Kinnie
Kinnie is a bittersweet, amber-brown fizzy drink made from bitter oranges and a blend of herbs. Launched by the Maltese brewer Simonds Farsons Cisk in 1952, it has become Malta’s favourite soft drink, sometimes called the national soft drink.
Key facts
- Origin
- Malta
- Launched
- 1952
- Maker
- Simonds Farsons Cisk
- Created by
- Anthony Miceli Farrugia, Farsons’ managing director
- Main flavours
- Bitter oranges, herbs and botanicals, including wormwood
- Variants
- Diet Kinnie (1984), Kinnie Zest (2007), Kinnie Spritz (2021)
A Maltese answer to cola
Kinnie was created by Anthony Miceli Farrugia, known as is-Sur Ninì, then managing director of Simonds Farsons Cisk. Both Wikipedia and the business magazine MaltaCEOs describe it as a response to the international, mainly cola, brands that were reaching Malta after the Second World War, and its taste was kept deliberately unlike theirs.
According to Pellicle, a British drinks magazine, Farrugia was half Sicilian and fond of chinotto, the bitter orange soft drink of southern Italy, and wanted a version that was distinctly Maltese; he developed it with an essence house in Milan. Farsons dates the launch to 1952.
Bitter oranges, herbs and a secret recipe
Farsons describes Kinnie as made from bitter oranges and a blend of herbs and botanicals. Wikipedia adds extracts of wormwood, which Pellicle credits with the drink’s bitter edge alongside orange rind. According to Wikipedia the recipe is kept secret and is thought to include ginseng and rhubarb; Pellicle lists liquorice, ginseng and rhubarb among its botanical extracts.
Pellicle likens it to a cola with a sharp bitterness, and Farsons calls it bittersweet. Kinnie is drunk on its own and is also widely used as a mixer. Farsons’ marketing head told Lovin Malta in 2021 that bartenders across the islands use it in cocktails and aperitivos.
Part of Maltese life
Wikipedia calls Kinnie Malta’s favourite non-alcoholic drink, sometimes described as the national soft drink, and Pellicle reports that it outsells Coca-Cola on the islands despite a higher price. Peter Mercieca, Farsons’ head of international business, told the magazine that Kinnie, like the company’s Cisk lager, is part of Malta’s national identity. Wikipedia also records that in 1975 a French gastronomy and tourism committee named it soft drink of the year.
The range has grown with the times: Diet Kinnie arrived in 1984 and Kinnie Zest, a sugar-free version with extra orange flavour, in 2007. In April 2021 Farsons launched Kinnie Spritz, a 4 per cent ABV alcoholic aperitivo that blends natural bitters and botanicals with Italian sparkling wine.
The brewery behind it, and Kinnie abroad
Simonds Farsons Cisk began in 1928, when L. Farrugia & Sons, known as Farsons, opened a brewery in Ħamrun. It merged with the English brewer H & G Simonds of Reading in 1929 and with the Malta Export Brewery, maker of Cisk, in 1948.
Kinnie is also sold abroad, in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Germany, Poland and Canada among other markets; it is exported to Japan and made under licence in Australia. In Emblem World, Kinnie sits in the Malta drink collection, where people discover and rate local food, drink and music.
Sources
- Wikipedia: Kinnie
- Wikipedia: Simonds Farsons Cisk
- Farsons: Timeline (Kinnie is born, 1952; company origins)
- MaltaCEOs: The story of Kinnie is as unique as its distinctive taste (16 May 2022)
- Pellicle: Bitter Thrills, on Kinnie and Escapism (Tim Anderson, 2021)
- Lovin Malta: Malta’s most beloved soft drink goes 18+ with the launch of Kinnie Spritz (22 April 2021)
Checked by Emblem editorial on 9 October 2026.