Dublin Dr Pepper facts for kids

Dublin Dr Pepper was a special version of the popular Dr Pepper soft drink. It was made by the Dublin Dr Pepper Bottling Company in Dublin, Texas, USA. What made it unique was that it used real cane sugar as a sweetener, instead of the high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) that most other soft drinks started using. Many people believed this gave it a different, better taste.

The company that owns Dr Pepper, called Dr Pepper Snapple Group, had some disagreements with the Dublin bottler. Because of these disagreements, it was announced on January 12, 2012, that Dublin Dr Pepper would no longer be made. The Dublin Dr Pepper Bottling Company reached an agreement with Dr Pepper Snapple Group, which meant they could no longer use the Dr Pepper name. After this, the Dublin Bottling Company continued making other drinks under a new brand.

History of Dublin Dr Pepper

Dr Pepper first appeared in Waco, Texas, in 1885. The Dublin Dr Pepper Bottling Company was the oldest company that bottled Dr Pepper. They had been making the drink continuously since 1891, which is a very long time!

When Dr Pepper started letting other companies bottle its drink in 1925, the owner of the Dublin company, Sam Houston Prim, got to choose his bottling area first. Instead of a big area, he chose to keep his existing, smaller territory. This area stayed the same for many years.

Most of the machines used at the Dublin Dr Pepper Bottling plant were very old, some from the 1930s. The plant only ran about once a month. This was just enough to refill the roughly 2,000 glass bottles that had been used for decades. By the 1990s, most of their production was handled by a larger bottler called Temple Bottling Company, located about 110 miles away in Texas.

Why Cane Sugar Was Used

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the price of sugar went up for various reasons. Because of this, almost all American soft drink companies switched from using cane sugar to high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS). HFCS was cheaper to use.

However, the owner of the Dublin Dr Pepper Bottling Company decided not to switch sweeteners. This made them one of the few bottlers in the U.S. that kept using real cane sugar all year round. While other Dr Pepper bottlers might have used cane sugar sometimes, the Dublin plant was the most famous for always using it. Dr Pepper made with cane sugar in Dublin often had the Imperial Sugar company's logo on it. This is why it became widely known as "Dublin" Dr Pepper.

Images for kids

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  Dublin Dr Pepper production line

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  A bottle of "Dublin Formula" Dr Pepper from Temple, Texas

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  Dublin Bottling Works in 2022