Isn't Dr. Pepper simply off-brand cola with almond syrup?

Dr Pepper was introduced before Coca Cola.

One more reason why it couldn't be on-brand.

That I think is the point being the first recognized commercial soda defines the category. I didn't get it from the preamble because I wasn't aware of Dr. Pepper's iconic status.

I usually drink water flavored seltzer but I'm going to have a Dr. Pepper today.

Huh, only by five months. Dr Pepper was officially sold starting on Dec 1, 1885, Coke on May 8th, 1886.

IMHO as a soda drinker with discerning taste, Dr. Pepper is kind of its own category, but more root beer adjacent than cola adjacent.

Good point.

Root beer isn't a thing here, so I don't had a reference.

Anybody willing to make that claim has my attention.

Do you think it is different than Mr. Pibb? Do you think it is like cherry Coke?

Having developed some in Pennsylvania Dutch country I have to ask what about Birch Beer?

Mr Pibb/Pibb Xtra is in the same category as Dr Pepper, IMHO and Coke had originally named it Peppo to target the Dr Pepper market; incidentally Pepsi doesn't have anything in the "pepper-drink" category). I don't have a lot lot of familiarity with Pibb, because this category isn't something I desire very often, and Pibb availability is generally low; but next time I see it, if it's not one of the hideous Coke Freestyle machines where the flavors come out of inkjet cartridges, I'll give it a try and update my references. There's some similarity in initial flavor to cherry Coke, but you know, there's cherry Dr Pepper out there too, and that's distinguishable from regular Dr Pepper.

I must admit I haven't had birch beer; but I'll try it when I see it too. :)

Yes, I assumed that Pep- was similar to -ito in the salty snack category.

The untrained pallet might compare birch beer to toothpaste.

I thought of cherry Dr. Pepper as just more cherry.

Funny that PEPsi missed the PEPper drink market.

Pibb isn't bad but it certainly isn't in the same category as Dr Pepper. They aren't even remotely the same

Well... I had some with dinner tonight, and I disagree. It's definitely distinguishable, and as a sibling mentioned Pibb is a lot more sugary, but it tastes pretty similar to Dr Pepper to me.

Pibb used to be cherry-forward, smoother-drinking Dr Pepper (nb I preferred Dr Pepper).

Pibb Xtra is mostly just SUGAR punching you in the taste buds.

Dr Pepper was formulated to taste the way Morrison's Old Corner Drug Store in Waco TX smelled in the early 1880s. It's not supposed to taste of anything identifiable.

It definitely has notes of horse or barn.

Where did you get that info from? You made me curious, so I tried to dig in a bit. The entire early history seems a little murky when you push past the 'official' story and try to find evidence. But even so, I couldn't find anything at all referencing what the flavor was intended to be. I was trying to find Morrison's original patent from ~1885 to see what it had in it, but couldn't dig it up.

I also found a the true story they didn't mention it. Most of the "true stories" seems to be the struggle for credit.

The early drug store/soda fountain days seem pretty wild. People were freely mixing up drugs and sugar water.

The early seeds of RiteAid originated in a small central PA. town. Think about all the derivative business spun out of drug store plus soda fountain.

The most questionable part of the "true story" to me was that the soda was named after Dr. Charles T. Pepper because Morrison was in love with his daughter. According to census data, Dr. Pepper's daughter was 5 years old when Morrison was 17 and lived in the same town, and there's no record of Morrison having worked for Dr. Pepper as claimed or having known him at all. But there was another Dr. Pepper who lived a couple houses down from Morrison when he was 17 who had a 16 year old daughter at the time.

In fact, Dr. Pepper tastes like Amarena cherry, which is a taste a bit more common in Italy that I haven't found abroad: it's often found in ice creams and other confectionery as a darker, slightly sour cherry.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amarena_cherry