Business
From PepsiCo to Taco Bell, dirty soda is taking over
Utah-based drink chain Swig coined “dirty soda” back in 2010. Fifteen years later, the trend is fueling innovation everywhere from PepsiCo to McDonald’s, infusing the sluggish beverage category with new life.
“Dirty soda” drinks use pop as a base, followed by flavored syrups, cream or other ingredients. While Swig claims credit — and the trademark — for dirty soda, TikTok videos and the reality TV show “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives” have helped the trend spread far and wide, outpacing even the soda chain’s speedy expansion.
Now, consumers can find it nearly everywhere, from grocery store aisles to fast-food chains.
In a few weeks, Pepsi plans to unveil two ready-to-drink dirty soda-inspired beverages at the National Association of Convenience Stores trade show in Chicago. The new drinks, the Dirty Dew and the Mug Floats Vanilla Howler, follow on the heels of the Pepsi Wild Cherry & Cream flavor, which hit shelves earlier this year.
“I think it’s a great opportunity for people like us, like PepsiCo, and for consumers to experience soda in a new way — and in some ways, an old way,” Pepsi Beverages North America Chief Marketing Officer Mark Kirkham told CNBC, comparing the rise of dirty soda to root beer floats and the soda shops of yore.
PepsiCo’s lineup of dirty soda-inspired drinks includes Pepsi Wild Cherry & Cream, Dirty Mountain Dew and Mug Floats Vanilla Howler.
Source: PepsiCo
Dirty soda has also drawn new interest beyond beverage players. According to Datassential, 2.7% of U.S. eateries offer a carbonated soft drink that includes cream or milk, up from 1.5% a decade ago.
Newcomers to the trend include TGI Fridays, which launched dirty soda as a limited-time menu item this summer that could be spiked with alcohol. McDonald’s is testing flavored sodas, like a “Sprite Lunar Splash,” at more than 500 locations after winding down its drinks-focused spinoff CosMc’s in June. Yum Brands’ Taco Bell has also been offering limited-time menu items, like a dirty Mountain Dew Baja Blast.
Swig sets a trend
These days, Swig has grown to more than 140 locations across 16 states. So far this year, its same-store sales have risen 8.2%, according to the privately held company. The Larry H. Miller Company, an investment firm founded by the former Utah Jazz owner, bought a majority stake in Swig in 2022 for an undisclosed sum.
“I think we’re doing for soda what Starbucks did for coffee,” Swig CEO Alex Dunn said.
As Swig has grown, so have the number of chains looking to emulate its success. Rival soda shops like Sodalicious, Fiiz and Cool Sips are also benefiting from the trend. Coffee shops, like Dutch Bros., have also added it to their menus. And now fast-food chains are hopping on the bandwagon.
“It validates that this is a category, and McDonald’s and Taco Bell wouldn’t be getting into it if it wasn’t something that had broad appeal that they could sell everywhere, in thousands of locations,” Dunn said. “It’s kind of flattering that we created a category that now everybody is copying.”
For restaurants, adding dirty soda to the menu is easier than it might sound.
“It’s a custom drink offering that, one, allows the brands to leverage something that they already have right there: their soda machine,” said Erica Holland-Toll, culinary director at The Culinary Edge, which advises restaurants on food and beverage innovation. “Two, it incorporates either a one-touch ingredient, or if they’re already open for breakfast, it’s quite likely that they’ve got a creamer in house.”
On the other hand, offering customizable coffee drinks is usually much more difficult — which has contributed to the struggles at Starbucks.
“The espresso world — that’s so much more complicated,” Holland-Toll said.
Dirty soda also has wide appeal. With less caffeine than coffee, consumers can drink it all day long. Plus, it’s “much more accessible” than some coffee house trends, like an espresso tonic, according to Holland-Toll. The bright colors of many dirty sodas also make them more attractive to consumers, who were likely introduced to the trend via a TikTok video.
But perhaps above all, dirty soda can help restaurants draw in customers who are otherwise feeling thrifty.
“It’s an affordable fun treat. You’re not going out and spending $30 or $50, right?” said Sally Lyons Watt, chief advisor of consumer goods and foodservice insights for Circana. “It’s something that people can walk away saying, ‘Wow, that was yummy’ or ‘I feel better because I just had that.'”
A pop for beverage companies
Swig drinks.
Courtesy: Swig
A “fun treat” for consumers is adding up for beverage companies, helping reverse the decades-long trend of declining soda consumption in the U.S.
As health concerns mount and the array of beverage options expands, Americans have been drinking less soda for roughly two decades. In 2004, soda consumption peaked at 15.3 billion gallons, according to Beverage Marketing; by 2024, that figure had slid to 11.87 billion gallons. But consumption of carbonated soft drinks has been ticking up in the last two years, with 2025 estimated to reach 11.88 billion gallons. The rise of dirty soda, plus the growing popularity of prebiotic sodas, has likely helped the segment halt its downward trajectory.
Over the years, iced coffee has been stealing what the beverage industry calls “share of throat” from soda. With dirty soda, consumers can marry their love of customizing a cold drink with the lower caffeine content and taste of soda.
“The carbonation makes it feel lighter in your mouth than coffee, for example,” Holland-Toll said.
