What makes a winning dirty soda?

Take a soda like Coke, Dr Pepper, Sprite or Mountain Dew, add a creamer like cold foam or sweet cream, then a flavored syrup, a splash of fruit juice or a fun garnish, and you’ve got a dirty soda.

It started out as a Utah drive-thru staple in the 2010s. Then TikTok and The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives got hold of it.

Now the big chains want a piece of it. In March, Taco Bell made its dirty sodas a permanent part of the national menu, as part of a goal of $5 billion in beverage sales by 2030. In May, McDonald’s launched a whole line of crafted sodas and refreshers, saying orders with the new drinks come with checks about 50% higher.

But are customers as excited about it as the chains are?

To understand what Americans want in dirty sodas, we put 13 real dirty sodas from US menus head to head and asked consumers which they’d be most likely to consider and why. We also surveyed 2,000 US adults with our Ask Anything solution.

Here’s what stood out from the research, from the drinks that came out on top to the formula behind them.

Key takeaways

1. The winning dirty soda tastes like something people already love. The top pick was Orange Dream with Fanta, which is essentially a Creamsicle in a cup. The drinks near the bottom paired soda with something unexpected, like pineapple with Coke or custard with lemon-lime. It seems to work best to start with a flavor your customers already know and let the cream and toppings bring the novelty.
2. Simple drinks get ordered and loaded drinks get noticed. Drinks with just one add-in were picked first more often than the two drinks with four. Yet one of those loaded drinks, Cocoberry Cream, was rated the most distinctive of all 13. So keep the everyday menu simple and save the loaded drinks for limited-time specials.
3. The winning drink depends on who you’re making it for. Orange Dream is the top pick for over-35s, but under-35s go for bright, citrusy drinks like Shark Attack and Dirty Baja Blast instead. Women pick Twisted Flamingo first twice as often as men (34% vs. 16%). Test new drinks with the customers you most want to reach.

Who’s driving the dirty soda boom?

Almost everyone’s heard of dirty sodas but the habit’s still forming.

83% of US adults have heard of dirty soda and more than half (53%) have tried it. But only 28% buy it occasionally or weekly. So only about half of the people who’ve tried it (52%) keep buying it. That’s the lowest of the six new drink formats we asked about. For refreshers, for example, it’s 59%, and for canned energy drinks it’s 67%.

It’s also a young adult’s drink and men are more into it than you might think. Nearly two thirds of under-36s (63%) have tried it vs. 27% of 56–75s. And despite its reputation as a drink for moms, more men than women have tried it (59% vs. 47%).

It’s spread well beyond Utah too, with around a quarter to a third of adults in every region buying it regularly.

The hype is real. The question for brands is which dirty sodas will turn a first sip into a regular order. Let’s find out!

The 13 dirty sodas we tested

We picked 13 real dirty sodas from US menus, from simple soda-and-foam pairings to cups with four extra ingredients:

• Dirty Dr Pepper: Dr Pepper with vanilla and cold foam
• Vanilla Swirl with Coke: Coca-Cola with vanilla and cold foam
• Orange Dream with Fanta: orange Fanta with cold foam
• Dirty Baja Blast: Mountain Dew Baja Blast with vanilla cream
• Dirty Lemonade: Tropicana lemonade with vanilla cream
• Twisted Flamingo: lemon-lime soda with cherry vanilla and sweet cream
• Cocoberry Cream: lemon-lime soda with coconut, vanilla, real strawberries and sweet cream
• Golden Hour Orange: lemon-lime soda with candied orange and custard cream
• Black Tie: Dr Pepper with cherry and heavy cream
• Shark Bite: Coca-Cola with pineapple and coconut cream
• Texas Tab: Dr Pepper with vanilla and coconut cream
• Shark Attack: lemon-lime soda with lemonade and blue raspberry, topped with a gummy shark
• Pink Mermaid: sparkling soda with watermelon, coconut, strawberry and sweet cream

How we tested them

We tested the drinks with our ScreenIt solution among 390 US adults who’d visited a fast-food restaurant in the past three months. We removed the restaurant names so people were reacting to the drink itself rather than the chain behind it. We kept the soda brands since the soda is part of the flavor.

Each person saw five drinks so every drink was seen by about 150 people. First, they picked the drink they’d be most likely to consider. A drink’s score is the share of people who made it their top pick, and with five drinks to choose from, 20% is average.

Then they rated each drink from 1 to 5 on how likely they’d be to buy it (purchase likelihood), how relevant it is to them (relevance), how different it is from what’s already out there (distinctiveness), whether it’s better than what’s available (advantage) and how believable it is (believability).

Meet the winners

Orange Dream with Fanta — a dessert people already love, in a cup

Orange Dream with Fanta is America’s favorite dirty soda. It’s one of the simplest drinks in the lineup (orange soda topped with cold foam) and it took 31% of the top-pick votes, a clear lead over the rest!

Its secret is that people already know what it tastes like. Orange and cream is the flavor of a classic Creamsicle so the drink feels new without asking anyone to take a gamble. The cold foam helps too, giving the drink a more elevated feel that balances the sweetness of the soda.

People said things like:

• “This sounds delicious, reminds me of the orange cream bars.”
• “I like the orange and cream combo, reminds me of a dreamsicle.”
• “I like the idea of cold foam, it seems more elevated and a better offset to the very sweet fanta.”

