Forget Dirty Soda, This New 1-Ingredient Diet Coke Upgrade Is Taking the Internet by Storm

We may not be your trusted source for TV recommendations, but if there’s one show the Allrecipes team can’t stop talking about, it’s “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives” on Hulu. The new show, which follows a group of Mormon mom influencers, has taken the internet by storm—and brought one of our favorite TikTok trends back into the spotlight.

Dirty soda went viral a few years ago after Oliva Rodrigo posted a photo on Instagram holding a Swig cup, which is a soda shop company that specializes in the drink. The “good 4 u” singer might have popularized the drink on TikTok, but it’s always been a staple for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) community.

The Utah favorite combines a soda of your choice—usually a cola, but it can also be root beer, citrus-flavored soda, or even seltzer—with cream and flavored syrup. LDS members love it because the church doctrine calls for abstaining from alcohol, coffee, and tea. So, they turn to soda instead. 

“The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives” showed the #MomTok members visiting Swig and ordering their go-to sodas—including one 44-ounce cup of Mountain Dew, mango purée, strawberry purée, and coconut cream.

“Utah is land of the Mormon bar, which are all the soda shops that we have,” “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives” star Jessi Ngatikaura explained on the show. “There’s one on every corner.”

The New Protein Diet Coke Trend

After the show gained popularity, TikTok users started making dirty sodas, including recreating the MomToker’s orders. But now, the trend has entered new territory.

Instead of adding coffee creamer and flavored syrups to the soda, social media users are merging the steps by including flavored protein shakes instead.

“Welcome to Utah where protein Diet Coke is currently trending,” TikTok user Rebecca Gordon posted. 

The new trend combines Diet Coke with a vanilla protein shake of your choice. I’ll admit when I tried dirty soda back in 2022, I actually really enjoyed it, so of course, I had to give the new protein dirty soda a whirl. Here’s my honest review.

My Honest Review of Protein Diet Coke

I opted for the Fairlife Core Power Vanilla High Protein Milk Shake and a good old-fashioned fountain Diet Coke—because everyone knows it’s better from the fountain. I filled most of my cup with Diet Coke, then topped it with a splash of the shake—just enough to change the color—and mixed it together.

The result is a creamy-looking soda that I assumed would taste just like a Vanilla Coke. However, that wasn’t the resulting flavor.

Despite the protein shake tasting just like a melted vanilla milkshake on its own, when added to the Diet Coke, it lost its flavor completely. In fact, even the Diet Coke didn’t taste like the regular syrupy, sweet drink I usually enjoy as my afternoon treat.

Both of the flavors somehow canceled one another out to give you a drink that really doesn’t taste like much. Sorry to the people of Utah, but I think you can do better.

The idea is definitely there, I just think you need to pair the vanilla shake with a pop that already has vanilla in it, like Dr. Pepper, root beer, or a straight-up Vanilla Coke. That way, instead of canceling out the flavors, the double vanilla should enhance the flavor profile.

Or, you can just stick with pouring Torani syrups and Coffee mate directly into your cola—it’s not high in protein, but it will definitely taste better.