When Clermont resident Chase Herbert and his wife Jenny moved from Utah to Florida five years ago, they quickly began to miss the sweet treat of choice from the house: Dirty Soda.
The formula – soda, which is infused with crushed pebbles ice with cream, syrup and other flavors – was created and popularized by Nicole Tanner, founder and CEO of Swig, the first dirty soda provider in Utah.
Born in 2010 from a small shed in St. George, Utah, Tanner’s idea has been driven by his unusual popularity with members of the Latter-day Saints’ Church of Jesus Christ, and is now rooted in Florida.
“We not only missed Swig and our dirty soda in Florida, but we’ve always talked about how great Swig does in Central Florida and the East Coast,” he said. “We had the opportunity to partner with former Utah Jazz owner Larry H. Miller Group to develop a franchise. In 2023, the wind blows and become a Franchise partner in Florida, and the rest is history.”
Herbert is now the franchise owner of Florida’s first SWIG location, and opened last November at Clermont’s Crossridge Exchange Shopping Center along Highway 27 in the US. Nationwide, SWIG boasts more than 100 locations and is expanding in Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina.
Due to territorial rights to stores from Clermont to St. Cloud, Herbert is already planning to open two SWIG locations.
Herbert said he signed a storefront lease at Hamlin Town Centre in Winter Garden and a lease at another store in front of Publix, Golden Eagle Village Shopping Centre in Clermont, 12 miles south of the original Crossridge replacement site.
Each new location will have more space for the drive-thru lane. This states that Herbert recognizes the importance of the first store after opening.
Swig gained popularity on the national stage in 2024, introducing the world to the concept of dirty soda thanks to Tiktok and Utah-based reality television show The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives.
Dirty Soda Shop appealed to large state membership from the start, within the Church of Jesus Christ in the Latter-day Saint community. Latter-day Saints have personal codes that indicate that individuals who are members of the church are prohibited from drinking “hot drinks,” or tea other than coffee or herbal tea.
“We don’t drink alcohol or take drugs, so soda is like our evil,” Secret Live of Demi Engeman, a cast member of Mormon’s wife, told the show. Another cast member has firmly called dirty soda a “crack of Mormon.”
For those who have not experienced it, Swig soda often comes from Sprite, Mountain Dew, Dr. Starting with popular brands like Pepper, they take off from there. Shark attacks combine sprite, lemonade, blue raspberry syrup and gummy shark. Texas tab is a blend of Dr. Pepper, vanilla syrup and coconut cream.
“It’s really a big online,” said Chloe Stoke, a student at the University of Valencia, when she first visited SWIG on Monday. “I work for Dutch Brothers Coffee, and it’s similar. I’m subtracting the coffee here.”
The stork said he was excited to hear about the planned Swig at Winter Garden and brought the chain closer to his Winter Park home. A shorter trip may mean more Swig visits in the future, Stork said.
“I really like it,” she said. “If I’d come back often enough if I were here, I’d certainly come back.”
Many Florida customers have probably heard of Swig online, but South Carolina resident Kira Francis said he’s been looking for a Crossridge Exchange location and has known about Swig for many years.
Visiting the area with her family during her holiday, Francis said she knew she had to swing in Swig when she found out she was near the Clermont location on a trip to visit her family.
“We’re from Utah, so we know that, but I think there are more and more people starting to recognize it from influencers, social media or reality television,” she admitted.
Francis was surprised when dirty soda became so popular last year or so. Because she felt that it was a tendency to only get steam in Utah, which exists as part of the state’s culture.
“It felt like a Mormon-specific Utah,” she said. “Then I realized that everyone loves soda, maybe everyone needs caffeine, maybe everyone wants really dirty soda.”
According to Herbert, new stores in Central Florida do not have a direct timeline, as each has gone through their own county permitting process.
“They both sit there to the point where they have permission, so it’s about who’s going to be faster between Orange and Lake counties,” he said. “They are on the same timeline as they are now.”
The current focus is to get planned stores up and running, but Herbert said there are no plans to stop the expansion anytime soon.
“We see a lot of good places. There’s nothing yet other than the three we signed,” he said. “We are excited to continue growing at Swig and Dot Central Florida over the next four or five years.”
Any tips on developing Central Florida? Please contact jwilkins@orlandosentinel.com or contact us at 407-754-4980. Follow GrowthSpotter on Facebook and LinkedIn.
