Is it possible, scratch that. Is it likely that the Midtown Dr Pepper suppliers would use cane sugar, while the rest of the Kansas City area suppliers would use high fructose corn syrup?
The reason I ask is because I’ve noticed that in the Midtown/Plaza/Westport area, the Dr Pepper is much nicer tasting than any I’ve had before. It has a less harsh, more vanilla-y flavor. Everywhere else, it tastes how I’m used to, but at the Checkers, Taco Bells, Chilis, Subways, and other restaraunts between about 47th and 75th streets, and Ward Parkway and The Paseo, it just tastes so much better!
Soda machines need to adjusted properly to achieve the ideal mix of syrup, CO2, and water. It could be that the company that delivers in that area does a better job of maintaining the machines or teaching their customers to do so.
AFAIK, the only remaining beverage concern to use cane sugar instead of corn syrup in Dr. Pepper is in Dublin, Texas. (They’ve got a web page.)
It’s possible, but it seems exceptionally unlikely, that perhaps some stocks from there made it up to KC - inventory overflow, or something. But I’d hazard that the difference can be attributed to less, um, tangible reasons.
(cough cough it’s all in your head cough cough)
FWIW, I haven’t noticed any differences over here Columbia…
I have noticed that Dr Pepper is exceptionally subject to having an off flavor if the mixture of syrup to water is wrong. Naturally, this only affects drinks gotten from soda fountains.
On the other hand, those expiration dates they’re putting on soft drinks now aren’t there for your benefit. Something truly has changed in the way they bottle soft drinks now (my guess would be they’ve finally lightweighted the plastic to the point that it is no longer capable of keeping the beverage from going flat over long periods of time). I have been weaning myself off soft drinks and last week opened a bottle of Diet Dr Pepper that was purchased early last summer (big sale); it was flat as Kansas and tasted wrong.
Fountain drinks vary greatly in taste. Canned drinks tend to taste the same–the Dr. Pepper here in the UK is indistinguishable from the US/Canadian DP.
And the best way to stop DP from tasting funny is to add a double shot of vodka (the DVDP–spot the South Park reference). Of all the people on the SDMB, you should know that, Homer.