I had read an article in the NY Times four years ago that forecast the upcoming "dirty soda" craze that had devoured Utah and was heading nationwide. Apparently Mormons are not allowed to drink green tea, black tea or coffee; so some entrepreneurial folks decided to offer an alternative answer to Starbucks and use high sugar soft drinks add cream, fruit juices and flavored syrups so the housewives of Provo and SLC could get their drive-thru beverage on and still be upstanding members of the church and be allowed eternal life.
This proud atheist thought it sounded really odd, but I was up for a challenge. I like carbonated beverages, I love milk and cream, and of course I like fruit juices and I always have some Torani syrups stocked at my home coffee bar, so I started experimenting, and over the past couple of years I have created some great drink combinations.
Flash forward to this weekend when I went to Swig for the first time with my free 24 oz beverage coupon.
The first thing that I noticed was the long line, it was over 10 cars deep, which normally I would never do, but since I had driven a few miles I got in line. After reading the fine print, I realized that I had to make a purchase to get a free drink so I decided on a cup of their birthday cookies. After about 10 minutes of moving forward a few spaces, a young lady approached my car with a tablet and took my order and informed me that they were out of BD cookies, so I settled for chocolate chip cookies. I then tried to pay but the card reader wouldn't work. Ten more minutes later, I finally made it to the window. I probably would have bailed out but there is no way to exit the line once you enter. At the window they tried to charge me full price even after presenting the coupon. After a 20+ minute wait, I was handed a cup of cookies and a "Life's a Peach" drink in a 24 oz. styrofoam cup. If I was rating this drink compared to all of the Dirty Sodas that I have created at home, this one would come in dead last.
With the ability to create better and cheaper drinks at home, I feel relieved that I won't ever have to endure a claustrophobic line for life eternal, to give money to an out of state chain that is helping to destroy the planet one styrofoam cup at a time. I'm giving 2 stars simply because the cookies weren't too bad. read more