Before Coca-Cola, soda meant carbonated water. (Bowing to the Arab boycott, Pepsi didn’t arrive in Israel until 1991.)

Bubbly water was sometimes infused with simple syrup, fruit or aromatics. The French called these flavored sodas “gazeuse,” which became “gazoz” in Turkish.

In the early 1900s, Palestine was under Ottoman (Turkish) rule. The Jews of Palestine and later, Israel, referred to their fizzy, flavored beverages as “gazoz,” too.

In 1910, the first kiosk on Tel Aviv’s Rothschild Boulevard sold gazoz, anchoring it as a charming and nostalgic part of the city’s history.

It’s that sense of nostalgia that’s brought gazoz back onto the city’s culinary map, with eateries like Delishes Deli Bar in the Tel Aviv Port keeping bottles of colorful, fruit flavored syrup on offer behind the counter.

The undisputed king of TLV’s gazoz renaissance, though, is Benny Briga, the owner of Cafe Levinsky 41. Briga’s quirky Levinsky Market watering hole is dedicated to bespoke, artisanal gazoz cocktails. In other words, hipster heaven.

It just so happens that Florentin, the neighborhood bordering the Levinsky market, is a hipster hub. Its residents have taken up the gazoz cause with great enthusiasm, lining up to get Briga’s custom gazoz creations. As they wait, Briga pours humble soda water over wild, messy blends of sugar-soaked fruit and herbs like lavender and lemongrass.

Like TLV itself, gazoz is rooted in history, but keeps evolving in new and exciting ways.

Visit Cafe Levinsky (Levinsky 41) for your very own gazoz.