The Hottest Cocktail Ingredient for the Summer Is—Soda?

Tucked into an unassuming street near Union Square in New York City, the Michelin-star Korean restaurant Oiji Mi is known for elegant dishes such as beef tartare, served with pickled radish and caviar, and lobster ramyun, which comes over noodles with spicy chile oil. It also features a drink menu full of inventive cocktails and mocktails. Recently, Oiji Mi deployed a secret weapon to add some fizz—literally—to its drink offerings: an industrial-size carbonation machine.

The payoff? A popular new mocktail concoction called Orange Soda. Think of it as a luxurious spin on an Orange Julius. Some customers order tequila on the side and ask the bartender to mix it in to create a refined Tequila Sunrise. “I think carbonation really adds elevated freshness to any type of cocktail,” says Chris Clark, the beverage director at Oiji Mi.

The members of the bar staff at Oiji Mi are leaning into the bubbles. They’re expanding their cocktail and mocktail offerings by turning fresh ingredients like rhubarb and ginger into effervescent libations. But they’re hardly the only ones catching on to the carbonation craze that’s sweeping through the drinking world.

This revolution in bubbly beverages goes way beyond the bar. The past few years have seen an explosion of new lo-cal, no-sugar sodas. Brands like Poppi, Olipop, and Culture Pop are winning new fans and going after the traditional soda powers. Even Coca-Cola has a new prebiotic offering aptly named Simply Pop. It was inevitable that mixologists would get in on the trend.

Fizzy mixers and liquor have a long, distinguished history together, of course. Gin and tonic. Whiskey soda. Jack and Coke. They’re all classics for a reason. But the make-your-own-soda movement is sparking innovation. Dante in Manhattan’s West Village, an establishment that’s been around since 1915, is one bar that isn’t shy around carbonation experimentation. The spritz section of its menu boasts, for example, El Diablo, which mixes Don Julio Blanco, mezcal, and homemade pink-grapefruit soda for a pop of fresh flavor. Dante owner Linden Pride says that using low-sugar sodas as mixers is key. “We’re not looking to make a sugar bomb.”

Over at Thyme Bar, an experimental speakeasy in New York’s Flatiron District, bar director Erin Gabriella invited bartender Enrique Kurajić to work with the flavors of his childhood in Croatia to create a cocktail. They boiled apples and spices together and infused them in the bar’s soda machine to complete the drink. And the resulting spiced apple soda in the Memories cocktail mingles divinely with Piggyback 6 Year rye.

Mixing fizzy cocktails at home isn’t as daunting as it might seem. You can create your own infused sodas with a Soda Stream or just use a can of something tasty that froths. Let your creativity run wild. The bubbles will take care of the rest.

Ready to mix your own soda cocktails? Here are three of our favorite recipes.

(from Coca-Cola)

Ingredients

• 3 ½ oz Coca-Cola Zero Sugar
• 2 oz Jack Daniel’s Old No. 7
• ¼ oz Grand Marnier
• ¼ oz dry vermouth
• 2 dashes orange bitters
• 1 orange peel

Directions

Add whiskey, Grand Marnier, vermouth, and bitters to a cocktail shaker with ice. Shake until frosty and pour into a coupe glass. Top with Coke Zero and orange peel.

(by Sirena He)

Ingredients

• 2 oz lemon-flavored vodka
• 2 oz triple sec
• 1 drop vanilla extract
• ¼ cup fresh-squeezed orange juice
• Sprite/7 Up/Starry

Directions

Mix vodka, triple sec, and vanilla extract in a glass with ice. Add in orange juice and top with lemon-lime soda.

(by Sirena He)

Ingredients

• 2 oz tequila blanco
• 1 oz lime juice
• Splash of Poppi Ginger Lime
• Jalapeño slices
• Tajín chile and lime salt

Directions

Roll glass in Tajín to rim. Muddle jalapeños at the bottom of the glass to your preferred level of spice. Add tequila, lime juice, and ice to the glass and finish off with Poppi Ginger Lime.

PHOTOGRAPH BY JAMIE CHUNG; TRUNK ARCHIVE (ORANGE SLICE). COURTESY COCA-COLA (COCKTAIL).