Coca-Cola loses court case to distribute Dr. Pepper

[thewayne]

BLEH!

In case you were unaware, Dr. Pepper was not a Coke product. They were their own brand, and in the last year or two became the #2 cola, bumping Pepsi out of that slot.

Coke had a contract for their distribution, which is why you usually saw it on the menu at Coke restaurants. But now, as of Monday the 27th, many restaurants will be starting to serve Mr. Pibb, a vastly inferior product (IMO). Presumably Keurig, Dr. Pepper's owner, will have its own distribution deals in place, but it may be a bit chaotic until things settle down.

Usually I drink iced tea (unsweet) when dining out, but on rare occasion I'll get a Dr. Pepper. I don't like disruptions like this! Grrr....

I am a little perplexed and amused that it took the legal system to resolve whether or not Dr. Pepper were allowed to distribute their own product. I guess big business just can't give up that last penny of profit, even if they don't make the product that they're distributing.

https://www.silive.com/business/2025/10/coca-cola-to-pull-popular-soda-flavor-from-restaurants-and-venues.html

Comments

[kaishin108]

Right, Mr Pibb is very inferior to Dr. Pepper.
I was always a Diet Pepsi person but I had to give that up and just get an ice tea when out or sometimes a non-alcoholic beer, LOL.

[disneydream06]

WOW, that's an interesting bit of history.
I guess I just assumed it was a Coke product.
I wonder if it's going to effect their No. 2 position?
I was always a Pepsi guy when I was drinking pop. :)
Hugs, Jon

[thewayne]

I find that, well, any soda is vulnerable to not being mixed properly, but I think Pepsi is particularly vulnerable to bad mixes.  Vendors are supposed to have tools to check that they're supplying the proper mix through their equipment, but they often don't bother to use them.  I find that DP is a little more forgiving if the mix is off.  This is one thing where McDonalds excels: they get their soda in steel cans, rather than plastic bags, so their soda tastes better.

[disneydream06]

DANG, I miss pop sooooooooooooooooooooooooo much. :(

[thewayne]

I drink very little of it.  I have 100 calorie mini-cans of Pepsi at home and at work that I drink on rare occasion, made with real sugar.  Why drink HFCS when you can have the real stuff?  I don't eat fast food very much any more, and when I do it's almost always unsweet iced tea.

[disneydream06]

If I do get something to drink it's either a milkshake or maybe a lemonade. :)

A former friend convinced me to stop drinking pop all together because it would be good for my diet, and we can see how well that went. UGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[thewayne]

Back in the late '80s I worked with my friend Phil at a state agency whom I'd previously worked with. I bought a mini-fridge from that unit's former boss, Gary, who interviewed me: turned out his last day with the state was my last day with my previous employer and I never worked a day for him, which sucked, because Larry, the guy who took over, REALLY sucked! ANYWAY, I used to wait until holiday sales and buy multiple flats of Pepsi. A flat = six or eight six-packs? And you'd pay, I want to say, a couple bucks or less a six-pack. I'd stack them in my closet and take them into work with me and stock 'em in my fridge, along with my lunch. Phil left the agency and went to work for Gary, eventually I left and went to the police dept.

After some time at the PD, I started drinking water instead of Pepsi. And after I left the PD in 2001, I drove out to California and met up with Phil and his girlfriend, I was going to spend a few days with him. We had dinner and were standing in the parking lot talking before driving to the town where they lived. I paused the conversation and said I needed to get something to drink out of my Rodeo and retrieved a big bottle of water, and blew Phil's mind that it wasn't a can of Pepsi.

I do occasionally enjoy a good chocolate milkshake, but it has to be a really good one. I won't bother with most fast food ones. Lemonade, as a rule, I won't bother with because it's just lemon-flavored sugar water at most places.

[disneydream06]

WOW that's what you call one heck of a sale. :o

Yeah, it's pretty hard to get something decent to drink if you are drinking pop, booze, or coffee.

[kathmandu]

"Presumably Keurig, Dr. Pepper's owner, will have its own distribution deals in place..."

Now I'm having whimsical thoughts of Keurig designing a flavor-and-carbonation pod you could put in the coffee machine.

[thewayne]

Hah!  Well, if you ever see the drink-o-matic machines in Wendy's opened up, that's what they are!  They slot in these rectangular boxes of syrup and the machine dispenses the correct ratios as needed!

[moxie_man]

True Dr. Pepper fans will be insulted by you calling their soda/soft drink/pop of choice a cola. It's its own unique thing, much like Moxie (#1 soft drink a hundred years ago, now mostly a New England drink that Coke acquired just before the pandemic, much to the dismay of Moxie fans). I cringe when people refer to Moxie as a cola when it's technically a root beer (gentian root). I'm sure the Dr. Pepper fans do likewise for their drink.

When I can't get Diet Moxie, I turn to Diet Dr. Pepper when I want a soft drink. I'm not a cola fan regardless if it is Coke, Pepsi, RC, or some generic knock-off.

[thewayne]

There was an interesting informal study of the regional use of soda/pop/cola mapped onto the USA a while back.  It's one of those things.  I tend towards using the term soda myself, but it varies.  Never had a Moxie, always wanted to try a grape Nehi.

[moxie_man]

Next time you're in a "city" with a Cracker Barrel Restaurant, check-out their store section. You should be able to find Moxie or they should be able to get it for you. Orca Beverages outside of Seattle, WA bottles many different old time flavors and CB is one of the places they sell'em to. Looking at their list of drinks, I'm surprised Nehi isn't on it.

[thewayne]

Huh!  There's a CB in Las Cruces, and I expect to be there in the next couple of weeks.  I wonder if Albertsons has it?  They have an interesting selection of singles of unusual sodas.  It's been a very long time since I've been in a CB, well over a decade, it's just not a destination for us.

[silveradept]

Ha, and here I'd thought that Mr. Pibb was a PepsiCo product, instead, such that it might leave Coca-Cola without a pepper soda product at all. (Or possibly associated with the 7-Up company.) The thought of reintroducing Mr. Pibb as a high-caffeine product, though, seems like a terrible idea. For one, they already have Mountain Dew: Code Red, and that's probably a better-tasting product for that environment. Guess they're trying to find some way of clawing into the energy drink market, maybe for people who don't like the taste of most energy drinks?

[thewayne]

I was disappointed that the article didn't go into details about the law suit.  I expect Coke wanted an extension on distributing DP and Keurig didn't want that.  There's no doubt DP is more popular than Pibb, which is a very pale substitute.  No, Pepsi doesn't really have a soda to compete with DP/Pibb.