As a dietitian, I have a few complaints about soda, but “not sweet enough” isn’t one of them; at most restaurants, a medium soda over ice has as much carbohydrate as most people need in a whole meal. It’s OK with me on occasion, but in general I suggest making sugary soda a “sometimes treat.”
It seems like at least one part of the country might have a differing opinion.
TikTok is fizzing with posts about “heavy soda,” reportedly found at some convenience stores. It’s all your favorite soda fountain delights, but turned up to 11 like that amplifier in “This Is Spinal Tap.”
It’s not a soda brand-sanctioned practice, but if the photos are to be believed, stop at the right gas station and you might be rewarded with the option to choose a soda with extra syrup added straight from the spout.
“Pepsi Diesel,” quipped one commenter.
I’ve been suspicious that this supposedly common practice is fake, because most posts are using the same photo, and it would increase the business’ costs without a way to recoup.
Still, commercial soda dispensers work by running carbonation through a chiller to encourage lasting bubbles, and mixing with filtered water and a super-concentrated flavored syrup on demand. Though the industry standard is a ratio of about 5 parts carbonated water to 1 part syrup, there have long been rumors that some restaurants use more syrup than others for a signature soda hit that’s resistant to dilution from melting ice.
Some TikTokers claim to be able to tell the difference between a McDonald’s Coke and a Chick-fil-A Coke in a blind taste test, for example. I wasn’t easily convinced; though I often mention to nutrition clients that a 20-ounce Coca-Cola at Chick-fil-A has 170 calories, while the same size at McDonald’s is listed at 270, I attributed that to less ice in the cup for a long time. That is, until I realized that a bottled 20-ounce Coca-Cola has 240 calories, even without accounting for ice, which is usually over half of a fountain drink’s volume. McDonald’s didn’t respond to a request for comment by the time of publication, but that math doesn’t seem like it’s mathing.
The idea makes my teeth cringe, and switching to a ratio of 2:1, for instance, would double the syrup, the calories and the cost to the business. But if some restaurants are accepting those odds, there must be an actual demand for even sweeter sweet stuff. Is it possible, then, that convenience store heavy soda is real?
A few commenters claim to have encountered this monster in the wild, but there are few details. Pepsi, Mountain Dew and Dr Pepper are frequently mentioned but not diet varieties. Some say it’s found in my home of the South, but that’s a vile accusation based solely on our local worship of sweet tea. I’ve never seen it, and other Southern commenters protest they haven’t, either.
One Reddit thread decided it is limited to Southern Missouri, but again, others from there deny having seen it. Half my extended family lives in Missouri or Illinois, along with dozens of friends in surrounding states, and I spent all day today messaging them. They asked their friends and family, too, and I called a long list of bewildered convenience stores to ask whether they offer it.
My pharmacist brother-in-law lives in the southeast quadrant of Missouri, near where some alleged witnesses have reported seeing heavy soda, and he agreed to ask all of his co-workers if they had encountered it.
“Everyone said no,” came the update; although, in the interest of journalistic integrity, I feel I should specify that one of his fellow pharmacists said, “Ewww.” I’m gratified that my fellow health care workers agree with my assessment.
We all came up empty for a total of eight Midwestern states, from Oklahoma to Indiana, and Michigan to Missouri. I was starting to wonder whether this supposed “trend” is less beverage, and more Bigfoot.
I did find one Wisconsinite, Jen Chekouras, who remembers a concentrated soda they called 50-50 (not to be confused with Milwaukee’s dearly departed citrus 50/50 brand soda), but it was a “secret menu” item at just a few restaurants in the 1990s. If it really was 50-50, that would be a ratio of 1:1 — enough to make a dietitian curl into a fetal position.
Describing it as “tooth coatingly, stomach-turningly sweet,” Chekouras maintained she was never able to finish one, not even on a dare. “They were also a semi-clandestine thing,” she remembered, “only available after dark, if the restaurant wasn’t crowded, as though you were ordering an illicit substance. And you kind of were.” Hardly the stuff of viral TikTok legend.
By the end of the day, though, several people messaged to say they — or rather, their teenaged children — had found comments online referencing the C-Barn convenience store in the small town of Farmington, Missouri, not far from my brother-in-law and his fellow pharmacists. Sure enough, the store’s Facebook page posted about running machines with a higher ratio of syrup in September of 2024.
“Here at C-Barn we have Heavy Pepsi, Heavy Mt.Dew and Heavy Dr.Pepper!” the post reads, “Aren’t we lucky in Missouri!!!”
I spoke to C-Barn’s store manager, Joyce Meadows, and she says it’s a very popular item at several of their local stores.
“There are some key things that people say they just have to have, and heavy soda is one of them,” she says. “They say when the ice melts, the flavor is still there.”
Co-owner Ray Johnson says that the ratio they use is 3:1, and that it’s been offered there for eight or nine years. It started when the owner of another regional store, Bill Brookshire of C-Mart, decided to address customer complaints of weak soda by turning the syrup up — way up. Johnson remembers that Brookshire, now retired, coined the name “Heavy Pepsi,” and pretty soon, C-Barn customers were asking for it, too. “I personally don’t drink it,” says Johnson, adding that it’s “a little much for the belt.”
So, even though many people (including me) have been skeptical that it exists, it’s real. It’s just that it’s found exclusively in a limited rural area and only a lucky few have encountered it. You know, like Bigfoot.
Actually, Bigfoot might scare me a little less.