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10 Dr Pepper Secrets That Will Change How You Drink It!
There are so many things you do not know about Dr Pepper. You may drink it, but you drink it without being fully informed! Here is a list to change your drinking experience by giving you some fun facts about the product you love!
10. The soda gained recognition at a World’s Fair
According to notes which are now archived in a museum Dr Pepper found its way into popular culture through the 1904 World’s Fair which had taken place in St. Louis. Apparently, the 1904 World’s fair also showcased the ice cream cone, the hamburger, and the hot dog. So Dr Pepper was not in bad company that is for sure. Can you imagine walking around a fair like this and tasting all of these things, for what very possibly was not only your first time, but also the first time of many. How cool! Perhaps you have a grandparent or great grandparent who attended? Or maybe even a great great grandparent? Imagine them there? Drinking a Dr Pepper for the first time ever!? Even if you did not have a relative there you can surly appreciate the momentous occasion it must have been. How grateful we should all be to the World’s Fairs for aiding in bringing products to the national consciousness.
9. There is no period in the name
Let this blow your mind. Just let it wash over you. You and everyone else have been so wrong all this time. Not a little wrong. So wrong. Think back now to any time you have written the name of this soda out… have you? Have you texted it so someone asking them to pick it up? Have you written the name down on your grocery list? Have you written it in your diary as you set the scene for your evening? “Dear Diary, Last night Nick and I were at the movies together on our first date. It started off so well when we both ordered a Dr. Pepper.” If you have written out this name did you not add the period, like the rest of the world? You probably did! But, alas, there should be no period – no dot – nothing, between Dr and Pepper. Go figure! Now you know! So retain that information and next time you have to write this name down you will know! You can even correct the ill-informed people around you who will very likely still be using the period. You are now in the know!
8. You can drink Dr Pepper hot
Well… can’t you drink anything hot? Technically you can drink anything hot, but you may not want to. In the case of Dr Pepper you just might. You might want to try drinking Dr Pepper hot because the company actually did try to market it as a hot beverage. One winter the company tried to stimulate sales by touting that the soda could also be enjoyed warm in the cold winter months. The idea was to integrate the drink into the holiday season. As you can imagine, if drinking Dr Pepper on a cold day became the equivalent to drinking a hot cocoa on a cold day then their dream would have been a reality and their sales would have soared. Every winter season they would have had a spike in sales and perhaps their name would have even been worked into Christmas songs. But, the hope did not become a reality. Dr Pepper is not a common warm holiday or winter beverage. That being said…. You can give it a go next time it is nippy outside and you are feeling adventurous. Maybe, just maybe, you will absolutely adore the taste of a steaming cup of Dr Pepper. If you do you love it you may share it with friends. The hot Dr Pepper trend my spread… You just never know what can happen.
7. Dublin, Texas is getting a special version of Dr Pepper
First of all, it is important to note that the Dr Pepper most people are drinking is made with high fructose corn syrup. High fructose corn syrup is apparently not the best thing for you. It has no nutritional value and it is going to increase your risk of many bad and ugly diseases. That is if you consume a lot of it. However, if you are drinking Dr Pepper in Dublin, Texas then you may not be exposed to the high fructose corn syrup at all. This is because there is a variety of Dr Pepper in that region that is still being made with cane sugar. Cane sugar is a more natural product, and therefore, better for you. The reason this area is still using cane sugar and the rest of the world has moved on it because for a very long time the Dr Pepper that was being bottled in that area was being bottled by a small company called Dublin Bottling Works. This company served the soda in a retro-looking glass bottle and continued to serve with cane sugar in keeping with the “retro” vibe of the bottle. Or, actually, the bottle was keeping in line with the old way of sweetening the drink. This version of Dr Pepper even had an addition to the name! It was called Dublin Dr Pepper. However, in 2012 the Dr Pepper Snapple Group bought the franchise rights in the area and discontinued this particular line of Dr Pepper. Though the company dissolved the regional name and bottling of the product, it agreed to continue marking the “real sugar” version of Dr Pepper in Dublin Texas.
6. You can visit a Dr Pepper museum
Beep beep! Next stop Waco Texas! Must visit the Dr Pepper museum in Waco Texas! Open most days at ten in the morning, the Dr Pepper museum is a great place to bring the family, bring a date, bring a friend, and explore! Obviously you can visit their website for more information, it is the twentieth century after all. On the museum’s website, you will not only find information about the museum, such as location and such, but also many fun activities! There is a scavenger hunt, a quiz, and even an online store! Such fun! If memorabilia is your thing then you will love the website shop and you will love the museum! It celebrates Dr Pepper in the most retro and simultaneously modern way. This museum is also cool because it has a huge collection of objects related to Dr Pepper specifically, the soft drink industry, and the various other brands that make the industry. The collection is also made up mostly of donations! So cool! In fact, you may have some items that you want to get off your hands and the museum may want! Consider donating to the museum! There is nothing like some wholesome family fun paired with some neat bits of knowledge and history! So, beep beep! Next stop Waco Texas to visit the Dr Pepper Museum!
