February 14, 2010 - After about 15 years of wanting to visit this place and always managing to not get there or to be in town while the museum was closed, I finally managed to visit the DrPepper Museum in Waco TX. It was well worth the wait.

A reasonable question to ask is, why Texas? The main reason is that DP was invented in Texas and marketed there starting in 1885. A more complete history is available at the museum web site. Today, Dr Pepper is described as "the national drink of Texas" (after beer!)

For those of you who don't know, Dr Pepper is my favorite poison. Some folks prefer Coca-Cola or Pepsi or even stronger forms of poison, but I am unabashedly "a Pepper". Truely a drink for a warrior!

The museum itself is housed in the same factory that produced DrPepper syrup for delivery to bottlers nationwide for many decades. The content of the museum is the history of Dr Pepper, including lots of obsolete trade marks (like "10-2-4"), a theater that runs most if not all of the Dr Pepper TV commercials ever produced. Neat stuff - very nostalgic. The museum does have it own web site at http://www.drpeppermuseum.com/ and is highly recommended.

Next to the museum is a new plant that apparently was used for production starting in the mid to late 1960's. The picture above is of a true antique Dr Pepper delivery truck with the newer Dr pepper plant behind it.

Today DP is usually made with either corn syrup (leaded DP) or artificial sweeteners (Diet DP). However, at least one bottler has made a point of bucking the trend and continuing to use real sugar. The museum gift shop had this stuff available, so I managed to get a six-pack of real Dr Pepper. Unfortunately, I don't see it on their website, so I think I'll save this for a special event.

Dr Pepper was initially known as a "Waco" because it was made in Waco, TX. The company that made DP, starting after 1906 was known as the 'Artesian Manufacturing and Bottling Company'. They also produced other flavors under the 'Circle A' brand. Some of you are familiar with a latter day 'Circle A Ranch' - not related in any way to drinks of any sort - so the archaic brand signs have a certain cachet. These are the bulk of the pictures I took in Texas. Most of the time was spent fighting over restruant checks with my brother, so not much photographic evidence was collected. We did have an interesting situation occur in the Texas RV park we stayed in...