Wednesday, November 09, 2005

Wouldn't you like to be a Pepper too?

The Dr. Pepper bottling plant is somewhere down in Texas. Can that possibly have any bearing on why Dr. Pepper consumption in Oklahoma (and the surrounding states) is so much higher than the national average?

7-11's carry Dr. Pepper flavored Slurpees.
Every fast food restaurant I've frequented has Dr. Pepper on tap.
Southwest Airlines offers both diet and regular Dr. Pepper in their complimentary in-flight beverage service.

From a press release I found here
Per capita consumption is at 456 annual servings of Dr Pepper for every person in the territory served by The Dr Pepper/Seven Up Bottling Company of Elk City, Oklahoma,"

"In comparison, other areas of the country are under-developed in Dr Pepper consumption, such as in the Northeast, upper Midwest, Northern California and Florida."

"There is no reason for Dr Pepper consumption in these areas not to be at least at the national average,"

"When we achieve that goal, Dr Pepper will be well on its way to the billion cases annually set as a goal by the end of 2009. We doubled volume in the last decade, and I see no reason why we should not do that again by the end of the first decade of the 21st century,"
So, pucker up all you Northeasterners, Midwesterners, Northern Californians and Floridians -- soon, you will be a Pepper too.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

If you visit the Dr Pepper (notice no "." after "Dr") headquarters and bottling plant in Waco, TX, you can have some DP that's still made with pure sugar, as opposed to the high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) used in most of the country because sugar price controls make HFCS cheaper.

All soft drinks outside the US are made with pure sugar because it's cheaper everywhere else in the world. Pepsi's formula works better with HFCS than Coke's does, and that's one reason Pepsi gained such market share after the switch in the 1970s.

More trivia: most soft drinks are made with phosphoric acid, which is why they can't be kept in tin cans. Dr Pepper is made with lactic acid, which explains the yogurt-like quality if you hold it in your mouth for several seconds.