Its appeal grows with age. Orange Dream was the top pick for 32% of 35–54s and 35% of 55–75s, compared with 24% of 18–34s.

For a brand looking to bring older customers into the dirty soda trend, a familiar dessert flavor is the easiest way in.

Shark Attack — the all-rounder

Behind Orange Dream, three drinks tied with 25% of the top-pick votes: Shark Attack, Twisted Flamingo and Dirty Dr Pepper.

Shark Attack stands out among them because it’s the only one that scores above average on every measure we looked at. It also has the highest purchase likelihood of all 13 drinks (3.8 vs. 3.6 on average).

It’s a bright blue mix of lemon-lime soda, lemonade and blue raspberry with a gummy shark on top, and it’s the only drink in the study with no cream at all.

Its fans called out the bright color, the familiar flavors and how refreshing it looks.

They said things like:

• “I like the blue shark, the color and the flavor combo.”
• “I love the blue raspberry flavor.”
• “looks very refreshing, good flavors too…”

Shark Attack is also the favorite of 18–34s (34%), and 78% of them put it in their top two. It shows that a dirty soda doesn’t need cream to win, as long as it delivers on fun and flavor.

Dirty Dr Pepper — the familiar choice

Dirty Dr Pepper is the drink people found most relevant to them (3.8 vs. 3.5 on average) and it’s also one of the more believable ones (4.1 vs. 4.0), likely because people already know and love the soda.

It’s also the dirty soda people are likely to recommend. When we asked consumers in our Ask Anything survey to name a drink they think more people should try, it came up more than any other dirty soda — about as often as matcha, chai or a caramel frappe.

People said things like:

• “I love Dr Pepper and I think this is a great twist on a soda I love.”
• “The cold foam topping adds a delicious creamy texture to the drink.”
• “I think a dirty dry pepper is worth a try. I like the carbonation and cream makes it a creamy refreshing drink.”
  
  

Twisted Flamingo — women’s favorite

Twisted Flamingo, the third soda tied at 25%, is a pink lemon-lime soda with cherry vanilla and sweet cream. While Orange Dream does well with both men (32%) and women (29%), women’s top pick is Twisted Flamingo. Twice as many women as men picked it first (34% vs. 16%).

People said things like:

• “It looked like a cross between a regular drink and ice cream and I like the two textures.”
• “I love the cherry vanilla addition — it makes it unique and delicious.”
• “I really like the cherry vanilla flavor and sweet cream.”

It’s a hit with over-55s too. A third of 55–75s (33%) picked it first, putting it just behind Orange Dream with that group.

Dirty Baja Blast — big with men and under-35s

Men lean towards Dirty Baja Blast, picking it more than twice as often as women (26% vs. 12% for women). It's a soda many of them already love with a splash of sweet vanilla:

• “I like the fact that it is Baja Blast, one of my favorite sodas.”
• “The lime taste with some sweet vanilla.”

It’s also the drink that splits the generations most: a third of 18–34s (33%) picked it first, compared with 14% of 35–54s and 11% of 55–75s.

Ultimately, there’s no one-size-fits-all dirty soda. The drink that wins on your menu depends on who you’re making it for.

What makes a winning dirty soda?

Cola or citrus? Creamy or fruity? Simple or loaded? When we grouped the 13 drinks by what’s in them, a clear formula came through: a flavor people already know, a light touch of cream and not too many add-ins.

Familiar flavors win

The winners all share a flavor people already love: Creamsicle, blue raspberry lemonade, vanilla Dr Pepper and cherry vanilla. The drinks at the bottom paired the soda with something unexpected, like pineapple with Coke, coconut with Dr Pepper or custard with lemon-lime.

People are happy to try a new format but they’re less keen to try a new flavor at the same time.

Go light on the cream

Cream is the signature of a dirty soda but which cream you use makes a big difference. The three drinks topped with cold foam took an average of 25% of the top-pick votes.

Drinks made with heavy cream, coconut cream or custard cream averaged 15%. And Shark Attack, with no cream at all, matched the cold foam drinks at 25%.

Keep the add-ins to a minimum

The fewer the extras, the better the drinks did. Drinks with just one add-in took 24% of the top-pick votes on average, compared with 17% for the two drinks with four (Pink Mermaid and Cocoberry Cream).

But loaded drinks still have a job to do. Cocoberry Cream, the only drink with real fruit in the cup, was rated the most distinctive of all 13 drinks, even though it came second to last on top picks (14%). People called out how new and indulgent it felt:

• “New flavor and both fruity and creamy.”
• “Looks absolutely decadent. Something my mouth would water for.”

That makes loaded drinks great for getting a menu noticed, perhaps as a limited-time special or something made to share on social media. For the drinks people order every week, simple works better.

Final thoughts

Dirty soda already has awareness, a place on fast-food menus and some of the biggest QSR names behind it. What it needs now is the drink people come back for the second and third time.

If you’re adding one to your menu, the safest place to start is a soda your customers already love and a flavor they already know. Then test it against the drinks it will compete with before it launches.

Looking to understand how consumers will respond to your new innovation ideas before launch? You can test and optimize your innovative new concepts with Zappi’s connected Innovation System. Get a demo to learn more.

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