Make game day even more fun with a DIY dirty soda station complete with homemade coconut simple syrup and berry lime syrup!
I come from a long line of Diet Coke® guzzling folk. Pretty much every memory from my childhood involves my relatives hunched around a Scrabble board or bridge game cracking open can after can of the glorious stuff. If I loitered long enough, I could even pilfer a few sips.
Even now as an adult drinking a tall glass of Diet Coke feels like a minor luxury, even more so when I add one of my favorite flavored syrups to the glass!
Because dirtying up Diet Coke is the only way you can top the pure delight of drinking a plain one fresh from the fountain.
With fall on the horizon Warren is dreaming about football watching parties, which has me dreaming of game time food. Naturally.
(Let’s be real: I’m just there for the food [as the Stuffed Pretzel Dogs of yore proved]–and in this case, the drink!)
If you aren’t familiar with the magic that is dirty soda, it’s simple–it’s just soda with flavored syrups and other add ins mixed in. Dirtying it up, get it?
And the most classic of dirty soda is, of course, Dirty Diet Coke, which involves coconut syrup and a squeeze of fresh lime all served on the rocks. It is one of my life’s simplest and purest pleasures and I could not be more excited when I learned how easy it is to replicate this at home. You basically boil sugar with water and stir in cream of coconut and coconut extract to amp up the coconut flavor. It took me all of five minutes!
We hit up the Family Dollar around the corner from our house (AKA, My Happy Place) and raided the Diet Coke aisle (and, okay, I may have also tossed in a few bags of Wise snacks potato chips because, hello, what goes better with ice cold Diet Coke than chips? It is the perfect match, forever and ever amen).
I could basically dive right into this glass as is, squeaky clean, but where’s the fun in that?
So I had to dirty this one up, thus witness the beauty of coconut simple syrup and freshly squeezed lime:
Since I know that not everyone is a die hard Diet Coke fan such as myself, I wanted to share my second favorite dirty soda: Berry Lime Sprite!
You will be hard pressed to find someone who can dislike this drink.
Mostly because it involves fresh strawberries and raspberries blended with limeade. Can’t go wrong, right?
Add that fruity goodness to the bottom of your glass, comme ça:
Then go ahead and pour Sprite right on in to create the prettiest pink foam you ever did see.
The best thing about dirty soda is the infinite flavor combinations–you’re pretty much guaranteed to find a flavor that will work for anyone at your tailgating party. Plus, you can make the syrups in advance, put them in one of those glass olive oil dispensers, and pack them in the cooler so everyone can make their own signature drinks!
My other favorite way to drink Dirty Diet Coke is with vanilla simple syrup, which is basically identical to coconut simple syrup, only you stir in vanilla extract after boiling the sugar water (and omit the cream of coconut). It is perfection!
Put out a few bags of potato chips and you will have the happiest football/just-in-it-for-the-food (no judging) fans in the world!
What flavor combination would you want to use for dirty soda? I’m thinking my next one will be Fanta Strawberry with coconut syrup and pureed blueberries!
P.S. If you want to make these bad boys at home, you can SAVE $1 when you buy (1) 12-pack of any Coca-Cola® product plus (1) Wise snack 3oz or larger at Family Dollar today–just look for the one-stop Coca-Cola and Wise snacks display!
Homemade Dirty Diet Coke And Berry Lime Sprite
Ingredients
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 cup water
- ⅓ cups cream of coconut
- 2 teaspoons coconut extract
- 1 can frozen limeade concentrate
- ½ cup sugar
- 6 oz. fresh (or frozen) raspberries
- 10 oz. fresh (or frozen) strawberries
- Ice Cubes
- Diet Coke
- Sprite
- Lime wedges
Instructions
- To make the Coconut Simple Syrup, boil water and sugar in a medium pot until sugar has dissolved, stirring every so often. Remove pot from heat and stir in cream of coconut and coconut extract. Pour into a squeeze bottle or small pitcher and refrigerate until cool.
- *Variation: To make Vanilla Simple Syrup, follow the above directions but omit cream of coconut and stir in 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract.
- To make the Berry Lime Syrup, put all ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth. Refrigerate until ready to use.
- To make a Dirty Diet Coke, fill a glass cup halfway with ice. Pour 1-2 tablespoons Coconut Simple Syrup over the ice, fill glass with Diet Coke, and squeeze a lime wedge in. Stir and top with spent lime.
- To make Berry Lime Sprite, follow the above directions but use 3-4 tablespoons Berry Lime Syrup with Sprite.
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