Dublin Dr Pepper
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Dublin Dr Pepper refers to Dr Pepper bottled by The Dublin Dr Pepper Bottling Company of Dublin, Texas. It is notable in that the bottler uses cane sugar for a sweetener as opposed to high fructose corn syrup (HFCS). During the late 1970s and early 1980s, almost all soft drink bottlers began using HFCS over cane sugar because of a rise in the price of sugar. The owner of the Dublin, Texas-based Dr Pepper bottling plant refused to switch sweeteners, and it remains one of the only bottlers in the United States to continue using cane sugar.
Although Dublin Dr Pepper is the most widely known cane sugar Dr Pepper product, it is not exclusive in this respect. Three other U.S. bottlers are confirmed to use cane sugar to this day, two of which are also located in Texas. These bottlers are Temple Bottling Company of Temple, Texas, ABTEX Bottling of Abilene, Texas and West Jefferson Dr Pepper of West Jefferson, NC.
Contractual requirements previously limited the Dublin plant's distribution range to a 44-mile radius of Dublin, an area encompassing Stephenville, Tolar, Comanche and Hico. However, this restriction was later lifted, and now the "original" formula is available in specialty grocery stores throughout most of Texas, as well as on-line. Despite this, most cane-sugar Dr Pepper found in Texas is produced by Temple Bottling Company, including the canned product found on Dublin's website.
The Dublin plant is the nation's oldest Dr Pepper bottler, producing Dr Pepper continuously since 1891, six years after the soft drink's debut in Waco.[1] 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 could have claimed the entire state as a franchise, but chose instead to formalize his modest informal territory, which has remained unchanged. [2]
