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One of America’s favourite soft drinks is called Dr Pepper. A magical drink created by a young pharmacist in Texas back in 1885 by mixing 23 ingredients in addition to phosphoric acid. A somewhat mysterious formula that includes somewhat confusing components such as ‘carbonated water, high fructose corn syrup, caramel colour, natural and artificial flavours, sodium benzoate (preservative), caffeine’.
Over the decades, the drink has experienced an effervescent rise to become one of the top sellers in its segment, according to new Beverage Digest data collected by the Wall Street Journal. With that in mind, Dr Pepper has now officially overtaken Pepsi, which has held second place since 1985 as the second most popular soft drink brand in the US.
To no one’s surprise, at the top of the podium is Coca-Cola, which continues to lead the market by a wide margin, with 19.2% of the US soft drinks market by sales volume. It is now followed by Dr Pepper and Pepsi, with 8.3%, the latter rising to the top thanks to the factors behind its success: marketing and the virality it has achieved in recent years on the internet, including an epic Dr Pepper and Pickles moment in May, when people took to TikTok to show off the combination of drinks available at Sonic.
