A soda, barkeep — and make it dirty Forks business brings trendy, sweet, cream-topped concoctions to customers By: AV Kitching Posted: 5:33 PM CDT Tuesday, Jun. 2, 2026

Not in the mood to sip on a dirty martini? Well now you can chug a dirty soda instead.

The original drink, typically made with Diet Coke spiked with syrups, topped with whipped cream and sometimes fruit, became a viral sensation after the cast of reality show The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives were filmed slaking their thirst — usually after an explosive domestic row, naturally — by downing the giant cups of customizable drinks at Swig, “the home of the original dirty soda.”

The Utah-based soda-fountain chain created the drink as a sugary, alcohol-free alternative for the state’s large concentration of Mormons. As members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Mormons are banned from consuming alcohol, coffee and tea.

The first iteration of the beverage simply had a splash of coconut water but has evolved since the hit show introduced elaborate versions of the non-alcoholic concoction to the world.

Now the soda is making a splash in Winnipeg thanks to Sodie’s by the Forks Trading Company — and Winnipeggers just can’t get enough of it.

In fact, the drink has become so popular since it was introduced in October last year that owner Brad Hewlett’s planned renovations for the company’s food arm on the ground floor of The Forks Market prioritize the soda counter.

“We brought the drinks here around October last year, and they absolutely took off right from the beginning,” Hewlett says. “We’re renovating the food store right now and there’s a full emphasis on the dirty soda in the new store.”

Sodie’s is currently the only place in the city serving the fully loaded beverage, priced at $6.99 for a 20-ounce serving. But what’s so dirty about the cold drink?

“It’s the cream which makes it ‘dirty.’ Adding cream into the soda muddies its appearance,” director of operations Megan Basaraba explains.

It was Basaraba who suggested Hewlett introduce the drink concept to the store. Her husband had seen the drinks online, she says, and she was immediately taken with the idea.

“We’re always looking for something different, something nobody else is doing. It’s a fairly simple idea so we gave it a shot. We got all the ingredients together and started experimenting with recipes. We thought we could have fun with it,” she says.

“We get customers asking to change things up or make their own concoctions.”

Staff feedback helped narrow down the menu to approximately 15 drinks, with seasonal additions and specials making an appearance during festive occasions.

Due to ongoing renovations, the soda bar has moved upstairs to the main Forks Trading Company outlet, where staff continue to serve concoctions such as Pineapple Autopac Premium, Two Rivers One Straw, Mani-Cherry-toba, Pothole Punch and the Winnipeg Whip, its most popular drink, made with Dr Pepper, two types of flavoured syrups — strawberry and vanilla — and vanilla cold foam.

The menu will be further refined when the shop returns to its original location on the ground floor of the Forks Market.

There are currently five kinds of pop — Dr. Pepper, Coca-Cola, Sprite, root beer and Mountain Dew — and 27 flavoured syrups, which can be combined to create any number of drink permutations.

While Sodie’s has remained true to the core concept of the original dirty soda beverage, over here Winnipeggers get to choose between the original or diet versions of the fizzy drink, rather than automatically being served the latter as is the wont in Utah.

The other crucial difference between a Utah dirty soda and its Winnipeg cousin is the topping: instead of the whipped cream, Sodie’s sodas have a cold foam topper.

“You can use either, but we chose cold foam because we like the way it sits nicely on the drink and doesn’t turn it super murky as we hand it to the customer. So you can still have the colour of the drink and the cold foam on top,” Basaraba says.

But they have kept one very distinct element — the ice.

“We made sure to use pebble ice in the drink. We have a special ice machine for the pebble ice,” she says.

Responding to customer requests, the shop will also be adding sugar-free syrups to their sodas, and in another departure from the original dirtier versions, forgoing the fizzy drinks altogether by offering sparkling water as a base to which syrups can be added.

“The drinks are fully customizable. We get customers asking to change things up or make their own concoctions. I like the sparking water options; you can add between two to four syrups, that’s one of my favourites,” Basaraba says. “We’re going to call it the clean soda.”

winnipegfreepress.com/avkitching