By Adam Frisk
A new business venture in Haliburton Village is set to open this week and it’ll sure put a little pop in your step.
Dirty Soda Girls is eyeing the long weekend for its grand storefront opening on Highland Street , serving up wild and colourful, carbonated soft drinks. The female-owned bubbling beverage business first launched in southern Ontario and is operated by sisters Tracy Hawkins and Jodie McCarthy, their mother, and also their kids.
The so-called dirty soda has been around for more than a decade but has become more mainstream thanks, in part, to social media and reality television. Originating in Utah, the carbonated soft drink concoction was popular among those who abstain from alcohol and caffeine and within the large Mormon population within the U.S. state. Television show ‘The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives’ for a large part, helped thrust the popularity of the Utah mainstay into pop culture lore.
“A dirty soda came out of Utah and the Mormons, because the Mormon religion does not drink coffee or alcohol, so they created dirty sodas using pop and different kinds of creams and different kinds of syrups,” Hawkins told the Echo in a June 19 interview. “So, it’s pop-based, almost like a Starbucks but without the coffee.”
McCarthy said the beverage is more of an old-timey drink, “like something from those old soda shops back in the day, it’s closer to that.”
The sisters explained that the popularity of the drink has exploded outside the state of Utah, with franchises opening in cities like Las Vegas and New York. However, only a handful of shops exist in Canada, mainly in Vancouver and Calgary.
“We’re going to be crazy not to start something here,” McCarthy said, recalling a dinner conversation she had with her sister about the increasing popularity of dirty sodas.
So from there, their idea was born in the form of a small trailer, pop-up shop-like experience.
“We’ve been doing events for a little while now, in Niagara Falls, Newmarket and Guelph,” McCarthy said. “We’re up here most of the summer so we’ll have the trailer for concerts at Kennisis marina and other events.”
Then came the storefront, a project that has been in the works for more than three months. Wanting to make the Haliburton area a permanent home in the future, the sisters decided to jump in with a brick and mortar location.
“We both would like to retire up here in this area, full-time, so we are trying to ease on in, making that happen sooner rather than later,” McCarthy said.
“We like the small community, the small town vibes,” Hawkins said, adding that the community has been really welcoming, with people stopping by the store to say hi.
Dirty Soda Girls menu features a line-up of original recipes and drink options with beverage names that play homage to some good ol’ Canadian music. From the likes of ‘Life is a Highway,’ which features Coke, toasted marshmallow syrup, and cream, or ‘Patio Lanterns,’ made with Coke, pineapple and cherry syrup, to ‘You Oughta Know,’ a soda water, raspberry and pineapple concoction or ‘Call Me Maybe,’ a Sprite-based mix, the drink menu will never let your tastebuds go flat.
From print companies to syrup suppliers, the soda shop is also keeping it Canadian by sourcing products and ingredients from companies north of the border.
Aside from the original mixtures, what sets Dirty Soda Girls aside from others comes down to the ice served in their drinks.
“It’s all about the nugget ice,” McCarthy said, pointing at a newly-installed stainless steel machine. “I think this is what differentiates us from other people, not just our recipes, we invested in this nugget ice machine, because it’s crunchy, it keeps it cold… it’s not just ice cubes.”
As for the name Dirty Soda Girls itself, the sisters said it just sort of came naturally, a play on words on what they’re serving up, a female-owned business, it just sort of made sense to them.
So, if you’re out and about over the long weekend and looking for something sweet, cold and a little different, pop by Dirty Soda Girls and give a Bobcaygeon or a Call Me Maybe a try.
