Dirty Sodas

“Dirty Sodas” refer to traditional carbonated soft drinks that are customized on-premise with flavored syrups, creams, fruit purees, and other mix-ins.

Economic Impact

In restaurant and bar settings, dirty sodas serve as a powerful proof of concept for the extreme markup potential of customized, experiential non-alcoholic beverages. While a healthy aggregate COGS for a food and beverage operation ranges between 28% and 35%, dirty sodas can achieve markups of 500% to 800%.

This drives profit margins that are 25 to 45 percentage points higher than standard beverage pours. The success of dirty sodas validates consumer willingness to pay alcohol-level premium prices for customized, non-alcoholic experiences, directly supporting the high-margin pricing strategies of adult-soft-drinks and functional-premiumization.