Dirty soda has also been attracting younger consumers who previously didn’t drink much Pepsi or Dr Pepper. Swig’s core customer base is young women between the ages of 18 and 35, according to Dunn.
That’s true for Holly Galvin, a 31-year-old human resources professional based in Davenport, Iowa. She told CNBC that she rarely drank soda — until she saw dirty soda take the spotlight in the “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives” last year. Now she makes her own dirty soda once or twice a week at home. With the onset of autumn, her go-to recipe these days uses Diet Dr Pepper as a base, with pumpkin spice creamer and a sprinkle of pumpkin pie spice on top.
Broadly, younger consumers are more inclined to seek out new drinks compared with older cohorts. Nearly three-quarters of Generation Z try a new beverage every month on average, according to Keurig Dr Pepper’s 2025 trend report.
Beverage companies say that they are seeing a broader halo effect for soda as a result of the trend.
“For us, it serves as a recruitment tool, bringing new users into the trademark,” said Katie Webb, vice president of innovation and transformation for Keurig Dr Pepper. “It really draws them all the way back to the base brand, which ends up being extremely impact for us long after.”
And just as craft cocktail culture led to the rise of canned cocktails, the popularity of dirty soda is leading beverage giants to cash in with ready-to-drink versions that capitalize on the trend. Dr Pepper Creamy Coconut was the company’s most successful limited-time carbonated soft drink to date, based on retail dollar sales, according to Webb. And Kirkham said Pepsi Wild Cherry & Cream has been one of the fastest-growing flavor segments for the company.
“Some trends start retail and move over to foodservice,” Circana’s Lyons Wyatt said. “This one was a foodservice trend moving into retail.”
With Pepsi Wild Cherry & Cream and next year’s launch of Dirty Dew and the Mug Floats Vanilla Howler, Kirkham expects that consumers will become even more creative with their concoctions.
“I think it’s actually giving [consumers] the chance to experiment even more and customize more,” he said. “Now you have a brand new base.”
Business
Without Rera data, real estate reform risks losing credibility: Homebuyers’ body – The Times of India
New Delhi: More than 75% of state real estate regulators, Reras, have either never published annual reports, discontinued their publication or not updated them despite statutory obligation and directions from the housing and urban affairs ministry, claimed homebuyers’ body FPCE on Friday. It released status report of 21 Reras as of Feb 13.The availability of updated annual reports is crucial as these contain details of data on performance of Reras, including project completion status categorised by timely completion, completion with extensions, and incomplete projects. The ministry’s format for publishing these reports also specifies providing details such as actual execution status of refund, possession and compensation orders as well as recovery warrant execution details with values and list of defaulting builders.FPCE said annual report data is not only vital for homebuyers to assess system credibility, but is equally necessary for both state and central govts to frame effective policies, design incentivisation schemes, and develop tax policy frameworks.“Unless we have credible data proving that after Rera the real estate sector has improved in terms of delivery, fairness, and keeping its promises, we are merely firing in the air,” said FPCE president Abhay Upadhyay, who is also a member of the govt’s Central Advisory Council on Rera.As per details shared by the entity, seven states — Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh and Goa — have never published a single annual report since Rera’s implementation, and nine states, including Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Telangana, which initially published reports, have discontinued the practice.Upadhyay said when regulators themselves don’t follow the law, they lose the legal right to demand compliance from other stakeholders. “Their failure emboldens builders and weakens the very system they are meant to safeguard,” he said.
Business
Infosys Rolls Out 85% Average Performance Bonus In Q3FY26, Best In Over 3 Years
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Over recent quarters, payouts had gradually improved from roughly 65 percent to 80 percent and now to an average of about 85 percent in Q3FY26.

Infosys logo is seen.
IT major Infosys rolled out performance bonus payouts averaging around 85 percent for the quarter ended December 31, 2025 (Q3FY26), marking the strongest variable pay outcome for eligible employees in at least the past three-and-a-half years, Moneycontrol reported citing people in the know.
The bonus payout for mid- to junior-level employees ranges between 75 percent and 100 percent, with most employees clustering around the organisation-wide average of 85 percent, the report said. The development signals a steady recovery in variable compensation at the Bengaluru-headquartered IT services firm. Over recent quarters, payouts had gradually improved from roughly 65 percent to 80 percent and now to an average of about 85 percent in Q3FY26.
Employees are expected to receive their bonus letters over the next few days, with the payout scheduled to be credited along with their February salary.
One employee told the outlet that it is the strongest bonus outcome seen in recent years. The payout is also among the rare instances since the Covid-19 period when variable pay has approached the upper end of the eligible range.
Infosys last paid out 100 percent variable compensation during the pandemic. In the quarters that followed, payouts were lower amid macroeconomic uncertainty and a broader slowdown in client spending across global markets.
The higher payout comes at a time when global IT stocks have faced renewed pressure, driven by concerns over rapid advances in artificial intelligence and their potential impact on traditional IT services models.
Shares of global IT firms have seen sharp sell-offs in recent weeks amid heightened investor focus on AI leaders such as Anthropic. Investors fear that generative AI tools could compress pricing, automate routine services work and reduce demand for legacy outsourcing models.
Against that backdrop, the improved bonus payout at Infosys is being viewed as a signal of operational resilience and near-term performance strength, even as sentiment around the broader IT sector remains cautious.
February 13, 2026, 21:44 IST
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