different drink

Real root beer, the kind with sarsaparilla depth and a foamy head, is a completely different experience from the fountain stuff. In glass, cold, it has spice and bite and an almost savory finish that soft plastic bottle versions never quite deliver.

Frostie root beer has been at this since 1939 and the bottle still looks the part. Iron Horse and Dr. Brown’s both pour a proper old fashioned mug of it, and Faygo root beer in glass is Detroit’s long running answer. Pour any of them over two scoops of vanilla ice cream and you have a dessert that has been quietly beating fancy restaurants for a hundred years.

Root beer float in a tall vintage glass next to a dark glass bottle on a diner counter
The float: still the best dessert you can make in under a minute.

Grape soda, no apologies

Grape soda is unapologetically purple and unapologetically sweet, and that is exactly the point. It is joy in a bottle, and it has zero interest in being sophisticated. Serve it at a barbecue and watch it disappear before the cola does.

The deep cut is Nehi Grape, the bottle Radar drank on MASH, still gloriously purple. Faygo Grape in glass is the Midwest classic, Fitz’s brings the St. Louis root beer maker’s craft touch to it, and Crush Grape covers the can crowd. There is no wrong answer here, only degrees of purple.

The deep cuts: Moxie, Nehi, and Faygo’s greatest hits

This is the section for people who collect flavors like records.

  • Moxie. America’s oldest continuously produced soda, born in 1876, bitter and medicinal and beloved. The word moxie is in the dictionary because of this drink. It is a rite of passage more than a beverage.
  • Nehi Peach and Nehi Orange. Fruit sodas from 1924 that still taste like a county fair.
  • Faygo Red Pop. Not strawberry, not cherry, just red. If you know, you know.
  • Faygo Rock N Rye. A vanilla cherry cream situation that defies description and creates lifelong loyalists.
  • Cactus Cooler. The orange pineapple soda Southern California kids grew up on and everyone else has never heard of. LA’s own retro classic.
  • Retro Sprite in glass. The big brands know nostalgia works too, and honestly, in glass it does taste better.

Ginger beer, the grown up fizz

Spicy, sharp, and strong enough to stand alone or star in a mule. Ginger beer is the oldest drink on this list by style, brewed long before modern soda existed, and it is the wake up call for taste buds that have gotten bored of everything else.

Bundaberg is the famous Australian one, brewed over days rather than mixed, in the stubby bottle with the pull tab. Fentimans has been botanically brewing in England since 1905 and drinks almost like a cocktail on its own. For an American take, Boylan Heritage carries a name that goes back to 1891.

Metal tub of ice packed with colorful vintage glass soda bottles at a backyard barbecue
A tub of ice and a mixed case of decades. Instant party, minimal effort.

How to build a throwback case

The best part about ordering by the case is that you can mix eras in one delivery. A formula that works every time:

  • Ramune for the kids, and for the adults who will absolutely steal them.
  • Glass bottle root beer for the floats. Buy the vanilla ice cream the same day, you will not regret it.
  • Grape soda for whoever is honest enough to admit they want it.
  • One conversation piece. Moxie or Rock N Rye, so somebody at the table has a story.
  • Ginger beer for the grown ups, neat or in mules once the kids are asleep.

Five cases, five decades, one checkout. That also happens to be the exact minimum for our closest delivery zone, which is either a coincidence or fate.

How to serve them like it is 1965

Retro sodas reward a little ceremony, and none of it is complicated.

  • Colder than you think. An hour in the fridge is fine, twenty minutes buried in ice water is better. Glass chills beautifully, and every drink on this list is at its best just above freezing.
  • No ice in the glass, and ideally no glass. These were designed to be drunk from the bottle, balanced as they are. Melting ice waters down a cane sugar soda in minutes, and half the pleasure is the bottle in your hand anyway.
  • Serve from a tub, not the fridge. A metal tub of ice with mixed retro bottles in the middle of the room does more social work than any playlist. People browse, compare childhoods, and trade sips.
  • Tie a bottle opener to the tub. Almost everything here is a pry off cap. The opener that cannot walk away is the difference between a serving station and a queue.
  • Keep the floats supplies close. A tub of vanilla ice cream in the freezer turns any root beer, cream soda, or grape soda into dessert on demand. It is the cheapest wow moment in hosting.

