"What if we took soda, made it even less healthy, served it in styrofoam cups, and added a massive carbon footprint to the whole thing?"
Also, that picture in the article of the drive-through with like 7 identical looking cars...
“Hey, you wanna grab a dirty pop and head back to my place to soak?”
Utahns are the most childish people on earth. It’s a state full of adults who treat themselves and others like babies. All of these soda guzzlers are in a permanent state of arrested development
I think it's the combination of that evangelical "send your 19 year old boys on 2 year missions to Paraguay" kind of commitment with the american corporate aesthetic. Like when you look at the kind of people who make it to the top of the mormon ladder, their all like lawyers and real estate guys and that kind of thing. So that's what's "cool." Like ,if you've ever talked to mormons, or especially their missionaries, the combination of "we're here to teach you about the one church that gives you any chance of happiness or fulfilment in this life or the next" with pressure tactics that were obviously lifted from the sales practices of the 50s is just a hell of a ride.
They have really good carbonated-water drinks, and because carbonated water itself is disgusting they mix it with fresh fruits and sugar-free syrups and stuff
I bet she brushes with kids' toothpaste
Mormons are pretty insular and don’t like dealing with the world outside of their community. This leads them to retreat from mainstream culture into their own spaces, like this soda business. It’s basically a replacement for cafés and bars since Mormons don’t drink coffee or alcohol, and are uncomfortable around those who do.
The best example I can think of is CleanFlicks, which was a business that censored movies for Mormons (they don’t watch R-rated movies). I think there are still iterations of this business that still exist in Utah.
Other things that I consider childish that are wildly popular in Utah are an obsession with Disney and Harry Potter, children’s games for adults (lots of 20-somethings still play tag and do scavenger hunts and shit as part of church activities), and expecting adults to act like obedient children to parental church authorities.
I grew up in Utah so I see most of them as kids raising kids, but I’m probably more sensitive to it than most people tbh
They believe that the founding fathers were divinely inspired by god to make the US, they blindly obey authority figures, and lots of them speak foreign languages to some degree. It’s kind of a perfect storm to create the ultimate American do-gooder.
Americans still drink an annual average of 37 gallons of soda per person
That seems like an insane amount but if it includes shit like energy drinks and sparkling water I can see it.
In America, I've never met someone who drinks an occasional soda. Either they drink water, or they drink soda instead of water.
I drink an occasional caffeinated soda at work. I don't prefer it, but it's better than dealing with IBS issues from coffee.
I drink water and coffee every day, but I like a ginger ale now and again. Maybe twice a week.
If you don't include energy drinks I probably only drink a soda every two or three months. I do have a friend who when he stays over I have to buy a bunch of soda cause he wont drink water, always thought he was the weird one though.
My gf was the same, but thats because she grew up on water from lake erie. The tap water where we live now is much better.
i worked with this lady in a rural community. she was like maybe in her 50s and very kind, but she drank coke like a maniac. like just all day. she said she knew she should drink more water, but didn't like the "taste". it should be noted, much of the drinking water in the region had been contaminated by industry since before she was born, and it had also worked to suppress any government messaging / response about it, so there was just a vague cultural distrust of water by older people. also bottled water was generally more expensive than a soda from the store, and this community was plagued by extreme poverty (if you couldn't guess).
i, by contrast, grew up in the burbs and drank lots of soda because it was all over school, and at the shitty jobs i worked until my mid 20s, basically the only consistent perk was unlimited soda. i quit in my late 20s when i started hanging around people who made healthier choices and started accepting how fucked up it was, nutrition and health wise.
The second I started drinking beer, it became either beer or water when I went out. At home it's beet or water too.
Add in the occasional tea and lemonade, and this is basically me.
that’s psycho shit
It's just a habit that's easy to fall into, and while sodas don't contain anything that's chemically addictive, sweet drinks spike your dopamine in such a way that they can become addictive anyway.
I hear you, not drinking water is like... have you ever sweat before? The best drink ever is cold water when you're thirsty, because your brain is hard wired to give you the good chemicals for drinking it.
But still, I brought this up in another comment but I think 37 gallons in a year isn't nearly as much as it sounds. People need about 3.7 L of water per day (a gallon is about 4L), so the back-of-the-envelope amount of soda that the average person drinks is 10% of their fluid consumption. That's a 12 oz bottle of soda (one of these guys) per day.
I bet it's similar to that of alcohol, where a small number of addicts drink half the soda and drive the average well above the median, but I'm not aware of data on this.
I find bourbon is a great chaser for anything but rum, rum should be chased with more rum.
Daily water consumption is a little under a gallon, so 37 gallons per year doesn't seem like that much.
I bet it's like alcohol where the top 10% of drinkers drink 50% of the drinks, too.
"They have really good carbonated-water drinks, and because carbonated water itself is disgusting they mix it with fresh fruits and sugar-free syrups and stuff,"
Americans drink anything that isn't mixed with a week's worth of sugar challenge (IMPOSSIBLE!)
