What Is the Dirty Shirley?

If you ask anyone what the drink of summer 2022 was, chances are they'll say the Dirty Shirley. Even Alexa seems to know the drink has a hold on us — if you ask her what the drink of summer is, she quips, "If your question is 'Surely there's an adult beverage of the summer,' my answer is 'Yes, and don't call me Shirley.'"

So, what, exactly, is the Dirty Shirley? And how did it become so popular that The New York Times dubbed it the drink of the summer?

What Is the Dirty Shirley?

Simply put, the Dirty Shirley is an alcoholic take on the Shirley Temple — you know, the drink every kid loved to order at restaurants growing up.

The traditional Shirley Temple is made with ginger ale or lemon-lime soda, grenadine, and garnished with maraschino cherries (arguably the best part for kids.) The mocktail is thought to have been created in the 1930s and is named after Shirley Temple, who was a child actor during that time. However, Temple claimed that she had nothing to do with its inception — and even reportedly hated the drink, despite the fact that restaurants everywhere tried to serve it to her.

The Dirty Shirley is very similar to the original mocktail — it's made with lemon-lime soda or ginger ale and grenadine, but with the addition of vodka. It is still, of course, garnished with a maraschino cherry.

Because the Shirley Temple has been around for nearly 100 years, it's safe to say that the Dirty Shirley has probably been around for just as long. Many bartenders like playing around with the original mocktail by adding lemon or lime juice, lemonade, or orange juice. So, of course, adding vodka, rum, or another spirit couldn't have trailed too far behind.

The Dirty Shirley that everyone is making this summer is the classic interpretation using lemon-lime soda, grenadine, vodka, and maraschino cherries. However, you could absolutely mix it up by using lemon-lime sparkling water instead of soda, cherry juice instead of grenadine, rum or gin instead of vodka, or by adding a splash of orange juice to the drink.

How Did the Dirty Shirley Become the Drink of the Summer?

The Dirty Shirley is obviously not a brand new cocktail that was just created for summer 2022. However, it did take the internet — and bars — by storm this summer.

The New York Times predicted in May that the drink would be everywhere this summer, and it really has been. The hashtag #dirtyshirley has more than 14 million views on TikTok and Google searches for the Dirty Shirley increased in almost every state in the U.S. since The New York Times article was published.

It's hard to pinpoint why or how cocktails become "the drink of the summer," especially old-school cocktails like the Dirty Shirley, espresso martinis (2021's drink of the summer), and Aperol spritzes (2018's drink of the summer). It's easy to chock the Dirty Shirley's popularity up to the fact that it's a simple cocktail to make and quite delicious. However, the real reason might just be all about the nostalgia factor.

'80s and '90s babies love reminiscing. With many TikTok creators (like Rod and Kate Steinberg) going viral with content on millennial nostalgia for the '90s and early 2000s, it's not hard to understand how a favorite childhood drink can become a popular cocktail. And anybody who still orders a Cosmopolitan because of Sex and the City or a Vesper Martini because of James Bond can surely understand that.