La Chiboleria Lacayo

In 1920, Don Julio Lacayo opened a soda shop in León, Nicaragua and named it after his family’s last name – a neighborhood staple that bottled bright, fruit flavored sodas in several colors like red, orange, purple and yellow. In 1959, his son Don Manuel Ignacio Lacayo Terán took those recipes and built something bigger. Using his own initials – MIL – he founded “Embotelladora Milca” and introduced Nicaragua to its first branded red soda. Bold, sweet, and unmistakably Nicaraguan, Milca™ became a household name across generations.

From Nicaragua to the World

In 1988, as waves of Nicaraguans made their home in the United States, Milca™ followed. Under the leadership of Ramiro Cardenal, the brand launched in the US market – finding its way onto shelves in the Southeast and West Coast. In 1998, the family sold its Coca-Cola bottling and distribution operation in Nicaragua, and with it the shared infrastructure that kept Milca in production locally. But in the United States, the brand endured – headquartered in Miami, carried forward by the community that never forgot it.

La Roja Original

In 2020, Don Manuel's eldest great-grandson, Javier Ignacio Cuadra, brought Milca™ back to Nicaragua through a strategic partnership with Compañía Cervecera de Nicaragua. Today, Milca™ continues to expand across the United States and into markets in Central America, South America, and Europe — still family-owned, still the original recipe, still La Roja Original. Over 65 years later, some things were never meant to change.