Sodalicious in Meridian has just opened their first Meridian store. They join the locations already in Nampa and Eagle from the Utah-based company in providing the area with a unique idea in beverages. Michael Bevans, the local owner of the Sodalicious in Meridian franchise, said to The Boise Beat, “We take your basic sodas and have over sixty different flavors that we can add to it, customize it and make it more of a unique flavor than you’re used to trying. We take a lot of things to customize that you remember from your childhood like a Cherry Coke or a Cherry Vanilla Dr. Pepper or anything along those lines, we even have a Scotch and Soda for those who used to get a Scotch and Soda at such and such a place. We do lots of that kind of stuff. We have flavors that range from blackberry, mango, raspberry, strawberry, vanilla, gingerbread, eggnog; we have all these different flavors that we add and we customize”.
Sodalicious has created a whole Mixology menu of drinks for their customers to try. Michael said, “This really came from my partners out of Utah, they started this concept when they were making drinks for their co-workers in different things they were doing. They were actually in the movie industry at that time and they were out on the sets in the desert and they were making these different drinks for people and it got to be a real big hit with them. Someone gave them the idea to open up a soda shop and offer this to the public, so that’s how it got started”.
Michael explained, “The combination that is the most popular for us—our top-selling drink across all of our stores, is the AK Special. That is coconut and vanilla in a Dr. Pepper. With that, we can customize it even one step further in making it ‘extra-dirty’ which to us is, we add cream to it. Lots of our drinks are very very good with cream. It brings out a lot of the flavors; like for example in the Amen you get that almond flavoring in it and it really brings out the almond flavor in that. That’s a Dr. Pepper drink”.
Michael continued, “The AK Special’s really popular, the 2nd Wife is really popular; in our Mtn. Dews the Summer Lovin’ is really popular because of the peach strawberry and raspberry. The #Selfie is pretty popular which is a pineapple strawberry. In our Coke, offerings we tend to see a lot of By Common Consent, which is coconut grenadine and a fresh lime. In a Diet Coke, we see a lot of The Alison Show which is a cranberry and a fresh lime in the Diet Coke. There’s lots of different combinations and really, the sky is the limit for the most part. We even have sauces like pumpkin sauce that can go into the flavors or we have a chocolate sauce which goes into some of our root beer drinks, we can add a little bit of chocolate to it. It really comes up to what the imagination of the person that comes in is”.
Ordering from the menu at Sodalicious in Meridian isn’t the only way to get a drink. Michael explained, “Our customers can come in and they can order a drink that they custom make—they can say ‘I want to have a Seven-Up with a strawberry puree and a raspberry puree’, or a mango puree and a strawberry puree, or they can try something off of our menu we have pre-developed and have been our tried-and-true flavors that our customers have come back and asked for time and time again.We give them the option to do whatever they want”.
Michael emphasized that it’s not just regular drinks that are available such as Mtn. Dew, Dr. Pepper, root beer, Pepsi and 7-Up. He said, “One thing that is not as well known are our energy cocktails. We can do the same thing with our energy drinks. We take your Monster, your Monster Ultra or your Rockstar and we customize that flavor to something unique as well. It really changes the flavor of the energy drinks. A lot of our customers really enjoy that”. Sodalicious also has a full selection of diet drinks such as Diet Pepsi and Diet Coke.
Another interesting drink area that Sodalicious in Meridian has is their hot chocolate. Michael said, “In wintertime we get more into our hot chocolates, we customize our hot chocolate flavors. You can come in and get a hot chocolate with added vanilla, you can add eggnog, you can add gingerbread, you can add peppermint, you can add whatever it is that you like in your hot chocolate. You can add strawberry or raspberry flavoring; it really makes the hot chocolate better. It’s something we try to offer throughout the year and that becomes more popular during the cold months like we’re in right now”.
Along with their unique drinks, Sodalicious in Meridian specializes in cookies too. Michael said, “In addition to the sodas we own our own bakery so we have our own recipes for eight different cookies now; we’re introducing a ninth cookie here in about a month. It’s something that we’re really well known for. Our cookies are really very good, made with top-quality ingredients—they’re second to none! It’s definitely a draw for a lot of our customers, they’ll come in and grab a half dozen for friends or a dozen cookies for parties and that kind of thing”.
I ordered The Tide to try for myself. I’ve always been a Mtn. Dew fan, but this really did take it to another level. The Mtn. Dew had the Blue Curacao and Blue Raspberry flavorings mixed in. The drink was really interesting, and tasty, something you could sit and enjoy in Sodalicious’ seating area as well as taking out or utilizing their drive-thru to get on the go. I could see it would be really fun to work through that Mixology menu, trying lots of different combos such as the Orange Creamsicle. and Ging and Juice. The Bronco, What She’s Having, Your Mom, I Love Lucy, It’s Not Me It’s You—some interesting names for interesting drinks. Sodalicious has certainly brought an fascinating concept to the Treasure Valley and given all of us some refreshing new drinks to enjoy.
Sodalicious
1035 W. Fairview Avenue
Meridian, ID 83642
(208) 391-0965
Other locations in Nampa and Eagle
Sodalicious in Meridian Facebook Page
