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Farewell, Dublin Dr Pepper
After a trademark dispute that started last summer, Dr Pepper Snapple Group and Dublin Dr Pepper Bottling Company announced yesterday that they’d reached a deal that ends the 121-year tradition of Dublin Dr Pepper, the beloved cane sugar-sweetened Dr Pepper sold in small 8-ounce bottles.
Dr Pepper Snapple will make a Dr Pepper sweetened with cane sugar that it will distribute to certain parts of Texas, but the “nostalgic packaging” won’t carry the Dublin label.
“Our main focus has always been on protecting the strength and integrity of the Dr Pepper trademark,” Rodger L. Collins, president of packaged beverages at Dr Pepper Snapple, is quoted as saying in the WSJ story.
The Fort Worth Star-Telegram explains what this means to the small town of Dublin, which for decades has drawn as many as 95,000 tourists a year who were looking for the fountain of their favorite soda. (Most of them were unaware that much of the Dublin Dr Pepper was actually produced at an independent bottler in Temple, according to the Star-Telegram story.)
Who knows how much longer DublinDrPepper.com will exist, but the homepage (above) today is a pretty good visual contrast of this story. The slick, corporate Dr Pepper logo right next to the old-timey Dublin Bottling Works logo, which will take visitors to OldDocs.com, the site for Old Doc’s Soda Shop, the W.P. Kloster Museum and Dublin Bottling Works, which will continue to make Triple XXX Root Beer, NuGrape and SunCrest sodas.
It’s the end of a very long era that is near and dear to many Texans, including this transplant. Are you sad to see Dublin Dr Pepper go away? Will you drink its replacement?
Photo from Dublin Dr Pepper’s Wikipedia page.
Permalink | Comments (6) | Post your comment Categories: Food in the news
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By girlstar24
January 12, 2012 11:23 AM | Link to this
I’m really sad to see Dublin Dr. Pepper go away….half the fun of drinking it is knowing that it’s produced in a little Texas town. Boo.
By Glenda Twigg
January 12, 2012 1:54 PM | Link to this
I just got the news.So sad to hear that our beloved factory in Dublin is closing.What are our people thinking?I took pride in telling people where I live now ,about Dublin Dr. Pepper.What a sad day.Will miss you DUBLIN DR.PEPPER.
By Julius Cheeser
January 12, 2012 2:08 PM | Link to this
This is an unacceptable moral outrage. Surely, Obama must be behind these machinations. Apocalypse is certain to follow.
By Roberta Elmore
January 12, 2012 2:53 PM | Link to this
Just remember that the Bottling Company in Dublin is not closing!!! They will stop bottling Dr. Pepper there. They will still bottle other products from the plant in Dublin, Texas and we need to support them. It is a said day for Dublin, Tx and surrounding areas who had come to love the Dublin Dr. Pepper logo. It is ashame that Corporate America is so greedy. But still come to Dublin and try all the other soda’s they are and will bottle. Lets put the 14 laid off workers back to work bottling something better!
By Roberta Elmore
January 12, 2012 2:54 PM | Link to this
Just remember that the Bottling Company in Dublin is not closing!!! They will stop bottling Dr. Pepper there. They will still bottle other products from the plant in Dublin, Texas and we need to support them. It is a sad day for Dublin, Tx and surrounding areas who had come to love the Dublin Dr. Pepper logo. It is ashame that Corporate America is so greedy. But still come to Dublin and try all the other soda’s they are and will bottle. Lets put the 14 laid off workers back to work bottling something better!
By Jim
January 15, 2012 3:02 PM | Link to this
Dublin Dr Pepper just tastes better. Snapple is just being the big bully. I will be very surprised if Snapple doesn’t close the plant and drop the real sugar product in a couple of years. This has all the makings of buying out the competition and then shutting them down. Just wait.