by
New York
CNN
—
When Jordan Myrick first moved to California in high school and heard about nasty sodas, she wasn’t the biggest fan.
“It was something strange,” Myrick said.
But in 2023, Myrick, who said she is “very passionate about soda,” visited Utah on a “The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City”-themed weekend trip. At a local store called Thirst, she tried a classic dirty soda combination: Dr Pepper with coconut cream and a raspberry syrup.
Now, “I’m begging them to open a location in Los Angeles,” she said.
Dirty soda is an alcohol-free drink combined with creams, flavored syrups or fruit. The drinks are ingrained in Mormon culture in the Mountain West, where the faith forbids the consumption of coffee and alcohol. But thanks to social media, Mormon mom influencers and a new reality TV show in Utah, the sugary drinks are becoming increasingly mainstream — and the stores that popularize them have the corresponding outsized expansion ambitions.
But some critics point to the drinks’ high sugar content and empty calories. And others wonder if it’s just a temporary fad for the rest of the country. Drinking more than one sugary soda a day puts you at risk for obesity, heart disease and type 2 diabetes, although both soda shops and their fans say you can modify the drink to be healthier, such as by using sparkling water.
The intrigue of Utah culture bubbles beneath all that carbonation. In an episode of the Hulu reality show “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives,” a group of moms in matching hair extensions and athleisure meet at Swig, the holders of the “dirty soda” trademark. It is the self-proclaimed ‘vice’ of women.
“Six out of the seven days of the week, I drink at least one 44-ounce soda,” cast member Layla Taylor said on the show. “I’ll probably only live to be 50, but it makes me happy.”
Some people on social media have made videos recreating the moms’ complicated orders (44 ounces, sparkling water, sugar-free coconut, sugar-free vanilla, sugar-free raspberry, sugar-free pineapple, and coconut cream). Another on TikTok asked if Swig was the Mormon Starbucks.
Well, sort of.
“What we’re doing for soft drinks is a bit like what Starbucks did for coffee,” Swig CEO Alex Dunn told CNN. “People drank coffee before Starbucks, and obviously people drank soda before Swig, but we created this premium brand and experience around that.”
Dirty sodas are having their moment because, says Chris Goodchild, director of the Boston Consulting Group, “more and more people are looking at them and using them to fulfill delicious treat aspects.”
The rapid popularity of soda shops stems from the Mormon Corridor, part of the western United States. Founded in 2010, Swig will be in 13 states by the end of the year and already has plans to open in two more states in 2025. The expansions are focused on the South – Florida, Kentucky and the Carolinas are among their plans – but Kansas, Indiana and Missouri in the Midwest have or will have locations as well.
The company, which started with 61 stores in 2024, has ambitious plans to open 1,000 new stores over the next six to seven years. Swig is not a publicly traded company and has not shared any details about its financials.
Although Swig appears to be the market leader in terms of number of stores, its competitors are catching up. FiiZ has opened about 60 stores, followed by Sodalicious with 25. Fast food drive-in Sonic began offering customers the Dr Pepper option to “get dirty.” Coffee Mate even launched a limited-edition Coconut Lime creamer with Dr Pepper this year to make nasty sodas at home.
Dairy mixed with soft drinks is not new to much of the world. In the Punjab region of South Asia, doodh soda (directly translated to milk soda) is a popular lemon-lime drink, especially during the fasting month of Ramadan. Persians enjoy doogh, a carbonated yogurt drink. Korean “Milkis” are a staple in K-Towns and are sold in a variety of flavors, from banana to apple. And of course there’s the classic American ice cream float, which harkens back to the days of the soda farmers who operated soda fountains in the 20th century.
Soda makers themselves have tried to sell milk and soda to American customers. Two years ago, Pepsi launched a campaign to try out the combination, calling it a “secret hack among Pepsi fans” and calling on Lindsay Lohan to be the face of “Pilk.”
But it’s the airy, drive-through soda shops — with drink names like Poppin’ Pineapple and Unlucky Ducky — that have brought the concoctions to the forefront of the national consciousness.
And if there’s one thing American consumers love, it’s variety, Goodchild said. Stores like Swig offer an overwhelming array of ways to express your crazy drink preferences. On a diet? Replace cola with sparkling water. You can add fresh lime, artificial syrups from raspberry to roasted marshmallow and mix it with a fruit puree, coconut cream, vanilla cream – or a combination of all three.
Just like coffee chains like Starbucks and Dutch Bros, consumers are attracted to a personalized experience.
“It’s almost a form of self-expression. This is my drink, this is what I want,” Goodchild said.
What surprised Myrick most about dirty soda shops was the sheer amount of choices.
“I honestly thought I was going to a restaurant that only served Diet Coke with half and half in it,” Myrick said.
Swig’s demographic breakdown is female and younger, from 18 to 45 years old. Swig has certainly benefited from their use of social media, claiming that the majority of social media features are organic. Nara Smith, a Mormon social media personality and model, even recorded herself trying the sweet drinks in her car.
The soft drink stores are also targeting car-dependent cities and suburbs. Swig locations are only about 1,200 to 1,800 square feet, which further underlies the chain’s drive-through focus — though that same model may not be as successful in big cities. Most other chains also have drive-throughs.
Soda stores will need to continue making drinks relevant even as social media evolves, especially with such lofty growth goals.
“As numbers continue to rise, you would expect traditional players to offer these types of things in their existing stores, or traditional players to expand into new formats,” Goodchild said.
When a drink is hard to find, more people are drawn to its intrigue. That kind of format and technology already exists and could be a future competitor if dirty soda becomes mainstream enough — a Coca-Cola-style freestyle machine the company introduced in 2009 could easily add half or half of syrups. And social media users who live far from soda shops are already creating “dupes” at Wawas and 7-Elevens, but using gas station creamer instead of paying a soda barista.
Yet a Swig-style soda shop, Cool Sips, has even opened in overpriced latte-loving New York City. But it may take some time to become a cultural staple in the Northeast.
“It’s what you grow up with, and it could be an alternative, but it’s not comparable just if you’re already a coffee drinker,” said New York City resident Klea Mulla. “It’s difficult here because the atmosphere of the soft drink stores is a drive-through.”
