In this episode of “At Your Convenience,” CSP Editor Chuck Ulie talks with Rachel Toner, owner of Taste Strategy, Chalfont, Pennsylvania, at CSP’sDispensed Beverages Forum, which took place in April in Lombard, Illinois.
Toner talks about the trendy dirty soda, which is a carbonated soft drink with added flavor syrups or creamers. Toner discusses the catchy name, the history of the beverage and its resurgence today. The majority of retailers already have the ingredients needed to make these drinks, she says, making it a wealth of opportunity for c-stores.
“At Your Convenience” brings industry experts and analysts together with CSP editors to discuss the latest in c-store news and trends. From mergers and acquisitions to foodservice and technology, the podcast delivers the story straight to listeners in short-format episodes, perfect for the morning commute or a quick break at the office.
Listen to their conversation above, or read the transcript here, which has been edited for length and clarity:
Chuck Ulie: People are increasingly talking about dirty sodas and you talked about it yesterday in your wonderful talk. Can you talk about the name and give me an overview of what dirty sodas are and why they are trending?
Rachel Toner: Dirty sodas are something that are really trendy right now. A lot of people are talking about them. We’re starting to see them become increasingly popular in businesses, whether it be restaurants, QSR, convenience. The name, dirty sodas, it sounds a little naughty, doesn’t it?
Let me just start by talking about really what the definition of a dirty soda is. The name grabs attention. It’s rebellious, but it’s essentially a carbonated soft drink that I would call spiked or has added flavored syrups added. You can add juices, inclusions, whatever. It’s just adding things to carbonated soft drinks. That’s really the heart of what makes a dirty soda. This modern trend originated in the state of Utah, which I think is really interesting. And digging into why it originated there and why it’s becoming more popular, apparently it’s these types of beverages, these dirty sodas have long been consumed by the Mormon community, which is really interesting.
Ulie: Who knew?
Toner: Who would have thought? And if you look into why, it’s because in their faith, they’re not supposed to or not allowed to consume certain foods or drinks, and part of those restrictions include hot beverages, like hot teas and hot coffees. And there’s this question around whether or not caffeine is allowed also. This is part of the reason why they’ve broken outside, and to get their energy in their morning beverage, they’ve looked to carbonated soft drinks to add the sugary energy and this alternative to hot coffees and hot teas, which they’ve coined dirty sodas.
Ulie: And so why are we talking about them today? I guess it’s a new trend. What’s going on?
Toner: They say it’s a new trend, but I don’t know. I think there’s a lot of gray area between what we probably would consider a dirty soda. My kids, we watch “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.” At the beginning of “Willy Wonka,” when they’re in the candy shop, you see them pouring the soft drink and the three kids come over and they’re all sharing it with the straws. This early version of dirty sodas, it came from, I think they’re called soda jerks, right? Kids would go to candy shops and they would get these soda drinks and they would add ice cream and cream sodas. There’s even suggestions that, are you familiar with egg creams? Have you ever heard of this?
Ulie: Egg creams? No.
Toner: Yes. This is a beverage that originated in the Jewish community in New York, and what they were doing is they were taking carbonated seltzers and adding chocolate syrup and milk and creating a carbonated soft drink that way as well. I think there’s a lot of question marks as to who is the real inventor, what the origins of dirty soda are. But we’re seeing this become increasingly popular today because people are increasingly interested in beverages that they can customize themselves, and especially with young consumers, Millennials, Gen Z, Gen Alpha, they want to make things that they want to make and create things that are unique and exciting.
Ulie: Cool. This is why it has its resurgence today. The younger people like to control what they’re having, and it’s fun and they can mix it up and put it on social and share it. And that’s part of probably the whole thing, right?
Toner: Yes. And we know that there’s a variety of neat states that contribute to people purchasing or are interested in certain non-alcoholic beverages, but we do see that customization and this need for control is something that’s definitely driving this trend. We’re increasingly seeing growth in beverage-focused QSRs offering these types of drinks, like Swig. We’re seeing a lot of... Well, Swig was one of the original beverage QSRs offering dirty sodas. We see Swig and-
Ulie: Dutch Bros?
Toner: Dutch Bros, exactly. There’s gray areas between what we consider a dirty soda, but I think we’re seeing this growth in consumer-driven, highly customizable beverages in QSR.
Ulie: Would you say right now, dirty sodas today, is it still in its infancy? Is it beyond infancy? Is it maturing? It seems like it’s, I don’t want to put words in your mouth, but it seems it’s building steam.
