Is Dr Pepper Root Beer? [Agnostic Soda]

Dr. Pepper is one of the most popular soft drinks in the world.

This famous drink is found all over the US, Europe, Asia, South America, and Australia.
Dr. Pepper is a fountain drink.

Dr. Pepper was first invented in 1885 and is one of the “big 3” soda brands in the US, the others being Coca-Cola and Pepsi. But what exactly is Dr. Pepper?

What Kind of Soda is Dr Pepper?

Dr. Pepper is also not a cola because it does not contain extract from the Kola nut, unlike Coca-Cola and Pepsi.

Dr. Pepper is unique, and the company classifies it as a “spice cherry.” So Dr. Pepper occupies a kind of no man’s land in soda classification. It is not a cola or a root beer, but it’s a soft drink category.

A federal judge has even weighed in on this point and decided that Dr. Pepper is not a “cola product.”

What Does Dr Pepper Taste Like?

 

Dr. has always stood apart from other soda brands due to its unique taste and one that is extremely hard to pinpoint.

It was once even branded with the slogan “Always One of a Kind.” It is a complete beverage.

Dr. Pepper is made with 23 ingredients, most of which are a secret. It has been around since the 1800s, so it has gone through several iterations, and the company has introduced alternative flavors. So we are going to focus on the original taste.

Dr. Pepper has a deep-bodied flavor with hints of allspice, cherry, and the faint taste of licorice. It also has a very fruity element, such as cherries, plum juice, and prune juice, but some people also report flavors such as apricots and citrus. 

Many say Dr. Pepper tastes somewhat like Coke, except “spicy Coke.”

Some also draw comparisons to root beer. Whatever the truth is, a lot is going on in this soda.

Some people have claimed that Dr. Pepper contains black or cayenne Pepper. Dr. Pepper keeps its formula a closely guarded secret, so we can’t say for sure that it does not have these things.

Dr. Pepper is like a Rorschach test for flavor in many ways because people will read to their tastes.

Dr. Pepper has also been parodied on South Park as the “agnostic beverage.” Dr. Pepper is parodied in South Park because its taste “cannot be described.”
What is Dr. Pepper South Park?
Pep-er is a carbonated beverage that references Dr. Peppebecauseat they have almost the same name and can design. It was first seen in the Season Ten decent episode, “Cartoon Wars Part. I”

The episode found Kenny and Cartman briefly living in a foster home run by a pair of strict Agnostics. As the father gives his new foster children a tour of his home, he declares that they are only allowed to drink “Agnostic beverages.” He then opens the fridge to reveal it packed to the gills with Dr. Pepper.

One thing is certain, regardless of arguments and differing opinions about Dr. Pepper’s taste.

It is neither a root beer nor a cola.

Root beer is a beverage that is traditionally made from the root bark of the sassafras tree. That gives root beer its characteristic dark coloring and slightly vanilla-ish flavor.

Root beer usually is alcohol-free and has a thick foamy head, like a glass of regular beer.

However, most root beer nowadays is not made with authentic sassafras because a certain chemical in the bark, called safrole, has been discovered to be a carcinogen.

Most commercial root beer nowadays is made with artificial sassafras flavoring or safrole-free sassafras. Root beer also traditionally contains black cherry wood, red spruce, burdock, and dandelion, so it’s quite the array of roots and plants.

Is Dr Pepper a Root Beer?

The makers of Dr. Pepper have definitively stated that Dr. Pepper is not a root beer and does not contain sassafras. So what about Cola? Is Dr. Pepper a cola?

This ruling allowed Dr. Pepper to become a nationwide phenomenon, as previously, it was very hard for the company to find a network of independent bottlers.

Dr. Pepper also does not seem to contain Kola nut extract, which many would consider a prerequisite for a soda being considered a cola.

Sothere is no root beer Dr Pepper and they do not seem to be a cola either, and it is its unique variety of flavors.

Sarsaparilla is a type of soft drink similar to root beer and made using the roots and vines of the Smilax ornata plant.

Sarsaparilla was very popular in the United States during the 19th century and was originally sold as a medical tonic for skin and blood problems.

But the drink never broke out of the US and made it to other countries. However, several countries have created varieties of sarsaparilla soft drinks.

Dr. Pepper does not seem to be sarsaparilla, either, and it lacks the earthy, sweet flavor that characterizes sarsaparilla and does not seem to be made with the sarsaparilla root.

So once again, we find that Dr. Pepper avoids convenient classification.

It is very hard to say what Dr. Pepper is made out of.

The company keeps its 23 ingredients a secret and has never even given hints about what they might be. 
What is the actual Flavour of Dr. Pepper?
His taste in Dr. Pepper is hard to describe simply because there’s nothing quite like it. Some say it has a hint of cherry-flavored soft drink or a trace of licorice.
But the reason it’s so hard to describe what Dr. Pepper tastes like is probably down to the fact that there’s a combination of 23 different flavors!

