1st December: Dr Pepper

Although the exact date is unknown, the US Patent Office acknowledges December 1, 1885 as the first day of the American soft drink Dr Pepper. So here are 10 facts about Dr Pepper.

1. Patented in 1885, Dr Pepper pre-dates Coca Cola by a year and is therefore the oldest soft drink brand in the USA.
2. Dr Pepper was created in the early 1880s by a pharmacist named Charles Alderton, who worked as a pharmacist in a department store in Waco, Texas, serving customers with soft drinks as a sideline. He wanted to create a drink which reproduced for the taste buds the smell of the area around the soda fountain and pharmacy.
3. Customers loved the new drink which became unofficially known as "a Waco". Alderton wasn't interested in manufacturing soft drinks full-time - his main interest still lay in pharmacy, so he sold the recipe to his boss, department store owner WB Morrison. It was Morrison who came up with the name Dr Pepper.
4. We don't know how Morrison came up with the name but there are plenty of rumours. It may have been chosen because at that time, healthful drinks were popular and including a medical reference would help it sell. It has also been suggested that Morrison actually knew a Dr. Pepper who lived near him in Christianburg Virginia. His name may have been used because he gave Morrison his first job or gave him permission to marry his daughter. There's no evidence for either theory but a census from the time shows they lived close to each other, and Morrison was then working as a pharmacy clerk.
5. The recipe for Dr Pepper is a closely guarded secret. It is said it's so secret that the recipe has been divided into two halves which are kept in safety deposit boxes in two different Dallas banks. The company denies the rumour that one ingredient is prune juice.
6. In 2009, an old ledger book showed up at a Texas antique store. The letterheads suggested the book came from the store where Dr Pepper was first made. The book was full of recipes, including one for "D Peppers Pepsin Bitters". The company denied that this was the Dr Pepper recipe - they said it was for a digestive aid. The book failed to sell at auction.
7. "Dr Pepper Time", according to one promotion, is at 10, 2 and 4 o'clock.
8. There is a Dr Pepper Museum in Waco, Texas, which opened in 1991, in the building which was once the first dedicated Dr Pepper bottling plant. Dr Pepper was bottled there until the 1960s. The museum exhibits include a working old-fashioned soda fountain, and a gift store of Dr Pepper memorabilia.
9. The place which consumes the most Dr Pepper is the Roanoke Valley area of Virginia. It is less than 100 miles from where Morrison and the original Dr. Pepper were neighbours. The first Fr Pepper factory was opened there in 1936 and so the city had declared itself to be the "Dr Pepper Capital of the World". There is also an official Dr Pepper day, on October 24.
10. A standard sized can of Dr Pepper contains 150 calories. It contains carbohydrate in the form of sugar (or high fructose corn syrup, which is mostly what is used in the US these days, although other countries still use sugar due to regulations restricting the use of corn syrup) and sodium. It contains no fat or cholesterol, though.

New!

Jack Ward, President of Innovia, owes his life twice over to the enigmatic superhero, dubbed Power Blaster by the press. No-one knows who Power Blaster is or where he comes from - and he wants it to stay that way.

Scientist Desi Troyes has developed a nuclear bomb to counter the ever present threat of an asteroid hitting the planet. When Ward signs the order giving the go ahead for a nuclear test on the remote Bird Island, he has no inkling of Troyes' real agenda, and that he has signed the death warrants of millions of people.

Although the island should have been evacuated, there are people still there: some from the distant continent of Classica; protesters opposed to the bomb test; and Innovians who will not, or cannot, use their communication devices.

Power Blaster knows he must stop the bomb from hitting the island. He also knows it may be the last thing he ever does.

Meanwhile in Innovia, Ward and his staff gather to watch the broadcast of the test. Nobody, not even Troyes himself, has any idea what is about to happen.

Part One of The Raiders Trilogy.

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