Cookout Drinks Menu — Sodas, Tea, Cheerwine, and Floats

Cookout's drink menu is intentionally narrow. Where most fast food chains pad the beverage section with multiple soda brands, energy drinks, and lemonade variants, Cookout sticks to a focused lineup: Coca-Cola products, fresh-brewed sweet tea, Cheerwine, and Dasani water. The chain's restraint here is the same operational discipline that keeps food prices low — fewer SKUs, less waste, lower cost per cup.

What sets the menu apart is what's on it: Cheerwine, the cherry cola that's been a Southeast tradition since 1917 and is hard to find outside the Carolinas, Virginia, and Tennessee. The Cheerwine Float — Cheerwine soda over vanilla soft serve — is one of the most distinctive items on the entire Cookout menu, period. For diners visiting the chain from outside the Southeast, the Cheerwine Float alone is worth the trip.

The page below covers all standalone drink prices, sizes, and calories, plus the tray drink upgrade options, the milkshake swap math, and ordering tips for getting the best value out of Cookout's drink menu.

All Cookout Drinks With Prices and Sizes

The complete drinks menu organized by category. Every item below is included free as the drink option on a Cookout Tray (with a milkshake or float upgrade option for a small surcharge).

Cookout Floats — The Signature Dessert Drink

Cookout serves four ice cream floats at $$2.39 each — soda or root beer poured over vanilla soft serve ice cream. The Cheerwine Float is the chain's signature dessert and one of the most distinctive items on the entire menu. The other three floats use more familiar soda bases.

Floats can also be ordered as your included Tray drink at no extra charge — making a Cheerwine Float Tray combo one of the best dessert-inclusive value meals at Cookout (no upgrade fee, full tray benefit, plus dessert).

Pro tip: If you're ordering a Cookout Tray and don't want a milkshake upgrade, swap your drink to a Cheerwine Float for free. You get an entrée + 2 sides + a dessert-quality drink for the standard $$7.39 tray price.

Cookout Fresh-Brewed Sweet Tea

Cookout's tea is brewed fresh in-house at every location, multiple times per day. It's not from concentrate, not bag-in-box syrup — actual brewed tea, served Southeast-style (heavily sweetened by default) with unsweet available on request.

The "Huge Tea" upgrade is a small operational detail that says a lot about Cookout's pricing philosophy. Most chains charge significantly more for size upgrades. Cookout charges $0.20 to roughly double the volume from 16 oz to 32.9 oz. It's the highest-leverage drink upgrade on the menu.

Sweetness levels vary by location. Cookout's sweet tea is brewed locally and individual stores have slightly different sugar ratios. Carolinas locations tend to be the sweetest. Locations in newer markets (Tampa, parts of Maryland) are sometimes noticeably less sweet. If you have a strong preference, ask for "extra sweet" or "less sweet" — staff will accommodate where possible.

The Tray Drink Upgrade — Why Milkshakes Are Always the Move

Every Cookout Tray includes a large drink. You can swap that drink for a milkshake with a small surcharge. The math on this upgrade is the most favorable in fast food.

The Regular Milkshake upgrade is the highest-leverage extra at Cookout — paying $1.00 to get a $3.99 product is an effective 75% discount. If you're going to buy a milkshake anyway and you're ordering a tray, the upgrade is essentially mandatory.

See all 39 Cookout milkshake flavors and upgrade options →

Cookout Drink Calories — Practical Notes

Cookout drink calories vary widely depending on choice. Sodas and sweet tea are the heaviest options; water is calorie-free; floats are dessert-level.

• Lowest calorie: Dasani Water (0 cal) — only zero-calorie option on the standard menu
• Mid-range: Coca-Cola Regular (150 cal), Cheerwine Regular (150 cal), Sweet Tea Regular (290 cal)
• Highest calorie standalone: Huge Sweet Tea (390 cal), Coca-Cola Large (240 cal)
• Float dessert: Cheerwine Float (380 cal) — closer to a dessert than a beverage
• Milkshake upgrade: 510-900 cal depending on flavor (the heaviest drink choice)

For the lightest possible Tray, swap the included drink to Dasani Water (still free on the tray). This subtracts roughly 290 calories from a sweet-tea-default tray without any extra charge.

Cookout Drinks — Ordering Tips

• Order Cheerwine on your first visit. Even if you don't usually drink cherry sodas. It's the most distinctive item on the drink menu and the chain's Southeast cultural signature.
• Get the Huge Tea over Regular Tea every time. Twice the volume for $0.20 more. The size upgrade is the most favorable in fast food.
• Cheerwine Float as a Tray drink is the secret value play. Free upgrade to a dessert-quality drink. Most regulars don't know this works at no extra charge.
• Specify "unsweet" if you don't want sweet tea. Sweet is the default — you must explicitly ask for unsweet. Some locations brew both, others switch on request.
• Free refills only at dine-in. Drive-thru cups are one-and-done. If you want refills, eat inside.
• Dasani Water is the secret calorie-cutter. Free swap on any Tray. Drops the meal by ~290 calories without any flavor loss (you can pair the water with a food entrée that compensates for the drink change).
• Cookout doesn't carry diet sodas at all locations. Diet Coke, Coke Zero, and other sugar-free options are available at most stores but not all. If you're a diet drinker, ask at the speaker before pulling up.

Cookout Drinks Menu — Frequently Asked Questions