What Is Dirty Soda? The Viral Beverage Trend Reshaping Flavor Innovation

From Cream Soda Customizations to Scalable Flavor Systems: What the Dirty Soda Trend Means for Beverage Innovation.

Once a regional curiosity, “dirty soda” has rapidly evolved into a mainstream flavor trend with growing relevance for commercial beverage brands. At its core, dirty soda reflects a broader shift toward layered flavor, indulgent texture, and personal expression which are all key drivers shaping beverage innovation today.

Importantly, this is a data-backed shift. In 2025, 42% of consumers surveyed by Mintel said new or interesting flavors would encourage them to drink soda more often, while 29% cited added functional benefits.¹ Dirty soda uniquely addresses both through flavor complexity and customizable add-ins. Mintel also reports strong growth in flavors central to dirty soda formulations (cream/creme, coconut, guava, pineapple, vanilla, and citrus) alongside renewed interest in nostalgic profiles like cream soda and cherry cola.²

Dirty soda is not a single recipe or fleeting social-media stunt, it’s a flexible formulation framework. With the right flavor solutions, brands can deliver indulgence and novelty at scale without compromising clarity, stability, or consistency across formats.

What is Dirty Soda?

Dirty soda is an evolution of classic soda culture where beverages are built around a carbonated base and enhanced with creams, flavored syrups, fruit essences, or other add-ins. The result is a drink with layered flavor, visual appeal, and customization at the forefront. 

Rather than a single flavor note, these beverages engage the palate with complexity, ranging from bright citrus cut by creamy vanilla or coconut to fruit and botanical accents that feel more like a crafted mocktail than a traditional soda pop. Searching for dirty soda recipes will bring up hundreds of social media clips showing people creating hyper personalized beverages including add-ins like:

• Dairy or Non-Dairy Cream: Half-and-half, coconut cream, coffee Mate creamer, heavy cream
• Flavored Syrups: Coconut, coffee, hazelnut, vanilla, raspberry, lime, cherry, peach, watermelon, pineapple, guava, etc.
• Fruit Purées: Strawberry, raspberry, mango, watermelon
• Whole Fruit Garnishes: Kiwi, cherry, strawberry
• Sweeteners: Grenadine, caramel syrup, or white chocolate syrup
• Candy: Gummy worms, sharks, using Twizzlers as a straw

From a formulation perspective, dirty soda is less about novelty ingredients and more about strategic flavor layering. Citrus adds brightness, vanilla and cream notes introduce perceived body, and botanical or tropical accents bring contrast and depth. The result is a beverage that feels indulgent, personalized, and more dynamic than standard sodas.

Where Did Dirty Soda Come From?

Originally emerging from regional soda shops in Utah where customizable sodas gained local cult followings, dirty soda went viral through social media and younger generations’ appetite for shareable, aesthetic drinks.³ These personalized drinks offered an alternative to coffee and alcohol which makes them desirable for some consumers.

Social media played a critical role in dirty soda’s expansion. Visually striking drinks, endless flavor combinations, and a strong customization narrative made the trend highly shareable. Michael Della Penna, chief strategy officer at InMarket explained to Business Insider, “As Gen Z is drinking less alcohol, they're looking for drinks that they can customize and get excited about.”⁴ However, while younger generations crave novelty, drink customization isn’t strictly a modern concept. 

For example, if you grew up in certain parts of the midwest, you could order drinks from Sonic Drive-Through with all kinds of add-in options. Customers have been able to mix and match sodas with syrups and fruits for decades, plus “secret menu” drinks have always been a pivotal part of regional beverage trends (e.g., Cotton Candy Ocean Water, Mermaid Water, etc.). Over the past few years, Sonic has expanded their add-in options to include novelty add-ins like Nerds candy, sweet cream, pickle juice, and even jalapenos.

As awareness continues to spread beyond regional markets, dirty soda has become less of a niche concept and more of a signal: consumers are eager for beverage experiences that feel artisanal rather than cookie-cutter.

Dirty Soda and the Celebration of Youth Culture

It would be a huge miss to gloss over the “dirty sodas” from decades past like Root Beer Floats, Cherry Cokes, and the hundreds of variations on Cream Soda. Yes, some of the more exotic beverage add-ins like boba and coconut cream read as novelties, but there’s a very good reason why many dirty soda recipes feel nostalgic for some consumers.

