Dirty Soda in Rhode Island

A dirty soda is a regular fountain soda that has been built into something else. You start with a base like Sprite, Coca Cola, or Dr Pepper, then layer in flavored syrups, fruit purées, and cream or coconut. The carbonation keeps it from turning into a milkshake, so it still drinks like a soda while tasting closer to a dessert.

The style started in Utah, where a large population does not drink alcohol or coffee, and soda shops grew into the local equivalent of a bar. From there it spread across the country. The combinations are the whole point: no two shops build the same drink, and the good ones are known for recipes you cannot get anywhere else.

Ours lean tropical rather than creamy. Most start with Sprite and finish with a fruit purée, which is why they come out in colors that photograph well and taste less heavy than the Utah original.

Rhode Island already takes its drinks seriously. Coffee milk has been the official state drink since 1993, Del's is a summer institution, and the Awful Awful has outlasted most of the restaurants that served it. This is a state where a specific, slightly strange local beverage becomes part of the identity.

So it was not a surprise when the national dirty soda trend arrived here with a Rhode Island accent. In April 2026 Dunkin' put a coffee milk dirty soda on its menu, mixing the state drink with Pepsi and a sweet cream cold foam. Dirty soda had officially found New England.

We have been building ours in Providence the whole time, and we are doing something different with it. A chain version is one recipe poured the same way in every store. Ours are made one cup at a time at the counter, and you can change the base, swap the purée, or ask us to build something that is not on the board. If you want to taste what the trend looks like when a local shop runs with it, that is what we are here for.