MW 'Dirty soda' is going mainstream. Coke and Pepsi are trying to cash in.

By Bill Peters

Drinks like Dirty Mountain Dew and Coca-Cola Cherry Float are helping the two beverage giants prop up sales. Other major brands are jumping in on the trend as well.

Executives at PepsiCo and Coca-Cola recently touted the performance of creamy soda offerings.

Social media has raised the profile of so-called "dirty soda," a once-niche trend that involves mixing soda with shots of flavored creams, flavored syrup or pureed fruit. Now, Coca-Cola and PepsiCo are taking notice.

During Coca-Cola's $(KO)$ earnings call on Tuesday, CEO Henrique Braun said newer drinks like Coca-Cola Cherry Float - which combines Cherry Coke with creamy vanilla flavoring - "contributed strongly to revenue growth" during the first quarter.

This month, PepsiCo CEO Ramon Laguarta said that the company's new Dirty Mountain Dew, which brings cream-soda taste to classic Mountain Dew, had been a winner thus far as well.

The rollout of those newer products has arrived as consumer-goods giants lean on new products to compete with cheaper store brands, and as more shoppers seek affordable luxuries and increasingly demand more customization from their drinks.

Utah-based chain Swig - with some amplification from social media -helped make dirty soda a hit, as a story from Eater noted last year. In February, visits to Swig stores were up 30.7% year over year, and up 137.9% from February 2023, retail-traffic analytics firm Placer.ai said in a report last month.

Dirty soda "began as a regional offering but has quickly reached all corners of the country through social media," Elizabeth Lafontaine, the director of research at Placer.ai, told MarketWatch. "Platforms like TikTok have helped niche trends, in both food and retail, to go viral, as more users have access to information and word-of-mouth insights."

Against that backdrop, Pepsi and Coca-Cola aren't the only companies are trying to cash in.

This month, executives at Keurig Dr Pepper (KDP) said they were confident that a recent relaunch of Dr Pepper Creamy Coconut would capitalize on "ongoing consumer interest in dirty sodas." In March, Hershey introduced new Twizzlers edible straws that were "inspired by the dirty-soda trend." Restaurants like McDonald's $(MCD)$, Texas Roadhouse $(TXRH)$ and Yum Brands' (YUM) Taco Bell have also tinkered with dirty sodas.

"The trend also aligns with the preferences of younger consumers," Lafontaine said, noting that "dirty sodas allow for unique customization that is tailored to individual tastes and also helps brands to capitalize on the interest in sparkling and refreshing drink creations."

Those newer products have been one piece of the puzzle for big consumer-goods companies. The other has been a general push to lower prices.

Pepsi this month said recent price cuts of up to 15% for some of its snacks had brought back consumers who had been turned off by higher costs. Shares rallied afterward. Hershey executives, at the company's investor day in March, also said they would try to sell cheaper variety packs and seasonal offerings priced at $5. They said 75% of their products were priced at $4 or below.

Similarly, Braun said Tuesday that Coca-Cola's focus on "affordability" - through different package sizes at different prices - would help push sales higher.

"The consumers that have pressure today are the low-income consumers," he said. "And we really dialed up our affordability options to get closer to them."

Sales during Coca-Cola's first quarter rose 12% year over year to $12.5 billion, the company said Tuesday. Volume, a gauge of the amount of product sold, rose 3% overall, despite a pullback in March after the start of the Iran war.

"While many consumers remain resilient, others are under pressure due to persistent inflation, greater macroeconomic uncertainty and volatility driven by the conflict in the Middle East," Braun said on Tuesday's call. "Against this backdrop, we operate in an expanding industry."

-Bill Peters

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April 29, 2026 07:30 ET (11:30 GMT)

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