Petition Seeks to Have Dr Pepper Named Official Texas Soft Drink

Should Dr Pepper be named the 'Official Soft Drink of Texas?'  News Radio 1200 WOAI reports a petition on 'Change.org' is urging the Texas Legislature to make that step during the current session.

Texas, like every other state, doesn't have an officially designated soft drink, and lawmakers have not been excited about giving official state designation to commercial products.

The Dr Pepper origin story is well known.  The soft drink was created by pharmacist Charles Alderton at the Morrison's Old Corner Drug Store in 1885, making it the oldest existing soft drink in the country, predating Coca-Cola by one year.

The origin of the name 'Dr Pepper' is seeped in myth.  The Dr Pepper Museum in Waco says claims that Morrison named the drink in honor of an actual doctor who had given him a job, or that he named it after his father in law have no basis in history.

Since in the Nineteenth Century sugary soft drinks were sold as medicinal products, especially for conditions of the stomach, and not as the refreshing beverages they are promoted as today, it is generally believed that the 'Dr' was simply added to add to the soft drink's appeal as a safe and medicinal drink.

One thing is certain, there is no period after the 'Dr' in Dr Pepper.

So far there have been no bills filed in the 2019 Legislature to declare Dr Pepper to be Texas official beverage.  

Texas currently as a designate State Tree (the Pecan), a State Bird (the Northern Mockingbird), a Small State Mammal (the Armadillo), a Large State Mammal (the Longhorn), a State Flower (the Bluebonnet), a State  Bread (Pan de Campo), a State Fish (Guadalupe Bass) and even a State Dinosaur.

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