One more move for the ambitious: set out one bottle of something truly polarizing, like Moxie, with a stack of tiny cups next to it. Calling it a tasting turns a weird old soda into the most talked about item on the table.

Frequently asked questions

Are these the original recipes?

In most cases these are the current production versions of very old brands, many still made with cane sugar and in glass. Recipes evolve over a century of ownership changes, so the ingredient panel is always the final word, but the character that made each of these famous is intact. That is why they still sell.

Which retro soda should I try first?

If you grew up in Southern California, Cactus Cooler, no question. Otherwise start with a glass bottle root beer or Ramune, because both deliver instant nostalgia even if you have never had them before. Moxie should be your third, once you trust us.

Why do glass bottle sodas taste better?

Glass is inert, so it does not trade flavor with the drink the way plastic can, and it holds cold beautifully. There is also the ritual: the cap, the clink, the shape in your hand. Some of the difference is chemistry and some is theater, and both count.

Do you deliver these anywhere in Los Angeles?

Across LA and most surrounding cities. Within about 20 miles of our warehouse, orders start at 5 cases with free delivery at 10. From 20 to 50 miles, orders start at 10 cases with free delivery at 20. Type your ZIP into the checker in the footer of any page and it tells you your zone instantly. The full details are in our post on how SimpleBev delivery works.

Can I mix retro sodas with regular orders?

Absolutely, and most people do. A case of Ramune rides along with the household cola, sparkling water, and a case from the candy aisle just fine. Cases are per product, the order can be any mix you want.

Do these work for parties and events?

Retro sodas might be the single best party drink category, because they start conversations the way a generic cola never will. Put them in a tub of ice and let people discover them. Our guide to building the perfect party snack table shows where the tub goes.

Build your time machine

Nostalgia is one of the few things you can actually buy, and it costs about the same as regular soda. Browse the soda collection, pull one bottle from each era, and build a case that doubles as a family history lesson. New customers get 10 percent off with GET10OFF at checkout.

And if the nostalgia trip leaves you curious about the other side of the glass bottle world, our ranking of the best Mexican sodas is the natural next stop.

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Soda and Snack Delivery in Los Angeles: How SimpleBev Works

Cases of soda and snacks stacked on the doorstep of a Los Angeles home on a sunny day

Nobody dreams about lugging cases of soda through a grocery store parking lot. The cart with the broken wheel, the flat of cans digging into your hip, the trunk Tetris in the sun. That errand is the entire reason SimpleBev exists. We deliver soda, snacks, candy, and all the fun stuff by the case, straight to your door, anywhere in the Los Angeles area.

This post is the full walkthrough: how ordering works, where we deliver, what the minimums and delivery fees actually are, what we carry, and how to put together a first order that makes sense. If you have ever wondered whether case delivery is worth it for a regular household and not just a restaurant, this is for you.

Already sold? Head straight to the shop, stack your bag with cases, and use code GET10OFF for 10 percent off your first order.

Open delivery box of colorful glass soda bottles with bags of chips and pretzels on a Los Angeles porch
The whole pitch in one picture. The cases show up, you carry them ten feet, done.

Why case delivery beats the grocery run

Drinks and snacks are the worst part of any shopping trip. They are the heaviest items, the bulkiest items, and the ones you run out of fastest, which means they are also the reason for half your last minute store runs. Buying them by the case flips all of that.

A case in the garage means you are never the house that runs out during the game, the sleepover, or the random Tuesday craving. Cases are also simply the better unit price, and they are the reason we can deliver at these rates. You buy less often, you pay less per can, and you never carry any of it further than your own hallway.

There is a quieter benefit too. When the drinks are already handled, hosting stops being a project. Somebody texts that they are coming over, you open the fridge, and you are ready. That is a small change that ends up mattering a lot.

How ordering works, start to finish

We kept this deliberately boring, in the best way.

Browse the store, add cases to your bag, and check out. No account required. Apple Pay and Google Pay both work, so on a phone the whole thing takes about a minute. If you prefer to browse by aisle, the full category list is the fastest way to see everything at once.

After checkout, we pick your order at the warehouse and get it on a truck to your door. You put the cold ones in the fridge, stash the rest, and get on with your day. That is the entire system.

