Who Was the Doctor Behind Dr Pepper?

for over a century America's best physician has been prescribing the good stuff one sugary bottle at a time [Music] sure maybe he isn't a real doctor and maybe his medicine isn't all that good for you but it's sweet it's delicious and it launched a pepper craze that's lasted since the late 1800s today on weird history food we're getting our PhD in the history of Dr Pepper but before we get started be sure to subscribe to the weird history Food Channel and let us know in the comments below what other pept up soft drinks you would like to hear about okay I'm a pepper you're a pepper wouldn't you like to watch this video on Dr Pepper too [Music] soda flavor these days it's called Dr Pepper back in the beginning everyone just called it a Waco way back in 1885 just one year prior to the founding of Coca-Cola Charles alderton worked as a pharmacist at Morrison's old Corner drugstore in Waco Texas a city that is famous for a lot of things that aren't soda back then it was commonplace for pharmacies to have soda fountains places the town's youths could kick back relax and throw back a couple of caffeinated cold ones likewise when alderton wasn't Doling out morphine shots to clients he was busy slinging sodas of all varieties he apparently loved the way the different sodas smelled when they all mixed together into one fruity aroma so he set out to capture that Aroma in a single soda flavor keeping a journal of his experiments he tested out different mixtures until he came up with one he liked alderton then gave some of his new concoction to the drugstore's owner Wade Morrison and he liked it too so the pair decided to sell it at the soda fountain and the locals took to it like a doctor Dr Pepper at first customers refer to the new drink simply as Waco this is not a good name eventually Morrison had his business's special drink patented and changed its name to Dr Pepper although no one seems to know why he chose that name it most likely comes from Morrison's former employer Dr Charles T pepper this Dr Pepper was a confederate surgeon turned medical supplier whom Morrison had worked for for a few years in the 1880s likewise some say Dr Pepper got its name because Charles T pepper helped to come up with the drink's final recipe others say Morrison had fallen in love with Pepper's daughter but that pepper had refused to allow them to marry in this more exciting version of the story Morrison named his soda after pepper in a last Hail Mary bid to win his approval it's a nice story but seeing as Morrison was already married to someone else by that time many have raised doubts about how true it is still no one today knows for sure exactly why Wade seemingly named his soft drink after his former employer and the Dr Pepper museum yep there's one of those claims to have collected over a dozen versions of the beverages origin story including one where a can of soda gets bit by a radioactive pepper regardless it wasn't long after Dr Pepper's initial introduction that other nearby soda fountains started buying up Charles alderton's special syrup to serve in their own stores and by the end of the decade alderton and Morrison could no longer meet the high demand for their product foreign Georgia Coca-Cola's invention of the coupon had made it into a seemingly overnight National sensation there was suddenly big money to be made in the soda industry and more people than ever before wanted in on a soft drink action enter Robert S Lazenby an up-and-coming beverage chemist Lazenby was impressed by alderton's concoction and he suggested that alderton and Morrison start making Dr Pepper at scale with just fancy business talk for make a lot of it but alderton backed out insisting his place was in the pharmacy and he gave his Blessing for Lazenby and Morrison to do whatever they wanted with his soft drink creation he already spent all day filling pill bottles maybe he didn't want to spend his free time filling soda bottles so in 1891 the two formed the Artesian manufacturing and Bottling Company and Lazenby created the drink's final 23 ingredient form the recipe for which remains secret and spread out between two separate Dallas Bank vaults to this day like two halves of a doomsday riddle their likewise moved production from Morrison's Pharmacy to Dublin bottling Works in Dublin Texas and for the decade that followed Dr Pepper slowly spread its way all across the Lone Star State however in 1904 Dr Pepper went from a respected local physician to a national Superstar like Dr Phil what the hell are you people thinking it was the year of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition also known as the St Louis World's Fair the exposition was provided 15 million dollars about half a billion dollars in today's money to host over 60 different countries in 40 different U.S states and to construct one and a half thousand buildings over 1200 acres of land it was the biggest thing since well ever and nearly 20 million people attended to see this feat of human achievement and a witnessed some of what modernity had to offer debuting there with the likes of the X-ray machine the wireless telephone and the electric streetcar what's more many claim the exposition also began America's love affair with ice cream cones and hot dogs on buns and most Americans had never encountered either prior to the event even with this hodgepodge of the day's finest Innovations though Waco's favorite Dr Walt's Den to steal the show Dr Pepper was a hit with Exposition attendees and the fair launched the soft drink into National stardom foreign [Music] 1906 Lazenby and Morrison had made it big enough to purchase their very own bottling facility and they moved the company into an all-new heavy-duty brick walled Factory designed by a local architectural icon Milton Scott by the end of the decade Southern Americans identified Dr Pepper with its self-proclaimed title of king of Beverages and the brand even had a top hat wearing mascot to boot hey that's fun what's more the company's advertisements started suggesting customers drink their soda three times per day once at 10 am again at 2PM and one last time at 4pm in order to help keep up energy into the afternoon nothing like micro dosing some Dr P to get you through the day the facility's sturdiness would be put to the test 47 years later when on May 11th of 1953 an F5 tornado ripped through Waco destroying much of the town and claiming over 100 lives leaving hundreds more injured though it was greatly damaged the factory remained standing and it today houses the Dr Pepper museum an independent institution that offers visitors both insights into Dr Pepper's past as well as free tastes of the actual soda in case you somehow