Saturday, February 18, 2006

I'm a Pepper

Contrary to what others may tell you, Diet Dr. Pepper is the finest drink in existence.  There are certainly other fine beverages out there, carbonated and otherwise.  But DDP wins, hands down.  In my continual fascination with all things Pepperific, I’ve found a couple interesting things for you.

As you may well know, DDP isn’t the only option we have for Dr. Pepper consumption.  There is of course DP of the nondiet variety.  I enjoy this as well, but not as much.  There was also Red Fusion for a short time.  It was a bit lighter and had more of a cherry taste.  I wish it had stayed around, but sadly consumers are stupid beings.  There is currently Cherry Vanilla DP, which I also like, but again, not nearly as much as DDP.  But in addition to these brands there is Dublin Dr. Pepper.  Made only in the town of Dublin TX, this recipe uses cane sugar instead of whatever artificial junk we know and love in the traditional variety.  I’d be greatly interested to taste this variant, but am not quite interested enough to buy some from their site, which can be found at:

http://www.olddocs.com/results.aspx?cat=Drinks

Another fascinating site I found compares every generic brand of Dr. Pepper in the country.  I certainly hope whoever put this together got some type of honorary degree for his thorough analysis of hundreds of sodas.  I’m sure his dentist has given him quite a few harsh words about this abusive behavior on his teeth.  Eckerds comes out with the number one imitation.  Sadly there are no Eckerds in Provo or I’d go check out his findings.  The site can be found at:

http://www.fakedrpepper.com/main.html

In conclusion, get out there and drink more DDP so it can beat out both Coke and Pepsi and become the official American soda.  This is the kind of grassroots campaign I can really get behind.

I was going to give my top ten favorite sodas, but to cut down on thinking I’m just going to make a list.  We’ll consider them all equal, except DDP, which reigns supreme.

Diet Dr. Pepper, Dr. Pepper, Cherry Vanilla Dr. Pepper, Red Fusion, IBC Cream Soda, Barqs Red Cream Soda, Barqs Rootbeer, Diet Canada Dry Ginger Ale, Grape Schweppes, Fresca, Cherry Coke, Mountain Dew (preferably from Taco Bell,  other MDs aren’t as good), Mountain Dew: Code Red (and the occasional Livewire), Diet Coke, Crystal Pepsi, Vanilla Coke

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Why do you like DDP so much more than DP? Is it really the taste? Or is it the psychological buzz from getting the taste and the no sugar bonus?

Personally, I like the taste of DP better, but don't see why I should drink anything other than diet, considering the sugar, etc. I save my sugar for chocolate.

Anonymous said...

Caffeine is not an issue for you folks? (you know, you folks like "your kind"). My understanding was that it had some significance as a "harmful substance"--not criticizing, just curious.

Anonymous said...

Ooh, are you going to try to respond to the caffeine question? Ellie, caffeinated soda is one of those debatable subjects with no clearcut answer.

I thought there was some kind of stigma to a guy drinking/liking diet sodas? Is this not an issue? Not that I'm surprised you're into it, given the home you grew up in...

Anonymous said...

Ellie O--caffeine IS NOT an issue for us. Please ask any Mormon who says it is when the last time they ate a brownie was.

SOME Mormons (like Erin, apparently) think it is something to debate. I know it is not. Forgoing caffiene is a fine thing to do--I have nothing against it--but any Mormon who thinks they are doing it for religious reasons needs to examine their scriptures a bit more carefully.

Ranteumptom said...

I haven't been avoiding the question, just taking my weekend off very seriously. It wouldn't really be a vacation if I had to post on my blog now would it?

Not to contradict Emily, well actually to contradict her completely, caffeine is very much an issue. Her point is that it shouldn't be. Many Mormons shun caffeinated soda because they feel it is against the doctrine of our church. This is because we have received modern revelation that prohibits smoking, alcohol, coffee and tea. The assumption being that coffee and tea are prohibited due to their caffeine content. However the church has left the decision on soda up to the individual member.

I for one drink it quite a bit. It's obviously not good for me, so I really shouldn't, but by the same token I really shouldn't eat ice cream or Twix bars. I intend to continue to do both. While in Utah I have no problem getting the caffeine-free version of these sodas (which are readily available) but my conscience is fine when I'm not able to. I'd feel worse if caffeine had any effect on me, but I can easily drink a liter of Mt. Dew and go straight to sleep.

As for the stigma against males drinking diet soda, it does exist, but only to a small extent. I sometimes get comments about watching my figure when I order diet drinks. But it's pretty easy to explain that it's simply what I grew up drinking and that I'm reasonably certain Nutrasweet won't give me cancer.