Who Says Fizzy Drinks Are Fizzling Out?

There’s no question that sales of carbonated soft drinks have gone flat. Sugar-spooked consumers chugged down 7% less regular soda last year according to The NPD Group, and diet sodas have lost their luster, too, as consumers question the healthfulness of artificial sweeteners and additives. While we’re definitely swilling less of this stuff, it would be a mistake to infer that all fizzy drinks are flatlining. Au contraire. Fizz is fun, it’s festive, and lots of smart restaurateurs and barkeeps are playing with bubbles:

• Todd Smith, VP of Marketing for Sonic Drive Ins and drinkmeister extraordinaire, told attendees of MUFSO, a recent restaurant-industry conference sponsored by Nation’s Restaurant News, that the chain offers an astonishing 1,392,085 possible drink combinations, of which “soda cocktails” are a key part. He cites the wide range of ingredients on offer coupled with patrons’ desire to customize as leading to some of the more exotic concoctions. A good example is Lake Water. Suggested by a diner, it married Sonic’s long-running Ocean Water, a blue-hued, coconut-flavored sparkler, with green-apple flavor add-in to deliver a, well, lake-y kind of quaff.

• Starbucks has filed a trademark application for Fizzio to cover a range of sparkling beverages that the chain has been test marketing. In addition, it is giving customers the option to carbonate their tea or coffee drinks for no additional charge.

House-made soft drinks are all the rage. They benefit from an artisanal image and have scored well at operations like Chicago-based Wow Bao, which offers a bracing homemade ginger ale made with fresh ginger. Consumers can add pomegranate or green tea for an extra boost. Nearby at Chicago’s Eleven Lincoln Park, two varieties of barrel-aged root beer are on offer, for which the syrup is aged for a year in merlot casks.

• Hot Lips Pizza in Portland, OR, has garnered praise and awards for its eponymous Hot Lips Soda line, which includes flavors like marionberry and pear. Fresh fruit is combined with organic lemon juice, pure cane sugar and sparkling water, and offerings change to accommodate the fruits of the season.

• Casual-dining chain veteran, Ruby Tuesday spiffed up the beverage menu a few years back and introduced handcrafted, made-to-order seasonal sodas. Apple Cider Fizz, which is on the menu at the moment, is touted as being as sparkling and brisk as a crisp winter day.

Of course, consumers also love spiked sparklers. Technomic, Inc. reports that imported sparkling wines have spurred growth of the total US wine market, with sales of Italian prosecco and Spanish cava especially robust. The consultancy attributes the popularity of these bubblies to a combination of flavor profile, price and versatility.

• And in what may represent the best of all possible worlds, sparkling tea cocktails have been appearing. Green tea, of course, has taken off on the basis of its healthful image, so the health conscious can feel positively virtuous about imbibing Seasons 52 ‘s Raspberry Steaz Mojito, which combines Steaz raspberry sparkling green tea with rum, muddled lime and mint leaves. Even better, it’s finished with agave nectar, which is coming on strong as a “natural” sweetening agent and more wholesome alternative to regular sugar.

Photo: Carlos Osorio/Toronto Star via Getty Images