Toner: My hot take on this: Dirty sodas are at Denny’s, so I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that this is mainstream. I think that’s my ticker to determine where things are. Is it at Denny’s? They’re calling them Slammin’ Sodas, but they’re dirty sodas, versions of that. Denny’s is offering dirty sodas where you have the ability to add sweet cream and lime to those.
Ulie: Oh, wow.
Toner: That’s that. But from a research perspective, what we see in the menu adoption cycle, when we think about things that are really trendy or things that are ubiquitous, we’re seeing, even though it may be not in full serve, but we’re seeing consumers come into convenience and make dirty sodas on their own. They’re taking this trend and looking at dispensed beverage and saying, “Oh my God, we can come in here and we can do this,” based upon what they’re seeing on social media and these QSR trends.
Ulie: Would you recommend a convenience-store retailer to play this up? Say, “Hey, you can come into our store and make dirty sodas.”
Toner: There’s so much opportunity for retailers right now because for the majority of them, they already have the ingredients needed to make these types of drinks. Generally, convenience retailers have a wide variety of dispensed beverages, whether it be carbonated soft drinks, teas, lemonades, frozen, you name it, and you go to the coffee customization island and you’ve got creamers, you’ve got half-and-half milk. Some have pumpable syrups or other ways that you can customize these beverages. They already have the things needed to make dirty sodas. I think the barrier is being able to communicate or giving their consumers permission to come in and able to create these items with what they have in store.
Ulie: When you mentioned soda jerks, it reminded me also of the young George Bailey in “It’s a Wonderful Life.” There was a scene where he was working at Mr. Gower’s drug store.
Toner: I think we should bring it back. Maybe we should bring back these old trends, get soda jerks back in the cycle. I love this trend, and I think there’s so much opportunity.
Ulie: My next question is what are your thoughts on the trend and how are you working this into the work you do advising clients?
Toner: I don’t foresee it going anywhere.
Ulie: It will become a mainstay.
Toner: People wanted to customize their beverages for forever I think, but what we’re seeing now is, per my talk yesterday, is consumers are interested in breaking these invisible rules that we’ve set on dispensed beverage, and they’re interested in challenging the norms that we’ve put around a food and beverage. Allowing them to come into our stores and do the things that they want and letting them create with us, there’s so much opportunity. When I advise my clients, I help them think about if they’re not. With regard to where they’re at with the type of innovation that they’re offering customers, I’d recommend if they’re just starting out, maybe you want to take slow steps, maybe start talking to your consumers about, “Hey, we know that this is popular. Come into our store,” through social or other means and help guide them toward making these types of beverages. Taking those small steps, but retailers that might be a little bit more advanced or have some sort of specialty beverage, there could be a lot of opportunities to push the boundaries, what we would consider innovative from that perspective.
Ulie: What would be one? Can you think of one boundary push?
Toner: I think one of the trends that we’ve been seeing, and I would like to give Dutch Bros the props for this, is that I think we’re seeing an increase in, especially with GLP-I drugs and things like that, there’s this need or desire to have protein in beverages. I think there could be opportunity there to think about creamers or adding milk to our beverages, having something that might be high protein. They have a milk that has, I want you to fact check me on this, but I think it’s 8 grams of ... It’s more protein than what would be in normal milk through increased casein proteins. We’re also seeing consumers adding protein shakes to dispensed beverages. There’s a lot of opportunity, from pushing the boundaries in terms of functional ingredients like protein, vitamins, extra caffeine, things like that.
Ulie: Any final thoughts on dirty sodas?
Toner: I’m really excited to see where this concept goes in the future. I think that consumers have the right idea with breaking the rules, and I think just allowing consumers to take full ownership of the customization in convenience is where we’re headed next.
Ulie: And do you have a dirty soda that you do at any stores?
Toner: I recently, just from a sensory perspective, went in and I did buy a protein shake and added it to a Diet Coke and added some syrups and that was really cool.
Ulie: At a c-store?
Toner: At a c-store. It’s a little bit more expensive because protein shakes are expensive, but I think the most classic version as we see in beverage-focused QSRs would be the dirty Dr Pepper, which is Dr Pepper with coconut-flavored syrup, which sounds delicious. They have this thing called Shark Attack, which is blue, and it’s got this gummy shark on it. It’s Sprite, lemonade, blue raspberry with the gummy shark.
Ulie: Wow.
Toner: There’s just unlimited potential for this, and it’s a trend that I just am really excited about seeing.
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