Hands holding a phone adding cases of drinks to an online cart from the couch
The entire shopping trip, conducted from the couch in about a minute.

Where we deliver in Los Angeles

Our delivery area covers Los Angeles and most of the surrounding cities, split into two local zones based on distance from our warehouse. The zones decide your minimum order and when delivery becomes free.

Zone 1: within about 20 miles

Close to the warehouse, orders start at just 5 cases. Order 5 to 9 cases and delivery is a flat 30 dollars. Hit 10 cases and delivery is free. Most households land here, and most of them order 10 plus cases once they realize mixing flavors counts.

Zone 2: about 20 to 50 miles

A little further out, orders start at 10 cases, and delivery becomes free at 20 cases. That sounds like a lot until you are ordering for an office, a party, a team, or two neighbors going in on an order together, which is a genuinely popular move.

Not sure which zone you are in?

Type your ZIP code into the checker in the footer of any page on the site. It tells you your zone, your minimum, and your delivery cost instantly, before you put a single case in your bag. No guessing, no surprise fees at checkout.

What we actually carry

Over two thousand products, and the catalog moves constantly. The headline categories:

Soda, in every direction

The soda aisle runs close to nine hundred products deep. Classic colas in cans, bottles, and glass. Mexican sodas like Jarritos Mandarin in glass, which we ranked in our guide to the best Mexican sodas. Retro brands you thought were discontinued, covered in our retro soda comeback list. Even novelties like Retro Sprite in glass and Pepsi Soda Shop with real cane sugar.

The snack wall

A snack selection that would make a gas station jealous: chips from Doritos to Takis Fuego, a candy aisle more than 160 products deep, chocolate bars, cookies, and popcorn.

Everything that is not soda

Sparkling and still waters, energy drinks, juices and lemonades, teas and coffees, and sports drinks. If it goes in a cooler, we probably case it.

Garage shelf stocked with cases of soda and bags of snacks
The garage shelf: the single best home upgrade nobody talks about.

Who orders from us

The short answer is anyone tired of carrying drinks, but a few patterns show up over and over.

  • Households that treat the garage shelf like a personal corner store. One big order a month replaces a dozen small store runs.
  • Offices and shops keeping a break room or waiting area stocked without anyone burning a lunch hour at a warehouse club.
  • Party throwers covering a birthday, a barbecue, or a watch party in one checkout. Our guide to building the perfect party snack table is basically a shopping list.
  • Events and teams where 20 cases is not a stretch goal, it is a Tuesday. Free delivery math works hard here.

How to build a smart first order

The first order is easier if you think in slots instead of products. A five case starter that works for almost any house:

  • One crowd pleaser. A classic cola or lemon lime everyone in the house already drinks.
  • One fruity option. A Mexican soda like Jarritos Mandarin earns its slot fast.
  • One sparkling water. For the no sugar crowd, and for pacing yourself at dinner.
  • One wildcard. Something nobody has tried. This is the case people talk about.
  • One snack case. Chips or candy, because the drinks will make you want them anyway.

That covers every preference in the house, hits the Zone 1 minimum exactly, and five more cases gets you to free delivery. Mixing flavors is not just allowed, it is the whole point.

The real math: delivery versus the grocery run

People assume delivery is the expensive option. For drinks and snacks by the case, the math usually says otherwise, and it is worth doing once honestly.

Start with the unit price. Case pricing beats grabbing singles and small multipacks at a convenience store by a wide margin, and it is competitive with the big box stores without the membership fee. Then add the parts of a store run nobody prices in: the drive across LA, the parking, the 40 minutes inside, the drive back, and the carry from the curb. If your Saturday hour is worth anything at all, the flat 30 dollar delivery fee on a small order already looks cheap, and at 10 cases in Zone 1 the fee disappears entirely.

Then there is the errand you did not plan: the mid week run because the house ran dry. Those are the trips case buying eliminates completely. One order a month, sized right, and the drinks category of your life just stops generating errands. Most of our regulars did this math once, watched delivery come out ahead, and never looked back.

The honest caveat: if you only ever want one or two cases at a time and you live next door to a supermarket, the store run still makes sense. Case delivery wins when you buy like a household instead of like a snack.

