If I recall correctly, the phosphoric acid is an aid in bottleing to keep the disolved CO from fizzing out.
Would it be possible to provide some kind of cite instead of making up numbers?
Testify Brother!
I’ll add another call for “provide a cite and stop making stuff up”.
That’s because you forgot the whiskey! Hot Dr Pepper is best enjoyed with at least a shot or two of whiskey mixed in.
I do take offense at being accused of making stuff up.
Forgive me if I find your cite less than credible. It says:
Firstly, the whole point of putting the phosphoric acid in is to make the stuff taste sour. The idea that the sourness is somehow a side-effect that needs to be counteracted by adding more sugar is laughable.
Secondly, the author purports to be quoting another source, “The Curse Of The Soft Drink” by Stan Field. That source can be found here:
It’s the usual “soft drinks are bad” stuff, but even so, it does not contain the sentence “Lets begin with phosphoric acid: this is used in soft drinks to allow the bubbles of carbon dioxide to release more slowly which helps with bottling”, nor anything even vaguely resembling it.
So it looks like you’re off the hook, it was the author of your cite that made it up.
Yea that link was from a health food place, I actually read that in the paper the other day and I was surprised that Google got me the same article. What I did find out that lowers the ph, maybe that helps to keep it from fizzing and also it is used as a cleaning agent, especially in brewing( It being phosphoric acid).
Thanks for taking me off the hook.
Well, you know, there is that little thing called “search” on your computer, where a search for “blind taste test coke pepsi” got over 50 hits, including one of our brother sites- Snopes. You really haven’t heard of “the Pepsi Challenge”? Reams have been written about it.
Well, here is the snopes cite:
For me, Dr. Pepper has become some what of a religious experience. Once I strarted drinking this tasty beverage (About 10 years ago), I couldn’t get enough. I will say that I can’t stand it even warm, so hot D.P. sounds slightly disgusting to me.
Nothing is better than an ice cold D.P. from the fountain at your local Taco Bell.
Anyone that thinks D.P. tastes “exactly like cherry Coke” has a serious lack of fungi-form papilae. Don’t mind my spelling.
Why did they name this drink Dr. Pepper? I agree that at one point in time I would not drink it, thinking that it would taste peppery. Maybe Dr. Amaretto, or Dr. Almond, or Dr. Strangelove would have been better sellers.
Nobody is sure of the origin of the name, but one of the most likely (IMHO) is that it is supposed to give you extra pep. The old slogan said Drink it at 10, 2 and 4, which supposedly are the times your energy levels are the lowest.
Not Cecil’s article, dammit.
And I am not a minion.
Jill
Does anyone know if caffeine free Dr Pepper is available in Western PA? I loves me some DP, but unfortunately, I’m not supposed to have caffeine.
Two of us here can say that. 
First you talk about generic sodas that can match brand names, and then you say that people can’t really tell the difference. Which is it? Would there be any market for generic soda if the latter were true?
And your link to snopes was informative, but only about Coke’s formula change. It really didn’t support your claims that “60% of Coke drinkers couldn’t consistently tell if it was Pepsi”, or anything about double blind test results. All the taste tests I could find were about preference, but said nothing about testing for consistency of preference.
I heartily disagree with the statment that coke and pepsi are indistinguishable, at least if you drink them out of a can or glass bottle; if I take a big swig out of a can of coke I just opened, the burn makes me cross my eyes (which I like for some reason). Pepsi doesn’t do that for some reason. If it’s a fountain soda or soda that is a little flatter, I can’t tell the difference too well - they both taste like crap. Coke isn’t as sweet and seems to have more zing to it, at least to me. As a kid, I wouldn’t touch the stuff, but loved pepsi. Now I prefer coke, won’t really drink a pepsi unless I really need the caffeine - too sweet. I also have to mention that there was some brand X cheap-as-hell cola from this Store called Aldis that is a nearly dead on knockoff of coke, I probably couldn’t tell the difference between that and coke, and I don’t think that was a coincidence. But Pepsi and coke are pretty distinctive, especially if you drink 2 or more colas a day.
(rather IMHO for general questions, but I don’t really have any facts regarding this)
John- the fact is- there isn’t much difference. If you read the studies, they go on with “among those expressing a preference”, which was something like only 40%. In other words- most (but not all) dudes can’t tell the difference. Some can tell the difference, but think they prefer X, where in reality, in a blind test- they choose Y (“Y” here usually being the tatse of Pepsi). A few can taste the difference & pick out their fave every time.
There is certainly a difference in the taste- New Coke showed that- if nothing else. But, again, there isn’t much difference. Still, in the trenches of the “cola wars” an extra 10% could make a HUGE difference. Thus, the attempt by Coke to change the taste of Coke closer to Pepsi= “New Coke”. What they apparently did not count on was the incredible brand loyalty of dudes who EVEN THOUGH THEY PICKED THE TASTE OF PEPSI AS THE ONE THEY PREFERRED- still wanted “classic Coke”- because- well, “that’s what they liked, dammit”.
Donovan- maybe you can pick out your fave- Coke- over Pepsi- but the odds are against it. Enough dudes can do so that your claim is certainly not impossible. But- I’ll bet a nickle that if someone secretly put Pepsi into that familiar wasp-waisted glass bottle, you would not complain until they confessed. Have someone do a blind taste test someday.
I put my hand up, I HAVE done the Pepsi challenge. I got it wrong.
I remember taking the pepsi challenge as a young kid. I was extremely disappointed to find out that I’d supposedly chosen Pepsi.
Then I was disappointed again when I convinced my parents to buy Pepsi instead of Coke, and it tasted nothing like what the challenge served.
We went back to Coke and Dr Pepper.
From the “Curse of the Soft Drink” article…
How about “Let’s take a bunch of lies and half-truths, and link them together with some kind of pseudo-scientific buncombe”?
OH NO! PHOSPHORIC ACID WILL REMOVE LIMESCALE!! Er, yes. So will common or garden vinegar. The container says “harmful if swallowed” because it’s concentrated! The concentration of phosphoric acid in Coke is much, much lower.
And how exactly does the acid in Coke have such a great effect, when it is much less acidic than the acid that is already in your stomach. According to Snopes there is 20 times as much phosphoric acid, weight for weight, in an orange as there is in Coke.
I am aware that I’m probably preaching to the converted here, but some people’s ignorance just makes me want to hit them repeatedly between the eyes with some good solid facts.