Do You Want to Know a Secret?

The CIA and FBI are not the only game in town that understands the allure of a secret for the American public. Covert activities aside, McDonald's Big Mac has long boasted about its “special sauce” (which takes suspiciously like mayonnaise and ketchup), whereas KFC has promoted its “secret recipe of herbs and spices,” and now, after years or speculation, we know the origins of the secret formula for Dr. Pepper. It’s true!

Dr. Pepper, like olives and oysters, is an acquired taste. (Think Tony Curtis and Laurence Olivier bathing in Quo Vadis.) Well, the next best thing, a local Oklahoma man has just discovered a book in an old antique store from the very Waco, Texas, drugstore where Dr. Pepper was invented, which includes a recipe entitled "D. Peppers Pepsin Bitters." The book where the formula was found is filled with everything from piano polish formula to a hair-restorer, to a cough syrup. The original "D. Peppers Pepsin Bitters" formula includes mandrake root, sweet flag root and syrup. It is most likely an early recipe for Dr. Pepper, but not the current formulation. Still pundits may note that piano polish tastes eerily like Dr. Pepper; alas, it does not restore hair. I am the living proof.

Dr Pepper was first served in 1885 and is said to have been invented at the W.B. Morrison & Co. Old Corner Drug Store in Waco, Texas, by a pharmacist named Charles Alderton. “It isn't a recipe for a soft drink,” says Greg Artkop, a representative for the Plano, Texas-based Dr. Pepper/Snapple Group. He insists, “It’s likely instead a recipe for a bitter digestive that bears the Dr. Pepper name.” He further reports the recipe bears no resemblance to the modern day Dr. Pepper recipe, as the drink's 23-flavor blend is a closely guarded secret, only known by three Dr. Pepper employees.

So, Mr. Alderton since it is such a closely guarded secret, how do I know for certain that the modern day formula doesn't include mandrake root, sweet flag root and syrup?

--Ron Knoth, Guest Blogger

Comments

[Ron Knoth]

Dear Point Of Sale Pete,

Actually, Dr Pepper is in good company, many soft drinks have a compelling history, for example and perhaps best known is Coca-Cola, who originally made their soda with cocaine, hense it's addictive qualities.

It's a throwback to a bygone era, but in the days of "The Malt Shop" and malted milk shakes, malt was included because there was a surplus. It originally was a primary supplement for horse food, when the auto industry rose in prominence, malt makers didn't know what to do. Knowing that malt was a laxitive they figured...what harm could come from adding a little to our diets. While it's been ages since I had a malted milk shake, I do consume my fair share of (sugar free) malted milk balls.

There is no explaining "Mountain Dew".

[point of sale pete]

interesting Dr Pepper trivia, there. i never knew that drink had a medical background story...

it seems to me that the fact that alcoholic beverages don't have to list their ingredients on their bottles is both unfair to the consumer and a HUGE part of the marketing of all alcoholic products themselves.. after all, beer drinkers would probably find themselves a little less brand obsessed if they read "water, hops and barley" as the ingredients of 90% of the beers they drink....

[Ron Knoth]

Dear Bruce,

I'm almost nostalgic for the days of "Cop Rock" and "New Coke" which all the taste studies showed unequivicably tasted better than old Coke. People like what they like.

Ron

[Bruce Sanders]

You may hold the Pepper, my friend. (Well, as long as you're holding it, I say go ahead and drink it.) You bringing to my mind a prime-time Elizabeth Taylor provided me sufficient tang for now. Your original post had led to me thinking about those taste tests with Vernor's, where people liked it much better when it was called a "new type of soft drink" instead of a ginger ale. The musings about how we like our products in categories gave me today's theme for my blog posting (http://rimtailing.blogspot.com/2009/05/break-it-down-for-me.html), so I'd say you've done enough payback. Period.

[Ronald Knoth]

Dear Bruce,

I stand corrected. You are 100% absolutely correct there is no period following Dr as in Dr Pepper. (But I still think there should be!)

I made another unforgivable error. Tony Curtis and Laurence Oliver were in "Spartacus", not "Quo Vadis" Elizabeth Taylor was in "Quo Vadis". I always get her and Tony Curtis mixed up because they're both so gosh darn beautiful!

Can I make it up to you by sending you a case of Dr Pepper?

Ron

[Bruce Sanders]

Secret ingredients aside, "It's my secret," is reputed to have a powerful pull on consumers. Think about the tease campaigns when a product or service is first being introduced. Secrets generate a sense of fun and discovery, which can be good for customer involvement with a product. How about those Easter Eggs—the hidden messages and special effects we needed the secret sequence of keystrokes to activate—in Microsoft Excel and other software? But a producer should never keep secret what category a product is supposed to belong to. Paralleling what Ron said about Dr Pepper (yes, Ron, there is no period after the "Dr" in the name of the product) and from the same company as Dr Pepper, Vernor's ginger ale was an acquired taste. Well, no, actually for many people, it was NOT an acquired taste until it was advertised as a new type of soft drink, not as a ginger ale. This was a marketing twist, though, since Vernor's also calls itself the oldest existing U.S. brand of ginger ale. When you're keeping secrets, I guess you can have it both ways.