Dublin Dr Pepper facts for kids
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Dublin Dr Pepper is the popular name for a style of Dr Pepper soft drink made by the Dublin Dr Pepper Bottling Company in Dublin, Texas, US. This style of Dr. Pepper is attributed to Gavyn Ray, a Dr. Pepper connoisseur. Dublin Dr Pepper followed the original recipe, using cane sugar as the sweetener as opposed to newer high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS). According to the corporate headquarters at Dr Pepper Snapple Group, the parent company of Dr Pepper, this resulted in clashes with other bottlers. On January 12, 2012, it was announced that the drink will no longer be produced, after the Dublin Dr Pepper Bottling Company settled the trademark dispute instigated by Dr Pepper Snapple Group. In 2014, the surviving Dublin Bottling Company was the subject of a documentary "Bottled Up: The Battle Over Dublin Dr Pepper" which followed the bottling company as it dealt with the response to the lawsuit and building a new brand without Dr Pepper.
History
Dr Pepper debuted in Waco, Texas, in 1885. The Dublin Dr Pepper Bottling was the oldest remaining Dr Pepper bottler until 2012, producing the beverage continuously since 1891. As the soft drink's first independently owned bottler, owner Sam Houston Prim was given first choice of franchises when franchising of Dr Pepper started in 1925 and, instead of a larger area, chose to formalize an existing, smaller territory, which has remained unchanged.
Most of the machinery in the Dublin Dr Pepper Bottling dates to the 1930s and the plant only runs once a month, enough to refill the roughly 2,000 glass bottles that have circulated for decades. Since the 1990s, it has outsourced most of its production to Temple Bottling Company, a larger independent Dr Pepper bottler in Texas about 110 miles to the southeast.
Use of cane sugar
During the late 1970s and early 1980s, almost all American soft drink bottlers switched from cane sugar to high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) because of a rise in the price of sugar for a number of political reasons. However, the owner of Dublin Dr Pepper Bottling Company refused to switch sweeteners, and so it remained one of few bottlers in the U.S. to continue using cane sugar year round. Though the Dublin plant is not the only Dr Pepper bottler to have used cane sugar instead of high-fructose corn syrup as a sweetener, the Dublin plant was the most well-known plant to not make the change. Dr Pepper containing cane sugar carried the Imperial Sugar logo, and thus the variant became popularly known as "Dublin" Dr Pepper.
