Dr. Pepper is a popular soft drink that claims to be the oldest major soft drink in the United States. People often wonder if Dr Pepper comes from Coca-Cola or Pepsi. The truth is that neither Coke nor Pepsi owns Dr. Pepper, even though it is bottled at some Coke and Pepsi plants. Here’s more about the interesting history of Dr. Pepper.
The company that owns Dr. Pepper
Dr Pepper is a part of a bigger company called Keurig Dr Pepper, which is a group of companies. It is owned by two companies, one from the United States and one from Austria. The larger company also owns many other brands, such as Keurig, Cinnabon, Canada Dry, Snapple, and Kahlua.
The seventh largest beverage company in the United States is Keurig Dr Pepper. It has more than 25,000 employees working at more than 100 distribution centres all over the country.
It’s Not Simple
Dr Pepper has a complicated relationship with Coke and Pepsi, two of the biggest soft drink brands in the world. When Dr Pepper filed for bankruptcy in 2008, Coca-Cola tried to buy it. Because of laws against monopolies, that merger couldn’t happen. Coke does, however, have some rights to sell Dr Pepper in places like South Korea and Europe.
Pepsi also has some rights to sell Dr Pepper in other countries. But these rights are in places where Dr Pepper doesn’t have a big share of the market. Dr. Pepper also bottles some of its drinks at Pepsi and Coca-Cola bottling plants.
How Dr. Pepper came to be
Dr Pepper has been around since 1885. Charles Alderton, a pharmacist at a drug store in Waco, Texas, mixed soda fountain flavours until he found a combination that customers liked. He wanted the mix to be called a “Waco.” Wade Morrison, his boss, came up with a better name: Dr. Pepper.
At the 1904 World’s Fair in St. Louis, Dr Pepper got its first big break. It was a big success. Soon, Dr Pepper was sold all over the country, and by the 1960s, it had become a national brand.
In the 1950s, the company stopped putting a dot after “Dr.” In 1962, Diet Dr Pepper came out. The company later changed the name to Sugar Free Dr Pepper, and even later to Diet Dr Pepper. In later years, more flavours came out, like Dr. Pepper Cherry and Diet Cherry Chocolate Dr. Pepper, which didn’t last long.
Was there a person named Dr. Pepper?
Many people have wondered if Dr. Pepper was a real person or if he was just a story. The
The company that makes Dr. Pepper says that Wade Morrison named it after Charles Pepper, whose daughter Morrison loved.
Does anyone know the recipe?
Dr Pepper says that the recipe for its drink is a secret. But in 2009, a collector in Oklahoma found a recipe when he bought a ledger book at an antique store. The collector found a recipe for something called “D Peppers Pepsin Bitters” in the book. Dr. Pepper said that the recipe was for a medicine to help with digestion, not for its famous drink. But the collector still tried to sell the ledger at an auction. The book didn’t sell because it didn’t meet the reserve price that the collector set.
Is Dr Pepper a kind of Cola?
Coca-Cola and Pepsi tried for many years to stop Dr Pepper from getting too big in the drink market. In 1963, a federal court saved the day by saying that Dr. Pepper’s taste was different enough from colas to keep it from being called one. The ruling helped Dr. Pepper become popular across the country.
Dr. Pepper tried to sell the drink as something that people would like hot, but that didn’t work. In the 1960s, Dr. Pepper tried to sell a recipe for a holiday drink that called for heating Dr. Pepper with lemon juice. It didn’t work, and we consider Dr Pepper a cold drink to this day.