Delivery day: what to expect

Once your order is placed, we handle the picking and the route. Your cases arrive at your door stacked and ready to carry in, and you do not need to be standing at the window waiting. If anything about a delivery ever looks off, email us at support@simplebev.com and a human answers. We are fast, friendly, and mildly obsessed with soda, and it shows most when something needs fixing.

Delivery driver handing a case of glass bottle sodas to a customer at their front door
Door to door. The only heavy lifting left is deciding what to open first.

Frequently asked questions

Is there really no account required?

Really. Add cases, check out as a guest, pay with a card, Apple Pay, or Google Pay. If you order often, checkout remembers you, but nothing about the process forces a signup.

What is the minimum order?

It depends on your zone. Within about 20 miles of our warehouse the minimum is 5 cases, and from 20 to 50 miles it is 10 cases. The ZIP checker in the footer of any page tells you exactly where you stand before you order.

How much is delivery?

In Zone 1, delivery is a flat 30 dollars for 5 to 9 cases and free at 10 cases. In Zone 2, orders start at 10 cases and delivery is free at 20. Most regulars simply order to the free threshold and treat the extra cases as pantry stock, because they get drunk eventually anyway.

Can I mix and match flavors in one order?

Yes, and you should. Cases are per product, but your order can be any combination across the entire catalog. Soda plus candy plus sparkling water in one order is completely normal here.

Do you deliver to offices and businesses?

All the time. Break rooms, waiting rooms, salons, gyms, sets. If your building has a loading quirk or a delivery window, mention it at checkout or email support@simplebev.com and we will work with it.

What if I want something you do not list?

Ask. The catalog is over two thousand items and moves constantly, so send a note through the contact page and we will tell you whether we can get it.

Is there a first order discount?

Yes. Code GET10OFF takes 10 percent off your first order at checkout.

Skip the parking lot forever

The grocery run for drinks is one of those chores that survives on habit alone. You do not have to do it. Check your ZIP in the footer, browse the full catalog, and build a first order with GET10OFF applied at checkout.

Need inspiration for what to fill it with? Start with our ranking of the best Mexican sodas, take a nostalgia trip through the retro sodas that deserve a comeback, or plan a whole spread with our party snack table guide. Your door is about to become the best beverage aisle in Los Angeles.

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The 10 Best Mexican Sodas, Ranked (And Where to Get Them in LA)

Mexican sodas in colorful glass bottles chilling in a tub of ice

There is regular soda, and then there is Mexican soda. Real cane sugar, thick glass bottles, and flavors that actually taste like fruit instead of a chemistry set. If your entire soda life has been whatever was closest in the checkout cooler, this is your starting lineup.

We sell a lot of these. SimpleBev delivers soda, snacks, and candy by the case anywhere in the LA area, and the Mexican soda aisle is one of the busiest corners of our catalog. So this ranking is built on what people actually reorder week after week, plus a fair amount of arguing in our break room.

Want to skip to the good part? Browse the full soda selection and get a case delivered to your door. Free delivery kicks in at 10 cases in our closest zone.

Colorful SimpleBev branded glass soda bottles lined up on a taco stand counter in Los Angeles
Glass, ice, sunshine. There is a reason this is the default summer image in Los Angeles.

Why Mexican sodas taste different

It mostly comes down to two things, and one of them is more real than the other.

Cane sugar instead of corn syrup

This is the real one. Cane sugar has a cleaner, quicker sweetness that leaves your mouth faster, while high fructose corn syrup lingers and coats. Put the two side by side at the same temperature and most people pick out the difference in one sip, even if they cannot name what they are tasting.

The glass bottle

This one is part chemistry and part theater. Glass is inert, so it does not trade flavor with what is inside it the way plastic can over time, and it holds cold better once chilled. Whether that changes the taste or just changes how you experience the taste is a question nobody drinking one on a hot afternoon in Boyle Heights has ever cared to settle.

The flavors are just braver

American soda mostly lives in cola, lemon lime, and root beer. Mexican soda goes to tamarind, guava, mandarin, apple, and grapefruit without apologizing for any of it. Half the fun is that there is an actual world to explore instead of three flavors and a diet version of each.

