Behind a handmade cart, sodas fizz over ice as vibrant fruit syrups and vanilla-coconut cream swirl together in colorful layers. The sweet scents of citrus, berries and spice hang in the air, as curious customers gather to watch drinks be crafted by hand.

Flavor Drop is a specialty beverage cart featuring dirty sodas with a twist: Indian fusion drinks and tea. After their soft launch in early February, the business has appeared at local pop-ups and events across Bryan-College Station, including the McFerrin Center Student Marketplace and the Rountree Market. 

Working behind the cart are electronic systems engineering technology senior Likitha Joneboina and supply chain management senior Neharika Vajinapalli. Having met through Aggie Entrepreneurs, the two quickly became business partners and friends, founding Flavor Drop out of their shared love for soda and their heritage.

“First, we wanted to make a joint business together,” Vajinapalli said. “Second, we’ve always wanted to mix our heritage, Indian culture and everything, with something that we love, being food and drinks. There’s not really like any sort of soda place nearby. … We decided we would use our network to hop on to that and create Flavor Drop.”

Away from the cart, both owners run their own individually creative businesses. Vajinapalli, a licensed nail technician running Made2Polish, and Joneboina, a henna artist running the Instagram @henna.by.likitha, referred to themselves as “super entrepreneurs” and said they wanted to work together to reach a broader audience.

“We wanted to do something with food because it attracts everybody, all ages and types of people,” Joneboina said. “Since it’s not coffee or matcha, I feel like it’s even bigger of a market … it’s an all-day thing.”

Flavor Drop operates out of a colorful handmade cart that is fully portable and collapsible, which Joneboina said makes transportation to pop-up events easier. One week of measurements, carpentry, painting and teamwork resulted in a homebase for their business to start operating from, a process Vajinapalli documented and recorded. 

“I pitched to [Vajinapalli], and she was like, ‘You’re crazy, but okay,’” Joneboina said. “That weekend, we went to Home Depot and bought wood. We actually built the whole cart ourselves, then painted it and everything.”

While considering portability, the pair also wanted to draw parallels to their Indian heritage, where Joneboina said it is common for vendors to sell their products from carts or wagons. Vajinapalli elaborated on the importance of first impressions, saying that a cute, aesthetically pleasing cart could ease the uncertainty of those trying authentic Indian drinks for the first time.  

“In India, there are many people who sell [products] from carts or wagons,” Joneboina said. “They walk around the streets, and whenever people like what they see, they come up and buy it. We wanted to keep that part authentic with it, too, but take a more aesthetic take on it.”

Joneboina discussed a blend of three beverages featured on Flavor Drop’s menu: dirty sodas, authentic Indian drinks and a combination of the two — Indian fusion dirty sodas with popular flavors from the region. Originally popularized in 2010 by Utah-based drink chain, Swig, the dirty soda craze has quickly spread nationwide. Seeing the drink’s rise in popularity, Vajinapalli said she noticed a gap for dirty soda in the local beverage market in Bryan-College Station. 

Alongside dirty sodas, Flavor Drop’s menu also introduces customers to drinks commonly enjoyed across India. Currently, the beverage cart offers chai — a blend of black tea, spices and sugar topped with oat milk — and Mumbai lime soda, a take on traditional Nimbu soda. 

“Within India, there are a lot of different sodas, too,” Vajinapalli said. “One of them is called Nimbu soda, also known as lime soda. So Indian lemonade, but instead of the traditional sweet taste, it’s definitely more salty and sour but also refreshing.”

For future menu drops, Vajinapalli revealed they want to introduce mango lassi, a blended drink made with mangoes and yogurt, and falooda, a dessert drink made with ice cream and rose.

However, Flavor Drop’s specialty lies in its fusion of Indian drinks and dirty soda, which Vajinapalli said gives the cart a unique angle in the wide and competitive soda market. Incorporating flavors popular in India, such as guava, mango, lemon and lime, brings what Vajinapalli described as a refreshing twist to their menu.

“That’s where we bring in different syrups,” Joneboina said. “We have a strawberry-rose [syrup] that we were experimenting with because rose is actually such a popular flavor within India. Fruity, tropical, that kind of thing. We’re hopefully gonna bring lychee soon as well.”

Within their first three weeks of selling, Vajinapalli said that Flavor Drop booked multiple markets and established a growing following on social media, where they will eventually post monthly menu “flavor” drops, a play on their name. Joneboina expressed gratitude for their first pop-ups, saying they already have bookings scheduled for next year.  

“We didn’t realize how many people would want to follow a drink business,” Vajinapalli said. “We got so many uplifting reactions … I was just glad that people were responding in a positive manner.”

While Joneboina and Vajinapalli are graduating this year, they have expressed shared plans for the future of Flavor Drop, hoping to expand by building more carts and selling drinks in different cities. For now, the specialty drink cart remains in Aggieland, where the pair continues introducing customers to unique Indian flavors while laying the foundation for growth. 

“I want it to be more than just us making money because it was not about that,” Vajinapalli said. “It was purely to do something together, but also to raise awareness of the authentic Indian style and flavors. We both love our culture. Hopefully, if [Flavor Drop] spreads to different cities, it would be cool to have other people try our versions.”

This story was originally published on The Battalion on March 18, 2026.