When Eric Schulz walked into a new dirty soda shop in Hawaii while on vacation in June, he knew exactly what he wanted: a Dr Pepper mixed with raspberry puree, coconut and cream.

The Utah State University marketing professor was curious whether the $8 drink would measure up to the version he regularly gets in Utah, where dirty soda shops have long been a cultural staple.

The verdict? Not quite the same, Schulz said, but still enjoyable.

Dirty sodas — carbonated drinks customized with flavored syrups, fruit purees, cream and other add-ins — have exploded beyond Utah in recent years, with shops like the one in Hawaii opening across the country.

They are following a business model that began in St. George in 2010, when Nicole Robison opened the first Swig store that eventually launched the “dirty soda” category nationwide, with combinations bearing names like “Texas Tab,” “Big Booty Judy” and “Hula Girl.”

As Swig’s popularity grew, other Utah chains — including FiiZ Drinks, Sodalicious, Quench It! Soda, Thirst Drinks and Twisted Sugar — followed, turning customized sodas into a fixture of Utah culture.

Today, Swig has expanded well beyond the Beehive State, opening more than 150 locations across the country. National chains, including McDonald’s, Dunkin’ and Sonic, have also begun offering customizable soda drinks, chasing a share of the market Utah entrepreneurs built.

The company has grown alongside hit reality shows — like Hulu’s “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives,” which premiered in 2024 and introduced viewers to dirty soda and other aspects of Utah culture — and as the brand has found a foothold with trendy social media influencers.

But Schulz doesn’t credit the trend solely to the popularity of “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives.” Nor does he think the industry’s growth can be explained by TikTok, where creators and influencers have racked up millions of views making their own versions of the sugary drinks.

Instead, he said the industry had already been growing for years, driven by a business model that appeals to both entrepreneurs and customers: inexpensive startup costs, high-margin products and the convenience of a drive-thru drink stop.

“Finding the drive-thru window was probably the hardest part of the whole thing,” Schulz quipped, of opening a dirty soda shop.

For example, there was only one Swig store for years where Schulz’s university is based in Logan, he said. Then a local fry shop added dirty sodas to its menu, followed by FiiZ and Whips Soda. Now, Schulz estimated, the fast-growing northern Utah city has around nine spots where customers can order their own customized creations.

Swig CEO Alex Dunn acknowledged that social media and certainly popular TV shows have helped the brand by introducing this sugary totem of Utah culture to more people, but he said he thinks there’s something more longstanding and universal about the company’s appeal.

Soda shops, for instance, have a long history in the U.S.

And when Swig introduced dirty soda in 2010, Schulz said, it turned a simple fountain drink mixed with cream and syrup into a Utah ritual — a drive-thru pick-me-up for carpooling parents, an after-school reward for kids and, for many members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a fun social alternative to alcohol, coffee and tea.

That appeal, Schulz said, is what made dirty soda ripe for expansion beyond Utah. After years of steady growth in the state, he said it was no surprise that other businesses began trying to capture a piece of the market.

In a June news release, Torani, a popular syrup company widely used to make dirty sodas, said the trend’s appeal comes from personalization.

Andrea Ramirez, the company’s senior consumer and customer market insights manager, said the drink’s popularity “reflects a broader cultural move toward drinks that feel personal, creative and made for the moment,” with customers mixing flavors and add-ins to create a drink that feels uniquely theirs.

Dunn, the Swig CEO, pointed to one of his company’s newest stores in Orlando to illustrate dirty soda’s universality. The Orlando store, the brand’s 159th location and more than 2,000 miles from Utah, is also the company’s busiest, he said.

“Because people want to come, people want to try it. Everywhere we open, we just see it resonate with people. We are from Utah. We embrace that. We love Utah,” Dunn said, “and we think that Swig translates everywhere that we go.”

Correction • July 20, 9 a.m.: This story was updated to correctly identify Taylor Frankie Paul in a photo caption. This story was also updated at 11 a.m. to correctly identify Swig founder Nicole Robison.