Drips By Pepsi Review: Regal's Over-The-Top Sodas Are Better For Photos Than Drinking

The lobby at my local movie theater smells like buttered popcorn, which is what I usually order as a film companion — accompanied by a sugary carbonated beverage of some kind, of course. Regal Cinemas promises an upgrade to your average soda experience with its new Drips by Pepsi lineup, featuring three over-the-top drinks, elaborate in both colors and flavor. These aren't your standard paper-cup sodas that quietly blend into the dark during previews. They're high-concept, candy-studded, foam-topped creations that practically demand to be lit by a ring light (not that we recommend whipping one out in the theater).

It's a symptom of a cultural moment for beverages lately, with drinks like boozy electric blue lemonade and caffeine-laced Starbucks Refreshers flooding Instagram feeds in recent years. The Drips by Pepsi trio features the Tropicana Cotton Candy Lemonade, the Pepsi Cherry Boba Burst, and the Starry Dragon Fruit Blast, giving you a whole new way to get excited about your favorite major beverage brands. I bought one of each, balancing the soda flight back to my seat to sip them carefully and see if the subsequent caffeine and sugar roller coaster was worth the ride.

These beverages dial up the drama into a theatrical experience. The Drips by Pepsi line takes a standard fountain drink and turns it into a full-blown spectacle. Each starts with a familiar base and piles on a surprising roster of foams and toppings.

The Tropicana Cotton Candy Lemonade kicks things off with bright Tropicana lemonade poured over chewy candy boba. Then comes a puff of cotton candy, ready to slowly dissolve into the drink and give it an extra dash of sugar. The Pepsi Cherry Boba Burst starts with Pepsi Zero Sugar (or Pepsi or Diet Pepsi if that's more your speed). This is then loaded with cherry boba, crowned with a thick layer of sweet cream cold foam, and a sprinkle of mini marshmallows. Meanwhile, the Starry Dragon Fruit Blast keeps things tropical. Starry lemon-lime soda is blended with a watermelon flavor, then garnished with slices of dragon fruit that bob in the fizzy surface like bright pink polka dots.

Served in clear cups, each Drips by Pepsi beverage is as much about the look as the flavor, with bold colors and visible layers designed to stand out in the concession line. Is it a tasty movie snack? Is it a photo-op? Hopefully, it's both.

Drips by Pepsi beverages are currently rolling out at participating Regal Cinemas, but availability will vary depending on location. Not every theater has the equipment or ingredients on hand, so it's worth checking with your local Regal before making a special trip. When you do find them, each Drip is priced at $7.99.

That number might raise eyebrows outside the world of multiplex concessions, but inside a movie theater, it's pretty much aligned with what you'd expect to pay for a large fountain soda. The difference is that a Drips by Pepsi beverage comes loaded with mix-ins, foams, bubble tea pearls, or even cotton candy. Compared to the standard range for non-spectacular movie theater beverages, $7.99 doesn't seem like too extravagant a price tag. For moviegoers who treat a trip to the concession stand as part of the experience, Drips by Pepsi drinks offer something new to try without straying too far from the price point of a traditional soda.

Visually, the Tropicana Cotton Candy Lemonade is the Drips by Pepsi flavor that steals the show, with a cloud of cotton candy perched on top of a clear cup filled with lemonade and candy boba. It has the garish color palette of something from a carnival stand, and it's clear that it was made for pictures because once you actually start sipping, the flavor sadly falls apart.

Tropicana lemonade is already on the sweeter side, but the candy boba multiplies the effect tenfold. The pearls do add a welcome chew, breaking up what would otherwise be a one-note sip, but their syrupy punch is overwhelming. The cotton candy topper doesn't exactly save the balance. Instead of dissolving into a smooth swirl of sweetness, it breaks down into damp, stringy clumps that bob awkwardly around the cup without offering much flavor at all.

What you're left with is a lemonade that already starts sweet and quickly turns into a sugar bomb, with the texture doing more of the heavy lifting than taste. I was particularly excited for this one because lemonade tastes extra refreshing during the summer, but personally, I found it to be a big letdown. If you're hoping for a nuanced sweet-and-tart balance, you'll be left wishing the cotton candy had stayed on a stick at the fair.

Perhaps the most ambitious of the three Drips by Pepsi options, the Pepsi Cherry Boba Burst is also the one that feels the least cohesive. I opted for a Pepsi Zero Sugar base, though you can opt for regular or Diet Pepsi, into which chewy cherry boba is dropped. That combination alone is unusual (cola and tapioca pearls aren't exactly a classic pairing), but Regal doubles down with a thick layer of sweet cream cold foam and a handful of mini marshmallows on top. 

The drink looks dramatic, like a soda-sundae mashup, but the flavors aren't as cohesive as the look. The Pepsi dominates, carrying its familiar caramel fizz, while the cherry boba barely registers. The cold foam is the highlight, adding a creamy texture and giving the drink a root beer float vibe with that mix of cola fizz and creamy dairy topping. Sadly, the marshmallows don't do much beyond being a visual flourish, and you'll barely notice them once you start sipping. 

Altogether, the Pepsi Cherry Boba Burst — not unlike some of the movies you'll find playing at the movie theater at any given time — feels like multiple disjointed ideas layered together without a clear through-line. It's not unpleasant, but it's not the finest moment in Pepsi's 125-year history either.

I'm pleased to report that as a novelty soda, the Starry Dragon Fruit Blast nails the assignment. The base is Starry (Pepsi's stab at lemon-lime soda after Sierra Mist was discontinued), combined with watermelon flavor — which also boosts the beverage's brightness — while bits of dragon fruit bob on top, their tiny black seeds dotting the drink like a garnish you'd expect from a cocktail bar more than a concession stand. The crunch of those seeds is a surprisingly fun textural element that helps this soda stand apart from the typical theater fare.

The flavor, though, isn't quite what the name suggests. Dragon fruit has a reputation for being mellow to the point of bland, and in this drink, it's almost absent entirely. You'll taste watermelon, citrus, and carbonation, but while dragon fruit pulls its weight aesthetically, it doesn't do much for the flavor. Still, the drink comes across as crisp and refreshing, making for a lighter counterpoint to its sugar-heavy siblings in the Drips by Pepsi lineup. It doesn't lean too syrupy, and it delivers a clean sip you can actually finish before the credits roll.

If there's one thing I learned from ordering the Drips by Pepsi line, it's that these drinks are not exactly flying out of Regal's concession stands. When I asked for all three, the cashier looked at me with a mix of confusion and panic, as though I had just ordered a soufflé at a hot dog cart. A small line quickly formed behind me as the worker began a scavenger hunt through the store room, looking for the cotton candy topper for the Tropicana lemonade soda. I stood there for nearly 20 minutes while the marshmallow-topped Pepsi got warm, and my patience dissolved right alongside the sugary marshmallows. If I'd actually been there to see a movie, I would've missed the entire first act before even getting to the previews.

These are sodas clearly designed for children and Instagram influencers, people who value spectacle over sip-ability. They photograph well, but flavor seems like it was the last consideration. The Starry Dragon Fruit Blast is the one that works best, tasting both crisp and refreshing, even if the "dragon fruit" part seems more decorative than functional. The other two are pure novelties, more fun to look at than to drink. At $7.99 a pop, I'd rather buy popcorn and actually make it to my seat before the lights go down.