This week's Dr Pepper mailbag question

I was wondering when The Straight Dope would finally lap itself.

Cecil said that Dr Pepper contained "no prunes" in the very first Straight Dope book, published 'way back before most of the readers here were probably alive.

I always heard it contained prunes when I was growing up; eventually I realized that wasn't true. However, until just a few moments ago reading the answer to the question, I did not know it also had no cherry flavor in it.

So, what IS that flavor? My current best guess would be guarana, about which I know nothing other than that I've had a soft drink called Josta which claims to be flavored with it, and Josta is vaguely cherryish.

I don't know if this is the ACTUAL flavoring for Dr. Pepper, but I stumbled across a recipe that tastes so suspiciously close, that I think it might be onto something.

Last summer I was introduced to the delightful beverage known as an Italian Soda. You take flavored syrup, add carbonated water, and maybe a spritz of whipped cream. These can be created in many different permutations, and are really refreshing on a hot summer's day.

So I got really into these, and bought a few different kinds of syrup.

Try this: Fill a tall glass with cracked ice. Add a shot of amaretto syrup (the non-alcoholic, but naturally flavored, kind). Fill the glass with seltzer water. Top with a spritz of whipped cream. Stir gently a few times to let the whipped cream settled down into the glass a bit, then drink through a straw.

This will not LOOK anything like a Dr. Pepper. So drink it with your eyes closed. The flavor will be... EXTREMELY familiar.

Or, just sip a Dr. Pepper, and think "amaretto with cream." Taste it carefully. It's there.

My theory is that Dr. Pepper is flavored with large amounts, if not solely, of amaretto, and originally with a cream or milk based product of some kind. This flavoring would have been readily available at the original creation of the beverage. The beverage has been modified since then, to be more easily and economically mass-produced.

Give it a try and let me know what you think.

The line "(some of us prefer wine tasting, but there's room on the planet for all kinds of folks)" reads better as "..room on the palette for all kinds.." Jill wishes she had thought of this.

Jolt Cola has two new flavors out, other than their original cola. One of these flavors is named "Cherry Bomb", and it tastes almost EXACTLY like Dr Pepper. Dr Pepper has no cherry flavoring, huh? Right.

'Sokay; Jolt has more caffeine than Dr Pepper anyway...

[[Cecil said that Dr Pepper contained "no prunes" in the very first Straight Dope book, published 'way back before most of the readers here were probably alive.]]

Where? I don't see it in the book.
Jill

I couldn't find any reference in either of the first two books, nor in the online archives. Tracer, you got a page reference?

The Straight Dope Science Advisory Staff tries very hard to avoid Mailbag questions that have already been answered by Cecil. We don't always succeed, but I don't think we've got any into print (so to speak) that Cecil had already covered.

I think Tracer may be thinking of (gasp) William Poundstone's book, Big Secrets.

Dr Pepper has no prunes, eh? Than explain me this: My (soon to be) step-mom's cousin was drinking a bottle of Dr Pepper back in 1985 when she began to choke. She coughed up something that she claims still to this day as a prune! There were witnesses around who also claim that it was a prune (or something prune-like).But if Dr Pepper was never made out of prunes, what was that thing she coughed up? She contacted Dr Pepper soon afterwards and was given a truckload of free Dr Pepper for the inconvenience.

------------------
Its a good thing these chairs come with fart vents.

[[Dr Pepper has no prunes, eh? Than explain me this: My (soon to be) step-mom's cousin was drinking a bottle of Dr Pepper back in 1985 when she began to choke. She coughed up something that she claims still to this day as a prune! There were witnesses around who also claim that it was a prune (or something prune-like). But if Dr Pepper was never made out of prunes, what was that thing she coughed up? She contacted Dr Pepper soon afterwards and was given a truckload of free Dr Pepper for the inconvenience.]]

Well, I tell ya... a prune is certainly better than whatever else it could have been, so if I were you - or whoever spit it out - I would consider to believe the prune story.

consider = continue

JILLGAT -- Eeeeyeeeeuuuuwwwwwwwwwwwwww!!!!!

My memory is like a steel trap. In other words, Dr Pepper leaks right out of it.

After posting the first message to this thread, I went back to the first Straight Dope book to vindicate my reference. And, lo and behold, it wasn't there. Perhaps I WAS rememering a scene from a trivia book published by somebody other than Cecil (*gasp*!).

In any event, that'll teach me not to post things without looking them up first ever again. (At least, until the next time I get cocky.)

[[My (soon to be) step-mom's cousin was drinking a bottle of Dr Pepper back in 1985 when she began to choke. She coughed up something that she claims still to this day as a prune! There were witnesses around who
also claim that it was a prune (or something prune-like). But if Dr Pepper was never made
out of prunes, what was that thing she coughed up?]]

She was drinking Dr. Pepper out of a bottle and you think that what she started choking on came *out* of the bottle? For the object to have come out of the bottle -- or can, for that matter -- it would have had to have been about one-quarter to one-half the size of a prune *pit*. I'm having a hard time imagining how anything that small could look like a prune. Or even "prune-like," although I guess a raisin might look "prune-like" and be small enough to fit through the neck of a bottle. Still, if she'd coughed up a raisin I'd think that it could have been easily identified as such.

My guess is that it was actually the shrivelled up eye of a newt. That was in the original recipe, after all. . .

Rich

If it had been a prune, it wouldn't remain so after soaking in soda for a while. Put a raisin in a glass of water, come back in a couple hours, and you get a grape. Soak it in Coke, and you get a black, funky-looking grape. I'm sure that similar reconsitution would happen with a prune in Dr. Pepper.

[[ I'm sure that similar reconsitution would happen with a prune in Dr. Pepper.]]

But it was *not* a prune, because - as we have established - there *are no prunes* in Dr Pepper.
Jeesh.
Jill

... of course, it might have been the moon, or a swoon, or a June [bug], or a croon.

See the thread: Moon Exploding.

There's never a bat around when you need one.

Dr Pepper to me has always tasted and looked like birch beer... so now my question is: what's in birch beer? Or root beer, for that matter?

What I want to know is, why does Auraseer spend so much time soaking suspect fruits in various liquid beverages, And then failed to have the requisite supplies (prune, Dr. P)
to perform the required experiment!?

This rank speculation has got to stop. My REM sleep is suffering.

No molecules of birch or root are actually in the respective beers named after them, there is only the memory of each of the different types of molecules.

Rich