I’m A Pepper … Actually a Dublin Pepper
Walking down the soft drink aisle of my favorite market is an adventure in shopping I can do without. The selection is truly overwhelming. Rounding the corner of Isle 6, bottled water is the first thing a shopper lays eyes on. At least ten brands, some imported, some domestic, some with flavor and some in sporty bottles. Diet pop is next. I didn’t even bother to count the choices, but basically they are either clear or dark, with a couple of orange ones thrown in. Some are sugar free, others caffeine free, and some are both. Unlike 
the water, I did recognize most of the names as they are spin-offs of the sugar-based sodas I grew up with. Ahhh… soda water. That’s what we called them when I was a little boy. Coke, Pepsi, Dr. Pepper, Sprite, Mountain Dew, RC, Squirt, 7-UP, Crush, root beer and creme soda. That about covers it. Sport and energy drinks, with a selection that would almost put Kool-Aid to shame, are last. (Heck, I still remember the original 7 flavors, do you? … I’ll list them at the end of the article). I sort of understand the daily re-hydration challenges we face, but stop dead-in-my-tracks when it comes to energy drinks. The labels all look like heavy metal albums….. uh, I mean like the covers on CD cases. And the contents are equal to a dozen cups of coffee.
From the title and the text-wrapped picture it should be obvious that I’m a Pepper. I’ve drank the stuff for 50 years. In the early days of soft drinks, everybody used pure cane sugar for their sweetener. Around the 70s, the price of sugar took a jump and most everyone switched to high fructose corn syrup. Everyone, that is, except a choice few. One of those bottlers that did not switch is the Dr. Pepper Bottling Plant in Dublin, Texas. They still use Imperial Pure Cane Sugar.
I recently received a 6 pack of the 8 oz. bottles from a friend in Texas. Now it’s only fair to mention that I switched to sugar-free Dr. Pepper about 10 years ago, so this was indeed a rare treat. Every few weeks I pop the top on a cold bottle (these don’t unscrew) and just kick back…
As promised, here are the Kool-Aid original flavors:
