Fizzy drinks (or sodas) are extremely popular over in the US as they have the largest variety and largest selection of flavours than other country. A lot of the soft drinks are available in the UK but a few of the rarer types are only available across the pond, unless you find a specialised American food or drink selling company.

Dr Pepper is one of the American drinks that eventually found its way to our shores, and is the world’s oldest soft drink (even older than coke!). It all started way back in 1885 in Waco, Texas, where pharmacist Charles Alderton spent his days mixing medicine to help the local people. As well as making medicine at Morrison’s Old Corner Drug Store, Alderton also spent his time mixing fruity syrup concoctions and selling them at the soda fountain.

Dr Pepper proved very popular among the residents of Waco, so much so that Alderton and Morrison were struggling to keep up with the high demand. Soda fountain owners were buying the syrup from Alderton and Morrison as Dr Pepper’s popularity continued to increase.

Alderton’s passion lay in pharmacy so he handed his drink company over to a young beverage chemist Robert Lazenby. Morrison and Lazenby then formed the Artesian Mfg. & Bottling Company in 1891, which later became Dr Pepper company in 1923. In the same year Lazenby and his son-in-law J.B. O’Hara moved the company from Waco to Dallas. Earlier in 1904, Lazenby and O’Hara took the company to the World’s Fair Exposition in St. Louis, Missouri, where Dr Pepper was introduced to over 20 million Americans.

Popular advertising slogans for the fruity-flavoured drink include its first ever ‘King of Beverages’ slogan in 1910, followed by its ‘Old Doc’ campaign in the 1920s. Old Doc was a country doctor with monocle and top hat who promoted the drink throughout the 20s. In the next decade research was discovered proving sugar provided energy and people experienced slumps at certain points during the day – 10am, 2pm and 4pm. Old Dr Pepper designs display a clock face with the numbers 10, 2 and 4 – indicating the times people should grab a Dr Pepper for a pick-me-up. A competition was held to choose a slogan for their campaign and the winning slogan was, ‘Drink a Bite to Eat (at 10, 2 & 4)’. Other successful Dr Pepper campaigns include its opening campaign in Australia in 1996 where the Statue of Liberty travelled across the Pacific to Sydney and it’s most famous slogan: “Dr Pepper, what’s the worst that could happen?”

In the 1980s, the US stopped using sugar in their soft drinks because it was costly – the sugar was replaced with sweetener. There are a few bottling plants that still use sugar to sweeten Dr Pepper – one of those is in Dublin, Texas – Dublin Dr Pepper. Every year in June, for one week, Dublin, Texas renames itself Dr Pepper in honour of the soft drink company’s oldest bottling plant.

In the 1950s the full-stop was removed from Dr Pepper to dispel any medical connotations; by this time it was proven sugar provided energy but wasn’t the healthiest option. Dr Pepper now comes in a variety of flavours including Diet Dr Pepper, Cherry Dr Pepper, Diet Cherry Dr Pepper, Caffeine-free Dr Pepper and Caffeine-free Diet Dr Pepper.

Ben Greenwood is writing on behalf of American Soda, importers of American drinks, including Dr Pepper, into the UK.

Ben Greenwood is writing on behalf of American Soda http://www.americansoda.co.uk), importers of American drinks, including Dr Pepper, into the UK.

Author Bio: Ben Greenwood is writing on behalf of American Soda, importers of American drinks, including Dr Pepper, into the UK.

Category: Food and Drinks
Keywords: dr pepper, soda, american soda, fizzy drinks