Dark Day in Dublin

When you move to Texas, shortly after you learn about the Alamo, Goliad and San Jacinto you progress to the Texas Rangers, Bonnie and Clyde, Ma & Pa Ferguson and by the second week you get to the intense study of Dr. Pepper.

If you go into a bar or restaurant and they don't have Dr. Pepper, simply turn around and walk back out. You have stumbled into a joint that also dishes out that salsa from "New Yawk City!"

Dr. Pepper was invented in Texas. Like all good things it eventually came to the attention of the subordinate states and inevitably a multi-mega-conglomerate bought up the name, the recipe and the distribution rights. That meant profit over quality and franchise limitations to insure that quality might not interfere should some upstart challenge the system.

That upstart is the place where Dr. Pepper started. It is the bottler in Dublin TX, a typical small town west of Ft. Worth along US 377. They held a franchise and it specified that they could distribute in a six county area. They were purists and they continued to make Dr. P the old-fashioned way with pure cane sugar rather than corn syrup. Not surprisingly you can taste the difference.

Fans of Dublin Dr. Pepper sought the real thing. The Dublin bottler obliged and filled orders from outside their authorized county limits. The corporate gods looked down from on high and declared that goodness was not part of the contract and must stop!

As with the Borg, resistance was futile. This morning we have this sad announcement:

Dublin Dr. Pepper Passes Away

Flags will be at half-staff throughout the state. Store shelves will be cleaned out. Legacy bottles will be bequeathed to grand-children who may open them for special occasions in years to come.

It's a sad day in Texas.