Vincent Cossio

Vincent Cossío, the Cuban businessman who injected a Latin flavor into the soft drink industry in the United States with products like Materva and Jupiña, died in Miami on March 12 following a decline in his health over several years. He was 83 years old.

In the 1960s, when the Cuban exile community was still relatively small, Cossío had the vision that there would be a market for Cuban soft drinks in Miami.

Although he left Cuba with empty pockets, he brought with him the recipe for success in exile: the spirit of perseverance and the secret formula of the popular Cawy Limón soft drink passed down by his father, owner of the Cawy bottling plant.

"His family was the most important thing to him. He was very proud of his nine grandchildren and five great-grandchildren," recalled his son Vicente Cossío, president of Cawy Bottling Co., which his father founded in western Miami-Dade in 1964.

Cossío was born in Camajuaní, in the province of Villa Clara. He studied at Colegio de Belén and later at the University of Havana. His mother died when he was only 15 years old, so he was raised by his father and grandmother.

He worked with his father at the bottling plant, which also produced orange soda and mineral water, and under his guidance he began to master the trade that would give him a promising future on the other side of the Strait of Florida.

He fell in love with his future wife Cármen during his teenage years. Both went into exile in the United States in 1962 with three children—a fourth came later—two years after the revolutionary government expropriated the bottling plant's four production facilities.

In Miami he began selling crackers to support his family. And once he founded the company, his first product was lemon soda. Soon after, he realized he could not compete with the marketing power of Coca Cola and Pepsi.

"There is a war between the big manufacturers and I am just a baby. What can I do?" Cossío said in an interview in 1985.

He chose to specialize in sweet soft drinks with fruit flavors, including Materva, Watermelon Soda, Jupiña, Cocorico and Champagne Cola, as well as two brands of malt.