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(RNS) — What’s a dirty soda and why is it quintessentially Mormon?

To make a dirty soda, you take a large soda and adulterate it with cream, which makes it “dirty.” If you want it “extra dirty,” use twice the cream. Then, you or your professional sodarista — is that a word now? — add the flavor shots of your choosing. There’s coconut, mango, lime, butterbeer and on and on. It’s infinitely customizable.

True confession: I’m not a superfan. This is surprising because I live for the two chief ingredients in a dirty soda, which are sugar and cream.

I first encountered dirty soda on a trip to Utah five or six years ago. But now, thanks to its visibility on Instagram and on “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives,” it’s gone viral.

The story of dirty soda is oddly wrapped up in religion, specifically in the Utah-based Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.…