Tøyen-cola! and Olacola!

In 2014, Jarle Hollerud launched Tøyen-cola! in Oslo and quickly found success. In the years that followed, controversies linked to his person increasingly interfered with the company’s development, and he eventually abandoned the project. A decade later, he attempted to recreate the success by offering what was, in effect, old wine in new bottles: the same cola released under a new name, Olacola!. Today, Hollerud’s two colas exist side by side as rivals.

Launch in Oslo

Tøyen-cola! was launched in 2014 in the Oslo neighborhood of Grønland. The cola was presented as an open source project, and production was organized through a company established the same year, Tøyen Mineralvann Fabrikk. Despite this, the company name was not used in marketing or on packaging. Instead, the producer was consistently presented under the name O. Mathisen, which appeared on labels and in all public-facing material.

After some time, Lars Rikard Svensk joined the business. He became a co-owner of Tøyen Mineralvann Fabrikk and gradually assumed a larger role in the daily management of production and distribution.

The Mysterious O. Mathisen

As Tøyen-cola! quickly became a major success in Oslo, Norwegian media began to take an interest in the small bottler behind it. Journalists repeatedly sought interviews with the figure credited as its creator, O. Mathisen, who appeared on labels and in project materials but remained inaccessible.

It was not until 2018 that the Norwegian business newspaper E24 revealed that O. Mathisen was a pseudonym used by Jarle Hollerud, who was already publicly known in Norway as a hip hop artist from the 1990s and early 2000s. In interviews, Hollerud described the cola as a side project that began as a joke and grew beyond expectations. Asked about the origin of the name O. Mathisen, he stated that the story was too lame to be worth sharing.

Controversies During the Pandemic

In 2020 and 2021, Jarle Hollerud became involved in a series of public controversies related to covid-19 and conspiracy-related themes. Products associated with the O. Mathisen name appeared with the label text www.dinerettigheter.covid.1984.5g.id2020.event201.

The string was designed to resemble a web address but consisted of references commonly associated with covid-related conspiracy narratives. The text came to public attention in March 2021, while covid-19 remained a dominant public concern in Norway. It appeared on all O. Mathisen labels from that period, except those used for Tøyen-cola!.

The labels triggered public outcry and led to calls to boycott O. Mathisen products. Hollerud stated that the primary purpose of printing the text was to fill the label and make it “appear professional”, while acknowledging that it may, consciously or unconsciously, also have contributed to attention around the topic. Major supermarket chains subsequently removed O. Mathisen products from their shelves.

During the same period, Hollerud was involved in a widely reported hospital incident in Oslo in 2020. Together with another man, he confronted hospital staff and demanded confirmation of whether the pandemic was fake. He was subsequently removed from the hospital by the police. At the same time, posters appeared in Oslo addressing conspiracy-related subjects such as the moon landing and flat earth, featuring O. Mathisen products as sender. Hollerud rejected being described as a conspiracy theorist and denied that the posters were connected to O. Mathisen.

Exit and failed return

Later in 2021, Hollerud withdrew from Tøyen-cola! and stepped down from all roles in Tøyen Mineralvann Fabrikk, the company he had founded in 2014. Lars Svensk continued the business and assumed full responsibility for the further development of Tøyen-cola!.

At this point, the producer identity also changed. With the name O. Mathisen having become closely associated with controversy, Svensk chose to use the company’s formal name, Tøyen Mineralvann Fabrikk, as the producer designation. Under this name, the company continued producing Tøyen-cola! and articulated an ambition to expand the brand beyond its local origins and establish nationwide distribution.

In 2023, Hollerud attempted to regain control of Tøyen-cola! by registering the name as a trademark. The application was rejected on the grounds that the name lacked sufficient distinctiveness.

In January 2024, he instead launched a new brand, Olacola!, produced independently but based on the same open source recipe as Tøyen-cola!. The previously opaque O. Mathisen identity thus reappeared as the producer name behind Olacola!.

Two Identical Rivals

Today, Tøyen-cola! and Olacola! are produced independently and use the same open source recipe. Lars Svensk continues to pursue the goal of making Tøyen-cola! a nationwide product, while Olacola! remains, as of the turn of 2025/2026, a niche product distributed primarily through independent specialty retailers in Oslo.

Make your own open source cola

If you are curious about making your own cola, the open source recipe that forms the basis of Tøyen-cola! and Olacola! is freely available. Below is the ingredient list for approximately 90 liters of cola.

• 7.5 ml orange oil
• 7.0 ml lime oil
• 2.0 ml lemon oil
• 0.75 ml cinnamon bark oil
• 1.5 ml nutmeg oil
• 0.5 ml coriander oil
• 0.5 ml lavender oil
• 0.5 ml neroli oil
• 20 g freeze-dried gum arabic
• 195 ml caramel color no. 050
• 65 ml citric acid
• 18 ml flavoring (caffeine powder)
• approx. 10 kg white sugar
• approx. 90 liters purified water

Instructions on how the ingredients are combined can be found at: toyencola.no/lisensiering (the domain toyencola.no is still controlled by Jarle Hollerud and today points to his project Olacola!, not Tøyen-cola!).

Sources: Den mystiske mannen bak Tøyen Cola er avslørt. Var halvparten av hip-hop duoen Paperboys (Vårt Oslo, 13 March 2018). Tøyencola-gründer bortvist fra sykehus – skal ha bedt ansatte der si at pandemien ikke eksisterer (Faktisk, 19 March 2021). Skal ut til hele folket (Dagligvarehandlen, 3 February 2023). Rikard vil inkludere flere med brusen sin. Nå har han gitt ut Tøyen-Cola på arabisk (Vårt Oslo, 1 June 2023).