Doing Dry January? New Maple Grove shop brings ‘dirty soda’ craze to Minnesota

On the popular Hulu show “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives,” one character refers to the cast’s beverage of choice as “Mormon crack.” The drink? Dirty soda.

It’s a trend that’s taken root out West, in and around Mormon communities, particularly in Utah.

Chad Taylor, who grew up just outside of Salt Lake City but has lived in Minnesota for decades, noticed its growing popularity there in the past 10 years or so, on return trips to visit family. On each trip, he would spot more soda shops that basically spiked fountain beverages with syrups, fruit and cream. One thing they all had in common: lines out the door.

“We tried them and people love these, and everybody’s so happy about it,” said Taylor. “And we kept saying, somebody will do that here, right? Finally one day, we thought, well, we can do that.”

Taylor and his wife launched a food truck last April, thinking it would be a couple of years before their plans took them to a brick-and-mortar space. They were wrong.

“We severely underestimated how quickly people would gravitate to it,” he said.

Since opening in Maple Grove in December, Sota — possibly Minnesota’s first “dirty soda” shop — is now among the shops having lines out the door.

“It’s a simple indulgence, and I think all of us in our lives right now need small moments of wins,” said Taylor, who has a background in marketing and branding.

Still, the response has come as a surprise.

Dirty soda became trendy in Mormon communities, where many would-be customers abstain from alcohol and coffee.

But “Minnesota is really good at coffee and we’re good at alcohol,” Taylor said. “So there was a big question of is this just popular out there,” in Utah. “And I think the answer is now No. People like treats, no matter where you live.”

And though it might sound like a new trend, there’s something old-fashioned at the core of dirty soda.

“I’m in that weird generation where I’m old enough to remember actually seeing a soda fountain in my small hometown,” Taylor said. “We did a Cherry Coke flavor last week, and I don’t know if people loved it, but there were definitely some people that it was nostalgic for.”

At the bare-bones shop, mostly undecorated save for a turquoise-painted wall, customers choose from a menu of sundae-like soda cocktails, with Coke and Pepsi products or sparkling water as the base, and Torani syrups for mix-ins. All the drinks are named after ‘90s songs, and the most popular concoction, said Taylor, is the Stacy’s Mom: Dr Pepper, cherry and vanilla syrups, and cream.

The drinks come in foam cups that start at 24 ounces and go up to 44 ounces (“the size of a small child,” Taylor said), and run just $3 to $5.

“It’s not lost on us that you could go to the gas station and get a big soda fountain drink for a couple bucks,” Taylor said. “We’re hanging out somewhere in the middle.”

With the demand, Taylor expects he’ll open two more Sota locations in other Twin Cities suburbs this year, “and then just keep expanding, as long as people say they love it.”

Sota, 13630 Grove Dr., Maple Grove, sotashopmn.com. Open Mon.-Fri. 2-8 p.m. and Sat. 11 a.m.-8 p.m. Closed Sun.