5. Prune juice in Dr Pepper?
Apparently this is a hot topic. It has been contested over time. Some people have claimed that Dr Pepper contained prune juice and other people refuted this claim. The truth of the matter is there is no prune juice in Dr Pepper. Case closed. However…. We must all be aware that we are not the keepers of the Dr Pepper recipe… So, actually we can never really know if there is prune juice in Dr Pepper. Furthermore, we do not know the whole entire history or all the Dr Pepper recipes over time. There may have been a little bit of prune juice in one iteration of the drink. We just do not know. Hot topics, like this one, while seemingly redundant can also be great sources of debate and a great way to test your palate. What side the prune fence are you on in regards to Dr Pepper? What do you taste buds tell you? What does your stomach tell you? Prune juice is a good drink to go to if you need to get your bowels moving… does Dr Pepper also get your bowels moving? These are intimate questions, but still, they are valid questions when considering whether or not the infamous Dr Pepper recipe contains prune juice. We will have to continue to speculate on this one.
4. There is a Dr Pepper lip balm
Many millennial women will know this fact because they used lip balm when they were young. Remember ladies? Lip Smackers…! Millennials will remember how they likely received Dr Pepper Lip Smackers in loot bags at birthday parties or bought it during trips to the mall. They may have become introduced to the soda through the lip balm. They may have loved the soda and wanted to be able to lick their lips and taste Dr Pepper without ever drinking it, hence the lip balm. Maybe, they bought it so that they could have Dr Pepper kisses. Nothing like swapping spit while tasting Dr Pepper…. Right? Maybe not. This is unclear. We’d have to give kissing with Dr Pepper lip balm a go to really know. If we are keeping with the times that this was likely worn in, we would also have to call our best friends on a landline after said kissing (the landline also has to have a cord and be attached to the wall) to tell them all about our kiss. Then, and only then, would we know what Dr Pepper kisses are like. Now, any younger generation listening to this must be in complete bafflement. Lip smackers? Landlines? Phones with cords? Yes… all of these were a thing. Diaries too. But, never fear! If you desire a Dr Pepper kiss now you can get it. You can go ahead and buy yourself the Dr Pepper lip balm and lather it on, have your kissing session, and then you may be excused from the other necessities. Instead, you can text your friends about it in a group chat, post a quick boomerang of you reapplying the Lip Smackers to your lips post kiss, and hashtag the whole event. #drpepperkisses #fistkiss #lipsmackers #imsoretro and so forth. Make sense?
3. Dr Pepper has many flavors – Including Birthday Cake
Like many other sodas, Dr Pepper offers fans a variety of versions that they can enjoy while still retaining the classic Dr Pepper feel that they know and love. For example, there is an amaretto flavor, a lemon flavor, a plum flavor, a coriander juniper flavor, and a birch flavor to name a few. Dr Pepper also offers a caffeine-free version and a diet version of the drink. There is even icing on the cake version which makes the soda kind of taste like a birthday cake. How unique! Not many other soda companies have tried that one before! So, which one will you crave? Which version has become your favorite? How many have you tried? Are there some that you have been wanting to try? Are you on a Dr Pepper flavor hunt? So many questions to match the numerous flavor options offered by Dr Pepper. Find your answers and your flavors to personalize your Dr Pepper experience!
2. The Dr Pepper recipe was almost found in 2009
In 2009 a guy named Bill Waters purchased an old store ledger from an antique shop in Texas. Bill Waters is a manuscript collector from Oklahoma and must have been pretty content with his find. He paid only two hundred dollars for this manuscript and from it, he gained a ton of information. Allegedly this ledger contained a recipe for “D Peppers Pepsin Bitters”. Hmm…. Very interesting. This recipe was a mix of mandrake root and syrup (and yes, mandrake is a real kind of root, not just a shrieking Harry Potter variety). The story goes that the ledger was then brought to auction, claiming that it contained the real recipe to Dr Pepper. But, as Dr Pepper Snapple Group suggested, and auctioneers agreed, the recipe was far more likely a recipe for a digestive aid rather than the soda. So, even though there was a possibility of finding the real OG Dr Pepper recipe and sharing it with the world the reality is it was not the real recipe and it was not shared with the world so all is still a mystery for everyday consumers. We will remain in the dark, needing to get our Dr Pepper fix by buying the product outright rather than concocting it at home. So be it.
1. Dr. Pepper is not legally a cola
Say what?! What could this mean? How is Dr Pepper not legally a cola? Well, when Coca-Cola and Pepsi came to the market long before Dr Pepper did they worked hard to ensure that they would have close to no competition in the coming years. The way that Coca-Cola and Pepsi did this was by getting a stronghold on the bottlers; meaning, these bottlers were tied to contracts which stated that they basically could not work with other colas. This is some big-time bullying. It is like that playground game king of the hill, in which kids try to dominate the top of a hill by monopolizing it and pushing other kids from it or throwing snowballs at them or doing other harmful things like that. In this situation, Coca-Cola and Pepsi are the kings of the hill and poor little Dr Pepper is the new kid who wants to play, but just cannot get to the top. When you look at it this way, and you now know and love Dr Pepper, you wonder how it ended up getting to the top of the hill so it could play fair with the other colas… right? You are also still wondering how and why Dr Pepper is not legally a cola… well, this plot thickens. So, Dr. Pepper cannot play at the top of the hill with the rest of the cola gang, we got that, but in 1969 a judge ruled that due to the unique flavor of the drink that is was not actually a cola anyway. So the bottlers could work with them and not defy the deals they had made with Coca-Cola and Pepsi and Dr Pepper could get to the top of the hill without issue. Hmmm…very interesting. So by being dubbed ‘not a cola’, Dr Pepper was actually given a chance to play with its peers and, in a way, become a drink that we imagine to be a cola. Funny how that works.