Imagine your 12-year-old self left to your own devices at the convenience store soda fountain.
You grab the biggest cup they have, add a smidge of ice — you don’t want to water down your creation — and let the games begin.
A little Coke. Some Pepsi. Mtn Dew sounds good. Oh, yes, we see you grape soda. And orange. Add a splash of Sprite and top it off with Dr Pepper!
Perfect.
But even though you put on a brave face to your disapproving mom/dad as you taste your concoction, you know: It’s undrinkable.
So now imagine a shop devoted to taking your crazy concoctions and making them into drinkable masterpieces, like Dr Pepper with a raspberry puree, coconut and half and half, or Mtn Dew combined with tart grapefruit and sweet passionfruit.
That’s what the crew at Sodalicious, which opened its first Tucson area store in Marana on Saturday, July 29, do day in and day out.
Amanda Harbison brought her three granddaughters into the newly opened Sodalicious in Marana on Monday, July 31, to sample the frosted in-house baked cookies that are almost as popular as the soda concoctions.
Tori Campbell, who manages the store in the former Smoothie King drive-thru space at 9170 N. Silverbell Road, said the flavor combinations are mostly drawn from the company’s longstanding menu of what TikTok users call “dirty sodas.” Stores also can submit ideas for combinations that are generated by staff members or their customers and, if approved by the executive team in Utah, those creations could make their way onto a rotating list of specialty drinks.
Among the most popular drinks, Campbell said, is the AK Special — Dr Pepper combined with coconut and vanilla. Pair that with the house special pink-frosted sugar cookies for the ultimate midday sugar jolt.
In addition to the sugar cookies, Sodalicious also serves oatmeal, chocolate chip and snickerdoodle cookies.
Sodalicious mixologist Jaylee East frosts fresh-baked cookies that are a fan favorite with customers.
But the drinks with inventive names like 2nd Wife (Mtn Dew with blood oranges and mango), I Love Lucy (Pepsi or Coke with cranberry and raspberry), What She’s Having (7Up, blood orange, cherry, strawberry and watermelon) and Civil Marriage (lemonade with blue curacao and peach) are Sodalicious’s calling card.
Many of the longstanding drinks originated from founder Annie Auernig, who made soda-based drinks for her coworkers and soon realized she might be onto something.
She and her husband, Kevin, launched Sodalicious in 2013 with their first store in their hometown of Provo, Utah. With the Tucson-area store, located off Twin Peaks Road in the Continental Ranch community, they now have 26 locations, including six in Arizona, and all of them are company-owned, according to published reports.
Sodalicious opened in Marana on July 29, the Utah-based company's first store in the Tucson area.
Sodalicious corporate officials could not be reached for comment.
The Tucson store is the second in Southern Arizona; a store in Safford opened in early 2017.
Sodalicious is one of two Utah-born-and-based soda chains that have gone national. Swig, which opened its first location in St. George, Utah, in 2010, has 46 locations in six states, including five in Arizona.
