Sonic Ocean Water {Copycat Recipe}

Summer drinks don't get much more fun than Sonic Ocean Water. It's sweet, full of coconut flavor, and an iconic shade of blue... and it takes about two minutes to make this copycat version at home!

Jump to:

• 🌊 What is Sonic Ocean Water?
• 💙 Why this recipe works
• 🗒 Ingredients
• 🌊 Recipe tips
• ☀️ More summer drinks
• 📖 Recipe
• 💬 Comments

If you're a Sonic fan, you likely already know why their Ocean Water is so popular. The vivid blue color, the sweet coconut flavor, and the way it's perfectly refreshing with lots of crushed ice on a summer afternoon… it's a whole experience!

And now you can have the Ocean Water any time you want without leaving your house. This is especially exciting for those of us who don't have Sonic restaurants near us! After seeing the commercials for years, we finally got a Sonic by us for just a couple of years before it closed for good.

So, now I'm back to making my own drinks. And I'm not even mad about it because most of their drinks are super easy to make and customize at home. And way less expensive, too.

Bonus points for the fact that when my husband saw what this was called, he immediately thought I was referring to Sonic the Hedgehog. And I mean, I guess it works for those kinds of Sonic fans, too.

🌊 What is Sonic Ocean Water?

Sonic Ocean Water is one of the restaurant chain's most iconic drinks!

It's a bright blue, coconut-flavored soda made with lemon lime soda and a sweet blue syrup, served over Sonic's famous ice.

The drink is refreshing, a bit tropical, and just sweet enough without being over the top.

💙 Why this recipe works

It uses crushed ice or nugget ice: an essential for Sonic drinks! Not only does this ice chill the drink quickly, it helps the syrup distribute evenly throughout the drink.

It uses a homemade super easy-to-make blue coconut syrup: it can actually be tough to find a good store-bought blue coconut syrup. But my version is so easy to make at home with just a few ingredients! Feel free to purchase if you don't want to make it.

It's easy to customize: I try to use ingredient ratios that match Sonic's as closely as possible, but if you like a sweeter, more coconut-forward drink, you can add more syrup (and vice versa!).

🗒 Ingredients

Here's everything you need to make your own Sonic Ocean Water at home (be sure to view the recipe card at the bottom of this post for ingredient amounts and full recipe instructions):

• Crushed or nugget ice: if you don't have either of these at home, you can put some ice cubes in a blender and pulse a few times to crush. Or you can put the cubes in a Ziplock bag, wrap it in a kitchen towel, and use a mallet or rolling pin to whack a few times to crush.
• Blue coconut syrup: I share a recipe for a homemade syrup in this post, but you can also use a store-bought syrup. If you can't find blue coconut syrup, you can use regular coconut syrup and mix in blue food coloring.
• Sprite: or similar lemon lime soda. Use chilled soda for the best, most refreshing results.

For the blue coconut syrup, you'll need:

• Granulated sugar
• Water
• Coconut extract
• Blue food coloring

🌊 Recipe tips

• If you're making your own syrup, definitely make it ahead of time. It keeps in the fridge for about a month in an airtight container, so you can batch it out and have Ocean Water on demand all summer long.

• After you've simmered together water and sugar, you'll remove your saucepan from the heat and add coconut extract and blue food coloring.

• Once syrup is made, be sure to let it cool completely before using it in the drink. You can put it in the fridge to chill.

• Nugget or crushed ice is always best to use in Sonic drinks! But if you don't have either and don't feel like crushing your own ice, regular cubes are fine.

• Blue coconut syrup can be tough to find (be sure not to buy blue curacao syrup instead!). You can always use plain coconut syrup with blue food coloring added in. Or you can even leave the food coloring out if you don't want to use food dye. Your Ocean Water will still taste the same; it just won't be blue!

• Be sure to give the drink just a gentle stir to combine syrup and soda as aggressive stirring can knock out the carbonation, resulting in a flat drink.

• Some recipes will add lime juice or maraschino cherries to their copycat Ocean Water recipes, but the original doesn't involve either of those!

But, of course, nobody will blame you if you want to add in a gummy shark or two.

I love how simple this copycat recipe is to make and how it tastes exactly like the Sonic version!

The drink is nice and sweet, but it's also incredibly refreshing with lots of coconut flavor. Just like it's supposed to be!

Plus, I just love that vibrant blue color.

Of course, if you want a less sweet drink, use less syrup (or you can always add a splash of water in, too). Add more syrup if you love the sweetness!

Now that I have a batch of blue coconut syrup made, I can whip up a drink whenever I want. Which has been every single day.

This Ocean Water is also super fun to serve at kids' birthday parties (especially shark themed parties... Or Sonic the Hedgehog birthdays!) and works so well for baby showers, too.

☀️ More summer drinks

If you're looking for more recipes for refreshing drinks with major summer vibes, check out some of my favorite recipes!

For more copycat drink recipes, take a look at my Starbucks copycat drinks.

I hope this Sonic Ocean Water brings some extra happiness to your summer!

Let me know if there are any other Sonic drinks you want to see copycat recipes for!

📖 Recipe