Robb Walsh tells serious eaters everything they could possibly want to know about Dr Pepper in a brilliant piece of reporting and commentary, including these facts:

There are now three local Texas bottlers making the original Dr Pepper with pure cane sugar instead of high fructose corn syrup (which Walsh objects to just on principle). Visitors to the original Dr Pepper bottling plant in Dublin, Texas, can buy 20 cases for "personal use"

Bootleggers and legit concerns are now distributing said Dr Pepper in convenience stores, gas stations, and even in upscale Texas grocery store Central Market

Walsh had passers-by blindly taste both kinds of Dr Pepper. Younger people thought the original Dr Pepper tasted weird. Walsh himself likes to cook with and drink the originally formulated version.

Click through for some more Dr Pepper picker-uppers.

Cane sugar-sweetened Dr Pepper plays a surprisingly important role in many Texans' lives. To those lucky or unlucky folks, the real Dr Pepper is likened to crack

The Dr Pepper Museum in Waco is kind of a dud

Paul McCartney originally wanted to call the Sgt. Pepper album Dr. Pepper's Lonelyhearts Club Band. At the time he didn't know about the soft drink. Eventually John Lennon grew to love it so much he would have it shipped to him in England

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