Dirty Soda

Kia ora whānau. Got a fizzy drink in the fridge and a bottle of Jerk Soda in your hand? Then you're most of the way to a dirty soda already. What's left is the glass, and the order things go into it. Start at the bottom and work up.

Dirty soda, in three layers

Dirty soda is the name for a soda with cream on top. It has three layers. Ice goes into a tall glass first. The fizzy drink goes in next, with the drop. The cream goes on last.

Take a Cherry Cola Dirty Soda. That is cola, a Cherry drop and cream on top. Swap the cola for ginger beer and the Cherry for Cookie, and you have a Gingernut Dirty Soda. The layers stay the same. Only the glass changes.

Side-on illustration of a tall glass in cross-section: ice at the bottom, dark cola above it and a layer of cream on top

How many drops, and where they go

The label gives one direction for drinks: 1 drop per 150 ml. Work it out from the size of your drink. A 300 ml drink takes 2 drops and a 450 ml drink takes 3. Stick to that count.

The drops go into the drink. The bottle says do not consume undiluted. The bottle lists Propylene Glycol and Flavours, and it says for food use only.

Making the top

Think of the top as a lid. It goes on last, and it sits on the drink rather than mixing into it. Cream or foam, make it just before you pour. The cream and the foam stay plain, with no drop in them, because the flavour is the drop already in your glass.

Whisked cream

Tip cold cream, at least 35% fat, into a bowl.
Whisk until it only just keeps its shape, then stop. Whisk past that and it turns grainy.
Spoon it onto the drink.

Shaken cream

Put cold cream, at least 35% fat, and a few ice cubes into a jar. Seal the lid.
Shake hard until the cream has thickened.
Strain it and pour it onto the drink at once.

Cold foam

Pour cold trim milk or light milk into a jug or jar.
Use a coffee plunger, a hand frother or a jar shaken hard. Stop when the foam is glossy, with small bubbles, and still pours.
Pour it gently over an upturned spoon, and it sits on the drink as a layer of its own.

A whisk, a jar or a frother is all it takes, so use whichever is already in your kitchen.

Allergen note. A top made with cream or milk contains milk. The drops' ingredients are printed on the bottle.

A short look back at the counter

Building a drink to order is an old idea. At a fountain counter, the soda jerk made each drink on the spot from syrups, fizzy water and ice cream. Jerking was how he worked the fountain handle, a pull one way and then the other, with a bit of a show for the customer.

The ice cream soda is usually credited to Robert M. Green, who sold one in Philadelphia in 1874. Other people have claimed it too. One story says Green ran out of cream and used ice cream instead. His own 1910 account says he wanted to compete with a rival's more elaborate fountain.

Fountains launched soft drinks as well. Three famous ones began there between 1885 and 1893, and one of them was first bottled in 1894. In the United States the jerk's trade peaked from the 1910s to the 1940s and was still common in the late 1950s. Then vending machines, bottles and cans ended it.

A glass of fizz with a drop in it and cream on top puts that old job back in your own hands. The jerk reached for a syrup. You reach for a drop.

Which drop for which glass

All seven drops are below. Each name is a link to that drop's page, and each drink is built the way it is written: the base, the drop, then the top if there is one.

Cake: Lemon Cake Soda, which is lemonade and a Cake drop.
Caramel: Ginger Crunch Soda, which is ginger beer and a Caramel drop.
Cherry: Cherry Cola Dirty Soda, which is cola and a Cherry drop with cream on top. Cherry Cola, which is cola and a Cherry drop. Cherry Lemonade, which is lemonade and a Cherry drop with nothing on top.
Cookie: Gingernut Dirty Soda, which is ginger beer and a Cookie drop with cream on top.
Cream: Orange Cream Cloud, which is orange soda and a Cream drop with foam on top. Sarsaparilla Cream Float, which is sarsaparilla and a Cream drop with cream on top. Vanilla Cream Latte, which is a latte and a Cream drop with cream on top.
Custard: Custard Iced Latte, which is an iced latte and a Custard drop.
Hazelnut: Hazelnut Long Black, which is a long black and a Hazelnut drop.

That is the lot. Pick the drink first, then the drop, and count the drops by the size of the glass. Each name above takes you to its bottle, and the flavour drops collection has all seven together.

Arohanui, Auntie Puha