Dirty sodas: Mormon secret now packing shops in Kelowna and Kamloops

A lot of people found out about dirty sodas from Mormons on reality TV, but Kelowna’s Kaitlyn Ambrozik already had her pop shop on the go.

Ambrozik, 26, is the owner of the dirty soda shop Sweet Streams in Kelowna. She said the business started out as a trailer in 2024 operating in the summer, but she was flooded with calls from people craving a dirty soda in the off-season so she opened a brick and mortar location.

“I’d get multiple DMs every single day, ’where can I get a dirty soda?’” Ambrozik said. “So it came to the point where we decided on brick and mortar all year round.”

What makes the soda dirty is extra flavouring with syrups or candy, and adding some kind of cream.

“You add your syrups, your creamers, cloud foam. Then we have other add-ins, too, you can add candies. You can do marshmallow fluff around the cup. You could do caramel drizzle, chocolate drizzle. You name it,” she said.

The calorie count in a dirty soda can range from a few hundred to more than 1,000, depending on what you add.

Dirty soda started out as a trend in the Mormon community in Utah. Mormonism explicitly prohibits drinking alcohol and strongly discourages drinking caffeine, so dirty sodas became a popular alternative starting around 2010.

The world became more aware of the drink in the past few years because of the show Secret Lives of Mormon Wives as well as dirty sodas popping up on TikTok.

Nicole Barker opened Kamloops’ dirty soda shop Thirst Trap with her sister Tamara in June 2025 after seeing the show.

“Unfortunately, I have no life, so I watch Secret Lives of Mormon Wives often. I started watching it and I kept seeing all these drinks pop up. I started drinking them at home and we were like, these are way too good. We need to share them with Caleb. Thirst Trap was born one night over a family dinner,” Barker said.

Thirst Trap only sells them in a 24 oz, but Sweet Streams goes up to 32 oz. Either way that’s still smaller than the 44 oz option seen on Secret Lives of Mormon Wives.

The average lifecycle for an internet trend is brief, and TikTok has left a trail of forgotten Labubus and matcha infusions. But, Barker and Ambrozik said dirty sodas look like they’re going to stick around.

“It’s a really great option for the sober community as well as everyone else. So it’s something that’s different. It’s not as heavy as a milkshake, but still gets you that treat,” she said.

Ambrozik said that there are so many sugar-free options for pop and syrups and she actually gets a lot of customers looking for a sugarless treat.

“Families will bring their kids in who have diabetes. . . So they can get a Diet Pepsi with sugar-free coconut, sugar-free lime. And they can have a sweet treat, as well, where they can’t go and have an ice cream,” she said.