The best Mexican sodas, ranked

Rankings are personal. This one is weighted toward flavor, food friendliness, and how often people come back for another case. Fight us on it, but try them all first.

1. Jarritos Mandarin

The king, and it is not close. Bright, citrusy, orange without being syrupy, and light enough to drink through a whole meal instead of quitting halfway. It goes with any taco. If you buy one Mexican soda in your life, make it Jarritos Mandarin in the 12 ounce glass bottle.

2. Sangria Senorial

A deep red grape and citrus sparkler that tastes fancier than it costs. Zero alcohol, all flavor, with a slightly tannic edge that makes it feel grown up. It looks like it belongs on the dinner table and it cuts through rich food better than anything else here. Get a case of Sangria Senorial and watch it vanish at a barbecue.

3. Jarritos Tamarindo

Sweet, sour, and a little earthy at once. Hand this to anyone who claims soda is boring, because it tastes like no soda they have had before. Polarizing on the first sip, addictive by the third. Available in the 2 liter eight pack.

4. Sidral Mundet Apple

Apple soda done right. Crisp, not cloying, somehow both nostalgic and refreshing. The sleeper pick that becomes somebody’s favorite about once a month. Try the classic Sidral Mundet in glass, or the green apple version for more tart snap.

5. Jarritos Grapefruit

Toronja. Slightly bitter, deeply refreshing, criminally underrated. The adult choice of the Jarritos family, and the best of the bunch with salty food. Grab the grapefruit two liter pack.

6. Manzanita Sol

Another apple, and yes it earns its own slot, because it plays completely differently from Sidral. Sweeter, rounder, more candy apple than orchard apple. Kids go feral for it. The glass bottle 24 pack is the version to buy.

7. Boing Mango

Technically a fruit pulp beverage rather than a soda, and technically nobody cares, because it is fantastic. Thick, sunny, closer to a bottled agua fresca. Ice cold on a hot day it is unbeatable. Start with Boing Mango, then guava.

8. Jarritos Pineapple

Loud, tropical, and unapologetically sweet. This is a party soda, not a sipping soda, and it is a genuinely great mixer base if that is your evening. The pineapple two liter pack is the efficient way to buy it, and mango lands in the same neighborhood.

9. Mineragua and Topo Chico

Not sweet at all, and that is the point. Hard carbonation with a mineral bite that resets your palate between bites of anything rich or spicy. Once you get used to Topo Chico or Mineragua, softer sparkling waters feel like they gave up.

10. Squirt Ruby Red

The grapefruit soda for people who want citrus without the bitterness. It is the standard paloma base, criminally easy to drink, and the Ruby Red case vanishes faster than anyone plans for.

The wildcard: Fanta exotic flavors

Not Mexican, but people who love this aisle usually love these too. The green cream exotic soda in the little 250ml glass bottles is the one people photograph before they drink it.

Street tacos on a tray next to an ice cold glass soda bottle on a sunny outdoor table
Tacos and a cold glass bottle. The pairing that made this whole category famous.

What to drink them with

Mexican sodas are food sodas. Matching them properly is the difference between a nice drink and a genuinely great meal.

Tacos, al pastor, carne asada

Mandarin or grapefruit. Citrus and bubbles cutting through fat and salt. The pairing this whole category is famous for, and it holds up every time.

Anything spicy

Mineral water, full stop. The carbonation and salinity scrub your palate between bites in a way a sweet soda cannot. If you want sweet with heat, tamarind is the one that survives it.

Burgers, pizza, fried chicken

Apple soda. Sweet apple against salt and grease is an underrated combination people discover by accident and then keep on purpose.

Dessert, or as dessert

Boing mango or guava over a scoop of vanilla ice cream. It is a float, it takes ten seconds, and it makes you look like you planned something.

A big spread with a lot of people

Put three or four flavors in an ice tub and let people choose. Mandarin, tamarind, sangria, and a mineral water covers every preference in the room. Add a few bags from the chips and candy aisles and you have built a party. Our guide to building the perfect party snack table covers the rest.

Two friends laughing on sunny Los Angeles steps holding cold glass soda bottles
Buying by the case means there is always a cold one, which is the entire point.

How to actually serve them

Small things, big difference. None of this is complicated.