I mean, it could be made out of pure crude oil and it would still be better for you then suger tbh
If it was just carbonated muddled with some fresh peaches and strawberries... That might be good. But this is America of course that can't be it.
carbonated water itself is disgusting
What are these people talking about? A nice cold club soda is refreshing and doesn't have all the negative health implications of soda.
“I know that Mormons need to get their caffeine fix, and with coffee and tea being off the table, Dr Pepper can be the go-to staple,” he said.
just drink coffee/tea you caffeine addicted weirdos.
stupid loopholes, patch this shit already.
They literally imposed the rule so Mormons couldn't sit down for tea with non-Mormons. It's a social exclusion shibboleth. Same with alcohol, as far as I know.
and they need the extra liquid for soaking
too dry otherwise
Time to kickstart my new business selling 50/50 palm oil and corn syrup, we might as well just jump straight to the end game rather than slowly progressing there.
I predict that our product, which has achieved success mainly because of the strange behavior of our Mormon customer base, will do gangbusters when we expand rapidly to new non-Mormon markets
When diabetes isn’t coming for you fast enough
Edit: Lmao looking at the menu, these people are putting half and half in Dr. Pepper
Like what the fuck we really do live in two different countries
It's probably one of the least wack things about them Mormons
My favorite is the whole "black people weren't allowed to be members of the church until the 80's because they bear the Curse of Ham" thing
good mormons don't drink caffeine from any source, and they can drink hot cocoa
pop is so filling I can't imagine drinking it and also eating. It's a whole dessert
I invented this in a 7-11 while high a decade ago.
You get a big gulp cup and you pump in the coffee flavor syrups then pour in soda.
It’s also how those Coca Cola Freestyle machines work. Except with less syrup apparently cuz 1000 calories on some of these drinks is fucking insane.
They are also 44 oz sizes. Coke is I think 140 calories per 12 oz. So it’s already halfway there by default.
Oh your tase buds are burned out from pickling them in sugar by drinking exclusively soda? Worry not I'll simply add more sugar. That'll be 1000cal for a cup and $2
NYT is paywalling me and incognito mode isnt doing it either. The fuck is dirty soda? Just soda with gross shit like half and half in it?
Samantha Durfey was a high school sophomore in St. George, Utah, when the first Swig soda shop opened its doors there. Today, at 28, Ms. Durfey, visits the shop at least three times a week. She usually orders a Save Me Jade — Diet Dr Pepper with sugar-free vanilla and coconut flavor syrups — but every now and then she’ll change her order if she wants a break from caffeine.
“They have really good carbonated-water drinks, and because carbonated water itself is disgusting they mix it with fresh fruits and sugar-free syrups and stuff,” she said, “and it makes it taste really yummy.”
Since the first Swig opened in 2010, dozens of soda-shop chains and independent soda shacks have opened from Idaho to Utah to Arizona, an area of the Mountain West sometimes called the Mormon Corridor. A significant portion of the region’s population belongs to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and the church’s prohibition on tea and coffee has spurred a niche beverage market that has intensified in the last decade, hitting a fever pitch during the pandemic.
New soda shops are also increasingly opening in other parts of the country, including South Carolina, Florida, Texas and Oklahoma.
“Some people say, ‘Oh well, it’s just a Utah trend,’ and we kind of proved that wrong when we went to Oklahoma, and proved people like their soda everywhere,” said Nicole Tanner, who founded Swig with her husband, Todd. “It may sound so weird to some people who have never been, but it’s happiness in a cup. I’ve always known from the start that this is something that can and should go everywhere.”
The idea for Swig came out of Ms. Tanner’s family outings to Sonic, where “they had the good pebble ice, and the good foam cup,” she said.
Several of the major soda-shop chains in Utah — Swig, Sodalicious, Fiiz and others — are projecting aggressive growth in the next few years. Kevin Auernig, an owner of Sodalicious, said the 25-shop company will double its locations in the next three years. Fiiz started franchising five months after opening in 2014, and now has nearly 40 stores in Utah, Texas, Colorado, Idaho and Nevada, “with a bunch more in the hopper,” said the chain’s owner, Jason Anderson. There are 26 Twisted Sugar shops around the country, but by this time next year there could be nearly 100 franchises, said Tonia Jardine, an owner of the chain.
Swig, which employs about 700 people, plans to open 10 to 15 shops a year, and in two or three years, Ms. Tanner said she hopes there will be 200 or more shops across the United States.
The soda-shop chains pay special attention to the history of Starbucks — which decades ago expanded at a breakneck pace, from fewer than 20 stores in 1987 to more than 100 in 1992. Worldwide, there are more than 30,000 Starbucks today. Many soda-shop owners believe their industry could be at least that successful.
“There is a great soda-drinking culture in the Mountain West region,” Mr. Auernig said, adding, “What Starbucks originally did for coffee was kind of our idea with soda.”
