The Greatness of Dr Pepper
I love Dr Pepper. I don’t know why – I just do. I think it’s a combination of the way it’s bubbles tickle my nose when I have that first sip out of a can and the fact that it tastes good with just about anything.
Dr Pepper was created by a man named Charles Alderton at Morrison’s pharmacy in Waco Texas around 1885. Charles was a pharmacist at Morrison’s but in his spare time he would come up with different flavors for sodas for the pharmacy to serve. After doing some taste tests with the pharmacy’s owner, Wade Morrison, they decided to start offering it to customers. The soda got so popular that people from around town started to come to the pharmacy just to order the drink. Since Charles and Wade hadn’t thought up a name for the soda yet the customers started calling it a ‘Waco.’
Now Wade Morrison is credited with naming the soda Dr Pepper however there are a few stories as to how he came up with the name. The most popular story is that Wade named it after the father of a girl he was courting in Virgina, before he moved to Texas. Another story is that he named it after a former employer of his when he lived in Virginia but both stories have never been proven.
After a while other pharmacies and soda fountains started to purchase the Dr Pepper syrup from Charles and Wade and it looked like their drink was going to start to make it big but Charles didn’t really have any interest in the soda business so he gave the recipe to Wade. About that time a man by the name of Robert Lazenby, a chemist, came into the picture and was interested in working with Wade on mass producing the Dr Pepper syrup. Wade and Robert went into business together and founded the Artisan Manufacturing & Bottling Company in 1891. The company would later change it’s name to Dr Pepper Company.
In 1904 Dr Pepper was introduced to the rest of the country, and the world, at the World’s Fair in St. Louis Missouri. After that the company kept growing to the point that they were unable to meet the demand for Dr Pepper syrup. In 1923 Robert and his son in law, J.B. O’Hara moved the company to Dallas in hopes of finding a larger plant to meet demand. Now the company is so large that it is distributed by Coke or Pepsi bottlers depending on the region of the country.
Here are some useless facts about Dr Pepper:
1. Dr Pepper is now made with high fructose corn syrup but you can still get the original sugar sweetened soda from a Dublin Texas bottler. It’s known as ‘Dublin Dr Pepper.’
2. Dr Pepper can be made into a really good BBQ sauce, turkey and chicken stuffing, salad dressing, beef dip, and even cake.
3. Dr Pepper was the first carbonated drink in 1885; Coke came in a year later.
4. Dr Pepper lost it’s period in 1950 due to legal issues. (it was originally Dr. Pepper)
5. There are more than 60 imitation brands of Dr Pepper in the US alone.
