Anyone coming to the Canaries for the first time and served a cool, bright-pink soda in a bar rarely suspects they are holding a piece of island history. Clipper, especially in the strawberry flavour («fresa» in Spanish), is no ordinary drink here. It is, as the Canarians themselves say, a «seña de identidad» — a marker of identity.
The garage in Ciudad Jardín
The story begins in the summer of 1956. In a garage in the Ciudad Jardín district of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, the brothers Mario and Octavio Juan Gómez began making their own soft drink. It was a time when it was easier and cheaper on the islands to produce soda locally than to ship it in from the mainland — and so several local brands sprang up. The opening slogan was simply: «Sencillamente increíble» — simply incredible.
That a well-known brand should begin in a garage is familiar from Apple, Google or Amazon. In the Canaries it was a garage in Ciudad Jardín — and the product not software, but a fizzy drink.
The taste no one could copy
While the big flavours — cola and orange — were soon dominated by international giants such as Coca-Cola, Pepsi and Fanta, Clipper held its ground in a field no one could long dispute: the strawberry flavour. Other flavours — orange, lemon, later apple — came along, disappeared for a time, but the fresa remained. It became so much the brand's signature that even the global giant Coca-Cola responded: in the 2000s Fanta brought out a strawberry variant specifically to take on Clipper on its home market. A kind of backhanded accolade.
In the 1980s the brand enjoyed a strong revival and was finally perceived as a typically Canarian product. To this day: the classic Clipper Fresa is found mainly on the eight islands — which is precisely what makes it a coveted souvenir for outsiders.
When the Canaries voted their soda world champion
Just how deeply the brand is lodged in the island soul became clear in April 2020, in a very Canarian way. In the middle of lockdown, the Asturian influencer and adman Corrales launched a tongue-in-cheek «Mundial de Refrescos» on Twitter, a kind of soft-drink world cup by vote. Thousands of Canarians mobilised — and sent Clipper Fresa from round to round. In the last 16 it took 64 percent of over 28,000 votes against rivals such as Fanta strawberry; in the quarter-finals it beat Nestea; and in the end came the title: world champion.
It was a repeat of what another Canarian brand had managed shortly before — the chocolate Tirma, voted «world champion of chocolate bars». «The Canarians are trolling me again», the organiser joked. Behind the fun lay genuine local pride: when an island product takes on the big names, the Canaries close ranks.
A brand grows up — and travels to the mainland
For all its tradition, the brand has not stood still. In 2006, for its 50th anniversary, there was an image relaunch with more modern labels. In 2015 sugar-free Zero variants were added, in 2019 the summery watermelon and melon flavours. And in 2021 something happened that had long seemed unthinkable: via the supermarket chain Aldi, strawberry Clipper reached the Spanish mainland for the first time, in hundreds of stores. The soda has even made it into the kitchen — a croquetería in the village of Moya created a «Clipper sauce» that drew both delight and raised eyebrows on social media.
More than a drink
Nearly 70 years after that summer in the garage in Ciudad Jardín, Clipper is far more than a soda. It is a childhood memory, a piece of home in a glass, a small triumph of the local over the global. International corporations reached the islands long ago — but the pink strawberry fizz from Gran Canaria is still what Canarians most like to drink themselves. Sometimes identity is precisely that: the taste you grew up with.