find yourself in the Dr Pepper Museum without ever having tried Dr Pepper before come on Jill give us a treat a friendly pepper wrapper with a tasty beef [Music] cause it never lets you down even with the company's omnipresence in the South Dr Pepper still had issues Distributing their product in other regions of the United States but in the 1950s the company decided to change the entire brand they dropped the period from their name they changed their tagline to the friendly pepper upper and they started taking some not so friendly swings at the soft drink industry's biggest players in 1951 they launched a 750 000 lawsuit against Coca-Cola overcook's five cent price tag they argued that coke was allowing itself to lose money on each bottle it sold just so it could run its competition out of business Dr Pepper then picked a fight with Federal regulators and the company attempted to get its own separate status independent of the cola category they argued that Dr Pepper was not a cola at all but rather a pepper type drink whatever the hell that means and once they were legally recognized as such it opened the door or to further lawsuits to Tamp down on the formation of monopolies major bottlers were required to bottle non-competitive soft drinks in their facilities in 1963 because Dr Pepper was no longer seen as a cola in the eyes of the law the beverage then went after Pepsi Cola arguing that Pepsi Cola had to let Dr Pepper use its Nationwide bottling facilities because Pepsi-Cola didn't have any pepper type drinks of their own the judge bought that argument Hook Line and Sinker and ruled in favor of Dr Pepper thus thanks to a series of questionable lawsuits Dr Pepper had at last strong armed its way into National Distribution but Coca-Cola wanted the doctor taken out which probably shouldn't have surprised anyone come on Dr Pepper You Know What You Did in 1972 Coke unveiled their new Dr Pepper competitor a soft drink they Market tested specifically in Waco Texas they called it Peppo and Market tested it specifically in Waco Texas because Revenge should never be subtle Dr Pepper retaliated by suing Coca-Cola again to force them to change the name Coca-Cola obliged and they renamed Peppo to Mr Pibb [Music] a name it would keep until 2001 when Coke changed the recipe and renamed it pib extra giving it a little bit of edge like the crisp beans of soft drinks with our Newfound status as a national brand Dr Pepper tried their hand at several different Market employees in the mid-1960s Dr Pepper hired Donna Lauren the company's first and only Dr Pepper girl who at the age of 16 became the face of the brand for the next half decade hi I'm Donna Lauren Dr Pepper makes an ideal gift for your true love so watch out for Rivals she appeared at magazine spreads and commercials and even starred in 1964's Muscle Beach Party a movie sponsored by Dr Pepper it was also during this time that the company used Dick Clark to promote Dr Pepper as a hot beverage perfect for cold winter days perfect time for hot Dr Pepper ah delicious and so easy to prepare just meet Dr Pepper in a saucepan till it steams then pour over a thin slice of lemon heading into the 70s Dr Pepper decided to lean into its uniqueness on the beverage Market at first they declared their own product America's most misunderstood soft drink [Music] [Applause] but in 1977 they launched their beer pepper Campaign which encouraged consumers to embrace their individuality by drinking Dr Pepper their commercials featured various versions of the same I'm a pepper be a Pepper song performed by An American Werewolf in London's David notman yeah yeah he's the I'm a pepper guy they even paid Michael Jackson to make a version all his own [Music] while the campaign was a huge success that success only lasted so long in the early 1980s the company became insolvent shortly thereafter a group of private investors swooped in and bought Dr Pepper outright seeing their chance to take out a particularly annoying competitor for good Coca-Cola attempted to buy Dr Pepper off of these investors at the same time Pepsi just so happened to be bidding on 7Up and both sales were struck down by the FTC over concerns of monopolization so 7Up and Dr Pepper back to being on their own had a sort of rebound relationship and merged into one big company just a decade later Coca-Cola adopted the if you can't buy them join them philosophy and attempted to merge with Dr Pepper as well but Three's a Crowd and citing Coca-Cola's existing pepper type drink Mr Pibb the FTC once more ruled against Coke due to concerns of monopolization it seems to happen to them a lot foreign Dr Pepper hasn't felt the need to mess around with its recipe too much over the years possibly because being a unique pepper type drink is what made it so successful in the first place but in the 2000s after over a century on the market Dr Pepper began to play with its flavors between 2002 and today they released the failed Dr Pepper red fusion the still available cherry vanilla and they short-lived but never forgotten berries and cream they've also come out with cherry vanilla float dark berry cream soda and strawberries and cream as well as both real sugar and zero sugar Alternatives today Dr Pepper is bigger and better than ever before in 2008 the company merged with Snapple to form the Dr Pepper Snapple group and in 2018 that new company was bought by Keurig Green Mountain to form curing Dr Pepper a company worth over 40 billion dollars yes we diving into the pillowcase while the soft drink sector has seen decline in sales in recent years Dr Pepper seems impervious to this trend the company currently owns about a quarter of the U.S soda market and is closing in on pepsico's 29 market share still both companies are Far Cry short of Coke's 40 market share and it will take a miracle for Dr Pepper to catch up anytime soon maybe give berries and cream another chance so what do you think are you a Dr Pepper or a Mr Pibb person let us know in the comments below and while you're at it check out some of these other weird history food videos [Music]

Channel: Weird History Food

Views: 265,358

Keywords: history of dr. pepper, the story of dr. pepper, everything you didn't know about dr. pepper, history of dr. pepper timeline, where and when did dr. pepper start?, weird history food, weird history food soda, dr. pepper, soda history, drink history, when was dr. pepper invented, dr. pepper facts, what are the flavors in dr. pepper, dr. pepper 23 flavors, when was dr. pepper originally made?, company man, tasting history with max miller, company x, thrillist, waco dr. pepper, cnn

Id: EYxSjQrxoDI

Length: 14min 7sec (847 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 10 2023