History of Dr. Pepper

With Dr Pepper coming in at number three of the soft drink maker in the world, only trailing behind Coca-Cola and PepsiCo, one can only imagine the origin behind this drink.   It is also the U.S leader in non-cola soft drinks.   And to top it off, it is the oldest of the major soft drink brands in America.   So with the popularity it has in the U.S. we should look at where this drink started.
The beginning of Dr Pepper’ story takes place at Morrison’s Old Corner Drug Store in Waco Texas.   A young pharmacist named Charles Alderton, who worked at Morrison’s store, is believed to be the inventor of Dr Pepper.   Alderton spent most of his time mixing medicine, but in his spare time, he liked to serve drinks at the soda fountain.   He always liked the way the drug store smelled, and decided to create a drink that tasted like that smell.   He kept a journal of all his mixtures and finally found one he really liked.   He tested his new drink on the store owner Morrison, who also really liked the drink.   After a couple more samples, Alderton offered his new drink to some of the fountain customers.   They liked it as well.  
Soon after Dr Pepper became popular among the customers, other soda fountain operators in Waco began buying the syrup from Morrison and serving it.   Though Alderton invented the drink, he was primarily interested in pharmacy work.   So he allowed Morrison and Robert Lazenby, a beverage chemist, to develop it further.   Morrison came up with name Dr Pepper.   And they formed a new business, the Artesian Mfg. & Bottling Company the changed it to Dr Pepper Company.   It continued to grow in popularity.   In 1904 Lazenby and his son-in-law J.B. O’Hara introduced Dr Pepper to almost 20 million people attending the 1904 World’s Fair Exposition in St. Louis.  
Dr Pepper has gone through many slogans.   From 1910 to 1914, Dr Pepper’s slogan “King of Beverages”.   The trademark character for Dr Pepper during the 1920s was a country doctor with a monocle and top hat.... [continues]

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