Who's a Pepper????

Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports
1

http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mdrpepper.html
Now, my personal thoughts/opinions/guesses as to the actual flavourings of this hallowed old soft drink:

  1. This could rank as an “urban legend,” but one flavouring ingredient may, or may not, be–burnt rum!
    This may not be as outlandish as it first sounds because burning, or burnt rum does figure in at least one recipe of the alcoholic drink, “Flaming Dr Pepper.” Here is a link to one of the more common recipes for this beverage:
    http://www.drinksmixer.com/drink13.html

Also, burning/burnt rum is an ingredient in the Spanish coffee drink called Cremat (“Cremated”)

http://www.drinksmixer.com/drink7666.html

However, one of the main reasons that I suggest this is because this fact/factoid was divulged to me by a dear friend who has a relative who is employed as a manager at a bottling plant in the US which produces Dr Pepper.

  1. Vanillin is another flavouring ingredient.

    This fact/factoid is to be found in William Poundstone’s famous “Big Secrets,” which went to great lengths to provide us with the actual (?) ingredients of Coca-Cola, but unfortunately gave us few clues as to Dr Pepper.

    Armed with this knowledge, I sent an e-mail to the official Dr Pepper website several years ago asking for confirmation of Items 1 & 2. Specifically, I asked, "Is it not true that Dr Pepper contains burnt rum and imitation vanilla (or vanillin.) The reply that I received, in short, was: “Dr Pepper does not contain rum or vanilla.” Of course, this was not exactly what I asked, but this vague reply tended to confirm my suspicions…

  2. Almond extract is responsible for the cherry-like flavour of our favourite beverage.

This is simply my own opinion, one that I have held since childhood.
Before we knew about such things as lactose intolerance, my mother insisted on the health benefits of my drinking milk. When I told her that I didn’t like it because it hurt my stomach, she told me that I might add some flavoring to it, so I rummaged thru the pantry and found: almond extract! Using this, plus a little sugar, I promptly came up with my favourite milk drink, which I dubbed “Dr Pepper milk” because of the similarity in taste. (My mother confirmed this, much to her surprise, and praised me for my discriminating palate.)
Sadly, however, the milk still caused me to have a tummy ache…

So:  Straight dope or not, this is my contribution.
2

The official stance that there’s no cherry in Dr Pepper doesn’t really mean much, since what most folks think of as cherry flavor is nothing of the sort. What most folks think of as cherry flavoring is Grenadine syrup, which is used in maraschino cherries. But Grenadine syrup is actually made from pomegranites, not cherries. And, of course, nobody has ever confirmed or denied that there’s pomegranite in Dr Pepper.

3

No, not quite. Grenadine is a distinct flavor from Maraschino cherries (IMHO.) The flavor in imitation Maraschino cherries is, in fact, almond. (In real Maraschino cherries, it’s Maraschino cherry liqueur.)

I just dug up a cite, too:

http://www.fda.gov/ora/compliance_ref/cpg/cpgfod/cpg550-550.html

In my experience, the Maraschino cherries I’ve always eaten tasted like they were almond-flavored, not Grenadine-flavored.

4

PS:
:smack:
Oops, I forgot –

#4–Lactic acid is responsible for the faint milk-like note of Dr Pepper.

  This was also revealed in "Big Secrets", but this ingredient was listed directly on the label (still is, as I understand, in some parts of the world.)   However, my belief is that it could have been consolidated with the others under the heading of "Artificial and Natural Flavors. "
5

And finally, for further reading:

http://www.okkosher.com/Content.asp?ID=118

6

Since the Kosher rules have been mentioned, what about that lactic acid? Would that make Dr Pepper a dairy product, and therefore not permissible to consume in the same meal as meat? Or is there some non-dairy method of producing lactic acid, or is the processing extensive enough that the origin is not considered relevant?

7

Great question, Chronos, so I did a little more digging and found this site which affirms that lactic acid is both kosher and pareve:

http://www.wujs.org.il/stu/life/kosher/ingredients.shtml

Apparently, it’s lactose that is to be considered a dairy derivative and therefore not kosher.