If you look at the back of a can of Dr. Pepper, the ingredients list includes

• carbonated water.
• High fructose corn syrup.
• Caramel color.
• Phosphoric Acid.
• Sodium benzoate.
• Caffeine.
• Natural flavorings.

Most of these ingredients are common in other kinds of sodas, and it is the “natural flavoring” where the 23 ingredients work their magic.

This formula is such a highly guarded secret that only three people know the list of ingredients in its entirety.

There are rumors that they have split the ingredients list in half and stored them in different safety deposit boxes at separate banks.

The Dr. Pepper Snapple Group has neither confirmed nor denied the authenticity of this journal, but they have stated that the recipe was very unlike the formula for Dr. Pepper.

They also stated that using the ingredients in the list would create a drink that tastes nothing like Dr. Pepper.

There are sites out there that claim it lists the 23 elements of Dr. Pepper which includes

• almond
• vanilla
• Cherry
• licorice
• amaretto
• blackberry
• apricot

and more, but we could not find any source that authenticates this list, and the company has not said anything about it.

So it seems that the secret of Dr. Pepper is still just that—a secret. Who knows if we will ever figure out what the actual secret formula of Dr. Pepper is?

As we said earlier, Dr. Pepper was first created by a man named Charles Alderton in the 1800s.

Alderton was a pharmacist and originally made Dr. Pepper a medical tonic for skin and blood problems (incidentally, most old-school soft drinks were originally marketed as having medical and therapeutic benefits).

Alderton also gave the original name to Dr. Pepper, which he claimed was a nod to his former colleague.

Dr. Charles T. Pepper. Beforehand, the drink was called “a Waco,” but Alderton’s boss Wade Morrison thought the glass needed a catchier name to boost sales.

There is an urban legend that Morrison had a love affair with Charles Pepper’s daughter and named the drink after her family.

But this tale is mostly figured as an urban legend.

Besides, Charles Pepper’s eldest daughter was only eight years old when the drink was named. Either way, Morrison liked this story as he repeatedly recanted it to stockholders.

Regardless of the actual story of the naming, Charles T. Pepper was certainly a real person who worked as a Confederate surgeon during the American Civil War.

After the war, Pepper opened a drug store in Rural Retreat, Virginia, where he sold medical supplies. Charles Pepper is still interred in a local cemetery in the region.

Pepper was known around town for the carbonated beverages, although there is no real evidence that he worked with Wade Morrison and Charles Alderton at some point in his career.

Many claims that Wade Morrison and Charles Alderton stole the original formula for the drink from him and passed it off as their own.

Others claim that Pepper helped Alderton and Morrison create the blend and named the drink after himself.

The Dr. Pepper Museum in Waco, Texas, has so far been unable to authenticate any of these naming stories.

So we don’t know the real history of the naming of the drink. Still, it’s a fun topic to speculate about, even if we never see the truth.

Who was the original owner of Dr. Pepper?

Waco: Where it All Began
It is the oldest of the major brand of soft drinks in America. Like its flavor, the origin of Dr. Pepper is out-of-the-ordinary. Charles Alderton, a young pharmacist working at Morrison’s store, is believed to be the inventor of the now-famous drink.

Originally, the name had a period, but the company dropped it in the 1950s after rebranding the soda and creating a new label.

Public polls found that the name was considered easier to read without the period, so the company removed it and has stayed that way ever since.

Most people probably only drink Dr. Pepper cold, but did you know there was a time when the company tried to market a hot version of Dr. Pepper?

In the 60s, the company tried a new marketing campaign pushing hot Dr. Pepper with lemon slices as a festive holiday drink.

Hot Dr. Pepper was moderately popular when it was being marketed, but you can probably tell that the fad did not stick.

Still, hot Doctor Pepper has its followers and is still served in some countries.

Hot Dr. Pepper does not sound too appetizing, so we must pass on that.

Like most major soda brands in the US, Dr. Pepper is now mostly made with high-fructose corn syrup instead of real cane sugar. A small bottling company called Dublin Bottling Works in Texas continued to make sugar Dr. Pepper under the moniker “Dublin Dr. Pepper.”

However, in 2012, the Dr. Pepper Snapple Group bought out the franchise and discontinued making the drink under the “Dublin Dr. Pepper” name.

The company still agreed to continue making Dr. Pepper with real cane sugar for this region in Texas.

Dr. Pepper is one of the most popular soft drinks in the country. It is a perfect beverage for kids at school for a good reason.

For over 140 years, Dr. Pepper has captivated people with its unique taste and heady flavor. It is considered a perfect beverage.

From its start as a medical tonic in a small town in Texas, Dr. Pepper has grown into an international sensation.

It’s not a root beer or cola, but something entirely different. Its unique blend of ingredients has set it apart from competitors and created hundreds of pages of speculation about what those 23 key ingredients might be.