As “soda fountain” machines made their way into pharmacies and general stores in the 1950s, the iconic American Soda Shoppe began to establish itself. Prior to this time period, “youth culture” didn’t really exist and cultural identities based on age – specifically the age between childhood and adulthood – weren’t well established. Soda Shoppes, however, served as social hubs for youths and became a symbol of mid-century Americana with their Jukeboxes, savvy Soda Jerks serving up handcrafted sodas or ice cream floats, and, of course, teenagers.

Soda shoppes weren’t The Chelsea Hotel⁵ that served as a hub for the Beat Generation, and they certainly weren’t Enlightenment-era French salons. However, they were still counterculture gathering places where young people could meet, socialize, and share ideas. More often than not, these gatherings happened over a trendy new beverage. 

Depending on which generation you belong to, there’s some part of “dirty soda” culture that likely resonates with you. For Gen Z, it could be Dua Lipa’s pickle-infused Diet Coke on TikTok, for Millennials maybe it’s sitting in a beat-up car after school waiting for the Sonic carhop to bring a Route 44 Cherry Limeade with added pineapple and coconut (aka the Tropical Dream). Plus, let’s not forget the classic Cherry Cola with a quick shot of grenadine and a maraschino cherry on top. 

So, while dirty soda may seem highly regional and primarily driven by Gen Z, there are elements of this trend that can resonate with a wide variety of consumers and not just in traditional carbonated soda formats either. 

From Counterculture to Commercial Success: The Evolution of Dirty Soda

While much of the trend involves consumers hand-crafting their dirty soda of choice, the evolution of dirty soda has been heavily influenced by a massive influx of “beverage chains” specializing in similar experiences.⁶ From the Utah-born beverage chain Swig, which gained national attention on Hulu’s “Secret Lives of Mormon Wives,” to FiiZ Drinks, Dutch Bros, and more. 

Now, you’ll even find dirty soda-inspired drinks at places like McDonald’s and Taco Bell. While Taco Bell’s Baja Dream Freezes (classic Baja Blast slushy blended with vanilla crème) was a limited time offering, they’ve rotated various drinks in and out of their LTOs including current Confetti Cookie Freeze and Vanilla Cream Soda Freeze.⁷ 

Now, beverage brands are beginning to translate the concept into scalable, shelf-ready formats. The Cherry Bomb energy drink from Alani Nu is a combination of cherry, vanilla, and cola.⁸ The Cereal Criminal flavor of sparkling water from Liquid Death tastes like Fruity Pebbles cereal with milk,⁹ and PepsiCo has Wild Cherry & Cream as well as their upcoming Dirty Mountain Dew Cream Soda.¹⁰

This evolution mirrors broader shifts in the beverage industry where consumers expect more from familiar categories like soda pop, sparkling water, and even non-alcoholic alternatives like NA beer.

Athletic Brewing Co describes the experience of their Peachy Lychee Smoothie Sour as stone-fruit and citrus aromas that “make for a sweet and tart brew that's balanced and refreshing. Lactose is incorporated into the brewing process making this brew creamy and delightful.”¹¹ 

Ultimately, commercial beverages inspired by this trend often focus on:

• Layered citrus and vanilla profiles
• Creamy or “round” mouthfeel without actual dairy
• Botanical, tropical, or hop-adjacent accents
• Reduced sugar or functional positioning

Rather than replicating soda-shop recipes exactly, brands are distilling dirty soda down to its core appeal: complex flavor architecture with mass-market familiarity. Looking to the future, it wouldn’t be outside the realm of possibility to see breweries and taprooms adopting the dirty soda trend. 

Taprooms can pay homage to the classic soda shoppe with bartenders offering custom add-ins. Plus, while the roots of the trend are non alcoholic, there are several styles of beer (e.g. sours, stouts, ales, etc.) that already incorporate some of the flavor pillars of dirty soda. Whether brewers decide to amp up the cream, lean into citrus twists, or incorporate nostalgic soda-adjacent flavors, this trend is arguably already present in these alcoholic formats. It’s just not marketed that way… yet.

How Beverage Manufacturers Can Craft a Dirty Soda Experience

For beverage manufacturers looking to create their own offering, dirty soda should represent a flexible framework rather than a fixed recipe. It’s about tapping into the unique identity and desires of your customers and creating a beverage that speaks to them. Microbreweries that already lean into regional flavors and experiences have a leg-up in this regard, but manufacturers can leverage this flavor trend regardless of operation size or beverage format.

4 Strategies to Add Dirty Sodas to Your Beverage Menu

Formulators certainly have the option to develop completely new recipes, but there are also strategies that allow for experimentation with this flavor trend without needing to start from scratch. 