Soda consumption in the United States has been steadily declining over the last two decades, but Americans still drink an annual average of 37 gallons of soda per person, according to 2019 data from the Beverage Marketing Corporation.
Soda-shop offerings vary from store to store, but they always include brand-name soda or energy-drink bases, with add-ins, like flavored syrups, fruit purées and dairy products like creamer and half-and-half. At Fiiz — which opened in 2014 north of Salt Lake City in Bountiful, Utah — a menu of nearly 600 drinks, using 67 different syrups, gives customers vast drink options.
After Mitt Romney was photographed drinking a Diet Coke while running for president in 2012, the church posted a statement on its website clarifying its stance on caffeine, saying it “does not prohibit the use of caffeine.” The Word of Wisdom, the church’s health code, specifically bans hot caffeinated drinks, like coffee and tea.
Brant Ellsworth, an associate professor at Central Penn College in Summerdale, Pa., specializes in the history of the church. He said that its clarification about caffeine did not likely spur the popularity of soda shops in Utah. Dr. Ellsworth, who grew up in the church and went to Brigham Young University, said his mother “religiously drank Coke” and his father “religiously drank Diet Coke.”
“I know that Mormons need to get their caffeine fix, and with coffee and tea being off the table, Dr Pepper can be the go-to staple,” he said.
Dr. Ellsworth, who wrote a chapter in the 2020 book “This is the Plate: Utah Food Traditions,” said soda shops “really are tongue-in-cheek with the way they engage with L.D.S. culture, its history and some of its practices” — pointing to drink names like the Second Wife at Sodalicious and the Missionary at Swig.
Ms. Durfey said the church’s clarification on caffeine has given many mothers, in particular, the freedom to indulge. Women make up a large majority of soda-shop customers, especially mothers who grab a drink between dropping off and picking up children from school.
“Moms can’t function without caffeinated beverages,” said Ms. Durfey, a mother of two.
“We’re exhausted,” she said. “I don’t know a single mom who cannot go through the day without some form of caffeine. I think that has definitely aided in the popularity of soda shops, because L.D.S. women can’t have coffee, they can’t drink alcohol. So their vice of getting that relaxation, that energy, and that whole kind of ritual I guess you could say — I feel like soda is their only option.”
The shops have also become popular with high school and college students for dates and hangouts, acting as a bar or coffee-shop substitute for people who do not drink coffee or alcohol.
Judy Levin, who wrote the recent book “Soda and Fizzy Drinks: A Global History,” said the shops hark back to the temperance-era soda kiosks and fountains in Europe and North America, which “were absolutely set up as an alternative to the bar.”
“To the extent that I was willing to do predictions in the middle of Covid, I sort of felt the soda fountain might come back for various reasons, because of the social function that it once had,” Ms. Levin said.
While the pandemic halted or shuttered many restaurants and bars, soda shops were able to stay open and thrive during the first few months of the pandemic, largely because of their drive-through lanes.
“It became a nice little escape from being stuck at home all the time,” Ms. Durfey said.
As a nod to her hometown, Atlanta, Olivia Diaz, who is 27 and lives in Orem, Utah, likes to order Life’s a Peach — Dr Pepper with peach and vanilla syrup flavorings, and half-and-half to make it “extra dirty.” (The term “dirty” refers to the flavor add-ins, and its use in marketing was the basis of a 2015 trademark lawsuit, when Swig sued Sodalicious.)
Ms. Diaz started going to the soda shop once or twice a week after her sister began working at one. Now, she goes only a couple of times a month. “I just realized that probably drinking that much soda probably wasn’t the best for me,” she said.
Many of the dirty sodas, which come in sizes up to 44 ounces, can contain up to 1,000 calories.
Rebecca Fronberg, a program manager at the Utah Department of Health, said that “it’s not really great to drink our calories” and that sugar in the diet “is always a concern for diabetes, heart disease and all kinds of things.”
Despite that, many seek out soda as a pick-me-up, a small indulgence.
In Clinton, Utah, Nichole Richins, 42, lives within 10 minutes of 10 different soda shops. Her usual order is a Polar Punch from Swig, a blended energy drink with blackberry, raspberry, strawberry, ginger ale and vanilla cream. She visits the shop about once a week, “but if it’s a hard week, it will be more.”
“That’s my extra treat,” she said.
At 4 calories to the gram for sugar, a 1,000 kcal drink would have 250 g sugar. That's half a pound. New conspiracy theory: society is being run by hummingbirds in human suits.
Jesus Christ that’s a lot of sugar. Just mainlining fucking corn syrup.
“There is a great soda-drinking culture in the Mountain West region”
Theydies and gentlezirs, American culture :amerikkka-clap:
you can bypass the NYT's paywall by turning javascript off btw. this works for a decent number of news sites.
Oh awesome, thanks! I KNEW there was a trick to it, just couldn't remember what it was.
