Jennifer Miller recently opened Sweet Sips, a dirty soda shop with a variety of flavors and customization options.
The shop, at 1776 Gravois Road in High Ridge, serves the trendy soda beverage, along with sparkling refreshers and energizers. Miller, who lives in High Ridge, said all her drinks are customizable.
“We are primarily a dirty soda shop,” Miller said. “It is a soda base with flavoring and creamer. It originated in Utah, and it’s very popular.
“The Fenton, High Ridge and House Springs areas don’t really have anything like this over here, so we decided to give it a whirl.”
Sweet Sips opened April 4, and Miller said the community has so far been receptive to her drinks.
“The community seems to be loving us, so we’re excited about that,” she said. “We have gotten quite a few who come in and say, ‘I’ve never had a dirty soda,’ and I’m like, ‘Well, let’s change that; let’s get you a dirty soda.’”
While Sweet Sips has a drink menu customers can order from, Miller said customers are free to choose any flavor combination they’d like. She has 23 different flavorings, along with seven sugar-free flavorings.
Miller said Hot Mess Express, Sweet Sips’ original dirty soda, is the shop’s best seller.
“It is a Dr Pepper with vanilla flavoring and coconut cream,” she said. “I would say it’s our bestseller so far, but people are branching out and trying other things.
“My favorite is Cherry on Top, which is Coke with cherry flavoring and vanilla cream.”
Miller said the shop’s sparkling refreshers, such as Berry Boujee and Peachy Queen, are made with carbonated water, and flavoring and cream can be added to them. The shop’s energizers, such as Blue Slush and Bahama Mama, are made with energy drinks like Alani and Red Bull.
“We carry a lot of zero-sugar sodas and diet sodas,” Miller said.
“We did have someone recently ask for a completely sugar-free option, so we have some sugar-free lemonade now as well.”
The dirty sodas, refreshers and lemonades cost $6, and energizers are $7, according to the shop’s website, sweetsips.online.
Customers can add fresh lime, whipped cream or marshmallow fluff to their drinks for an additional fee.
Miller said she’s lived in High Ridge since she was 10 years old, graduating from Northwest High School in 1993. In 2023, she opened Be Our Guests, an event center that can accommodate up to 75 guests. Sweet Sips is located next door to the center, Miller said.
The dirty soda shop is open 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday, and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday.
Miller said promotions are shared frequently via the shop’s Facebook page, called Sweet Sips.
“We’re always doing little promotional things,” she said. “This last Saturday (on April 11), we stayed open until 10 p.m., and if you said it was your date night, we gave you $2 off your two drinks.
“We tell everybody to like us on Facebook, because that’s where we’ll post (promotions).”