1. Ask local “beverage chains” about their most popular dirty beverage.

This is an easy way to see what flavor combinations and add-ins are already familiar and popular with the very customers who might purchase your products. 

2. Add creamy flavor additions to your most popular beverages.

These can be limited-time offerings to gauge interest before scaling or taproom specials to encourage higher ticket sales and create novel experiences.

3. Consider popular flavor add-ins to complement existing beverage flavors.

Dirty sodas are all about layered flavor experiences, so experiment with pairing weighty flavors like vanilla, caramel, and hazelnut as well as vibrant fruit flavors with the beverage flavors you already have on your menu.

• • Consider pairing Idaho 7® hop flavors with coconut and Guava for a tropical smoothie beer.
  • Craft a complex NA beer that leans into lime-forward mojito flavors with Motueka®, and unexpected spice notes of chipotle or jalapeno.
  • Add a dank twist to sweet beverage treats with dessert-inspired cannabis flavors like Gelato, or add nuanced sweet and sour to hard seltzers and kombuchas with Sour Tangie.

4. Lean into nostalgia with classic soda twists on current beer offerings.

There’s a long tradition of mixing beer with sodas or lemonade, so the key here is product positioning to clearly communicate with dirty soda consumers.

• • Create beer spritzers by combining light beers with ginger ale, lemon-lime soda, or fruit-forward sodas.
  • Craft a layered Shandy with beer, lemonade, and a complex mix of tropical fruit flavors. Taprooms can enhance this experience by offering whole fruit add-ins for aesthetic appeal.
  • Put a cream soda twist on a beer, similar to the popular beer and soda mix from Germany called a Diesel.¹²

Partner with Abstrax for Custom Dirty Soda Formulation Assistance

At Abstrax, we provide novel solutions for beverage manufacturers of all sizes looking to streamline, innovate, and gain a competitive edge. With our knowledge, technology, and extensive resources, we’ve crafted our collections to provide recognizable flavors and aromas that consumers love.

Contact us today, and we’ll help you develop the flavor system for the next trending dirty soda beverage.

1. Doggett, Jack. (2025, July 31). Carbonated Soft Drinks - US - 2025. [Market Report]. Mintel. https://www.mintel.com/

2. Mintel’s Flavours Landscape for Carbonated Soft Drinks in the USA. Flavourscape AI. Mintel. (n.d.). https://clients.mintel.com/landscapes/flavour?category=21&region=44

3. Danley, S. (2025, January 16). QSR’s breakout brand of 2024: Swig Pioneers A Beverage Revolution. QSR Magazine. https://www.qsrmagazine.com/growth/fast-casual/qsrs-breakout-brand-of-2024-swig-pioneers-a-beverage-revolution/

4. Tangalakis-Lippert, K. (n.d.). You can thank Gen Z for new drink options from McDonald’s, Starbucks. Business Insider. https://www.businessinsider.com/gen-z-driving-fast-food-beverage-wars-demand-custom-drinks-2025-7

5. Rich, N. (2013, October 8). An oral history of the Chelsea Hotel: Where the walls still talk. Vanity Fair. https://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2013/10/chelsea-hotel-oral-history?srsltid=AfmBOor-D5yQ9_ATZG6hMtg6ANM589k4ALfM9VsuDuTJn8AuxqEpsN43

6. Chatterjee, A. (2025, December 23). 8 chains where you can order dirty Soda Drinks across the US. Tasting Table. https://www.tastingtable.com/2054395/where-get-dirty-soda-drinks-us/

7. Drinks. Taco Bell Drink Menu - Order Online for Pickup or Delivery | Taco Bell®. (n.d.). https://www.tacobell.com/food/drinks

8. Alani Nu. (n.d.). Energy Drink - Cherry Bomb. https://www.alaninu.com/collections/drinks-snacks/products/energy-drink-cherry-bomb

9. Cereal criminal. Liquid Death. (n.d.). https://liquiddeath.com/products/cereal-criminal

10. Deppen, L. (2025, September 30). PepsiCo splashes into dirty soda with new mountain dew flavor. Food Dive. https://www.fooddive.com/news/pepsico-launches-mountain-dew-dirty-soda/761451/

11. Peachy lychee smoothie sour. Athletic Brewing Company. (n.d.). https://athleticbrewing.com/products/peachy-lychee 

12. Stiernberg, B. (2025, June 20). We tried the weird coke and Beer Combo from “materialists.” InsideHook. https://www.insidehook.com/beer/we-tried-weird-coke-beer-combo-materialists