Dirty soda – carbonated soda with cream and fruit puree or syrup mixed in – apparently hit social media radar with the reality show "The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives" some years ago. It became popular with LDS followers, who are not supposed to drink alcohol or "hot drinks" like coffee or tea.
But apparently Olivia Rodrigo had something to do with the popularity, too, having had her photo with a drink from soda shop Swig in hand show up on TikTok.
And dirty soda has been popular in Utah as far back as 2010, when Nicole Tanner opened the first Swig. There are now 164 locations and counting.
Swig is here now — in Fort Myers since February and Cape Coral since May.
Arguably, the first dirty soda was Diet Coke with sugar-free coconut, fresh lime and coconut cream. At Swig, it's called the Founder. However, the possibilities — ranging from sparkling water to lemonade to Dr. Pepper, Mountain Dew, Sprite and other drinks as their bases — are seemingly endless.
Swig restaurants and at least two food trucks in the area offer many different versions.
I stopped at the Swig in Cape Coral to try it out. I don’t normally drink soda and didn’t expect to like it, but I really did. I ordered the Raspberry Dream: Dr. Pepper, coconut cream and raspberry puree.
I found another fan that day in Kadence Brogdon of North Fort Myers. Brogdon ordered the Birthday Girl: Dr Pepper Blackberry plus raspberry syrup, mango puree and coconut cream.
She was pulling out of the drive-through when asked her opinion.
"It's very good. I've been here like five or six times," she said.
That kind of devotion is what Hailey Yarosewick of Cape Coral is counting on. The owner of The Soda Shop food truck, she opened in October and offers about 12 varieties of dirty soda throughout Southwest Florida and beyond.
"I think Dirty Soda in general is becoming more popular because a lot less people are drinking alcohol at these social type of events like weddings or baby showers or even festivals and markets that we're doing," she said.
"I would say our most popular is anything with a Diet Coke base or a Sprite base."
Her sodas are embellished with coffee creamer and fruit syrups or purees, plenty of which are sugar-free and none contain artificial dyes. Her young son, Jayce, had something to do with her adherence to vegetable dyes.
"When we were testing them, my son wanted to try them, and I just wanted to make sure that it was something that I felt good about serving to people. So it is kind of a fun, sweet treat, but still mindful," she said.
Julie Charlton opened her Gulf Coast Dirty Soda Co. food truck, based in Port Charlotte, in January. She and her daughter were both inspired by the dirty soda they tried at one of the shops at Fisherman’s Village in Punta Gorda last Christmas. Her take on the trend is a more nostalgic one.
Nothing in her sodas is artificial, and she uses real cream.
Her versions might remind some people of childhood.
"So, my menu is a little bit different in that we primarily offer the classics, so think creamsicles, root beer floats, dirty Shirleys, which are a spin on Shirley Temples, classic cherry Coke."
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