  • Colder than you think. An hour in the fridge is fine, twenty minutes buried in ice water is better, because the contact is total.
  • Do not add ice to the glass. These are already balanced. Melting ice takes a cane sugar soda from crisp to watery in about four minutes.
  • Lime helps almost all of them. A wedge squeezed into the neck works on mandarin, grapefruit, mineral water, and Squirt. Skip it on the apple sodas.
  • Serve from a tub, not a fridge. An ice tub in the middle of the room does more social work than a fridge in the kitchen. People browse, they try things, they talk about it.
  • Keep a bottle opener where the drinks are. Obvious, forgotten constantly, and the number one reason a glass bottle goes undrunk at a party.

Where to get Mexican sodas in Los Angeles

You can find these at a good market or corner store in most LA neighborhoods, and you should support the ones near you. What you usually cannot do is find every flavor you want, in glass, in the quantity you need, on the day you need it. That is the gap we fill.

How SimpleBev works

Browse the shop, add cases to your bag, and check out. No account required, and both Apple Pay and Google Pay work, so on a phone it takes about a minute. Your order arrives at your door and you put the cold ones in the fridge.

Delivery zones and case minimums

We deliver across Los Angeles and most surrounding cities, split into two zones based on distance from our warehouse. Within roughly 20 miles, orders start at 5 cases: 5 to 9 cases is a flat 30 dollars for delivery, and at 10 cases delivery is free. From 20 to 50 miles out, orders start at 10 cases with free delivery at 20. Not sure which zone you are in? Type your ZIP code into the checker in the footer of any page and it will tell you instantly. The full walkthrough is in our post on how SimpleBev delivery works.

Why buying by the case is the move

Cases are the better deal, and they are the reason we can deliver at these prices. Beyond the math, a case in the garage means you are never the house that runs out during the game or the birthday party. Mix flavors, build a shelf, stop making grocery runs for drinks.

Home refrigerator stocked with SimpleBev branded glass soda bottles after a delivery
A stocked fridge and a couple of cases in the garage. That is the whole system.

Frequently asked questions

Are Mexican sodas actually made with real sugar?

Most of the ones on this list are, yes. Cane sugar is the traditional sweetener and it is the main reason people say these taste cleaner than the American versions of similar drinks. Formulations do change by production location, so the ingredient panel on the bottle is always the final word.

Which Mexican soda should I try first?

Jarritos Mandarin. It is the most universally liked, it goes with almost any food, and it is the easiest entry point if you are used to standard American soda. If mandarin lands, try tamarind next, because that is where the category gets interesting.

Is there a difference between the glass bottles and the 2 liter plastic?

Flavor wise they are the same drink. Glass holds carbonation and cold better and is the better call for serving guests. The 2 liter plastic packs are the value play when you are refilling a fridge for a household or a long party.

Do you deliver Mexican sodas anywhere in Los Angeles?

We deliver across LA and most surrounding cities in two zones. Inside about 20 miles from our warehouse the minimum is 5 cases, and from 20 to 50 miles it is 10 cases. Put your ZIP into the checker in the footer to see your exact zone, minimum, and delivery cost before you order.

How long do sodas stay good?

Unopened and stored somewhere cool and out of direct sunlight, expect many months of good drinking, and check the date printed on the bottle or case. Carbonation is what fades first. Once a bottle is opened it is a same day proposition, which is a strong argument for single serve glass.

Can I mix flavors in one order?

Yes, and you should. Cases are per product, but your order can be any combination you like. The most popular orders we see are one crowd pleaser, one adventurous flavor, and a mineral water, plus something from the snack aisle.

What if I want something that is not on the site?

Ask us. We carry well over two thousand items and the catalog moves constantly, so send a note through the contact page and we will tell you whether we can get it.

Build your case

The best way into this category is not reading about it, it is putting four flavors in a tub of ice and letting people find their favorite. Start with mandarin because everyone likes it, add tamarind because somebody will fall in love with it, throw in sangria for the adults and a mineral water for whoever does not want sugar.

Everything above is on the site right now. Start in the soda aisle, browse every category to build a full order, and check your ZIP in the footer to see your delivery minimum. If you want a hand picking flavors, message us.

Still in a nostalgic mood? Read our take on the retro sodas that deserve a comeback next.