Peppers Pepsin Bitters = Dr.Pepper?

[whiskeyman]

Just found where this guy took the ingredients of the Pepsin Bitters and cooked it up>
http://jasonmray.com/blog/2009/07/22/dr-peppers-pepsin-bitters/

For a little about Dr. C.T. Pepper's brother and his death>
http://www2.tricities.com/tri/news/local/article/bristol_house_intended_for_doctor_still_stands/44420/

 

[morbious_fod]

Dr. Pepper's Mountain Herbs is always lumped in with the story of Dr. Pepper. The Dr. Pepper Mountain Herb wall clock is shown with the similar Dr. Pepper soda clock in the Soda Pop book; however, I seriously doubt the two are connected in anyway aside from the name. This goes back to the point that there were many Dr. Pepper's in the country. Below is an ad from the Bristol Herald Courier in 1905 for Dr. Pepper's Mountain Herbs produced by the Mountain Herb Co. of Knoxville, Tenn. and for sale by local Bristol druggests C. C. Minor, and the Turner Drug Company. Turns out this is actually a "local" company that seems to have no connection to the soft drink at all.

 

[Dr Pepper bottle man]

None of the above pics are connected to Dr Pepper in Waco, Texas.
Dr Pepper was first bottle in 1891 in Waco by the Artesian Manf and Bottling Co. owned by W.B. Morrison owner of Morrisons Old Corner Drug Store and Robert Lazenby, the owner of Circle A in Waco.
C.C. Alderton an employee at this drug store was the inventor of the drink in Waco at Morrisons Old Corner Drug Store, and Morrison and Lazenby formed the Artesian Bottling Co to bottle the drink.
The Dr Pepper syrup was handled by the Southwestern Soda Fountain Co in Waco owned by Morrison and the Hefley brothers. This company also handled the syrup for the soda fountain business in Waco and surrounding towns.

 

[morbious_fod]

Yeah we know that. The Pepper Brothers ad that Charlie posted is in connection to Charles T. Pepper, one of the Peppers who is believed to be the origin of the name of the drink, who was one of the aforementioned Pepper Brothers.

I posted the Dr. Pepper bitters ad four years ago, because Dr. Pepper's Mountain Herbs is often mistaken as having a connection to the soft drink.

 

[MichaelFla]

That story about the chemist's notebook of different recipes... The notebook went on eBay with an opening price of $2000. Nobody bid. The Dr Pepper bottling company says that none of the recipes in that notebook are even similar to the recipe for the Dr Pepper we know and love today.

 

[morbious_fod]

That's strange, our local paper had a write up of how it was purchased by someone in Rural Retreat, VA.

 

[MichaelFla]

Possibly it went to auction more than once, and I am only aware of the one instance. I remember the auction, and remember thinking at the time that it was fake. It hadn't been authenticated by anybody.

 

[morbious_fod]

I don't think it was fake, it might not have been the modern formula for the brand, which even if it was Dr. Pepper is never going to admit to it, but it is possible that is was the original formula for Dr. Pepper's bitters, most likely stolen from the actual Dr. Pepper, which was modified to create the soda.

If it was fake then why would someone go through the trouble of naming it anything other than Dr. Pepper syrup or something to that effect. Calling it Dr. Pepper's Bitters leaves too many questions, and too many holes for people to pick it apart. No forger in their right mind would leave any doubt that it is the Dr. Pepper formula like this document does.

 

[MichaelFla]

I have no idea. And I am not saying it actually was a fake. Just that that was the thought going through my mind at the time. But the opening price was $2000 and I thought somebody was trying to pull a scam, as they are so wont to do on eBay. It was touted as being an early Dr Pepper notebook, and had several different recipes in it. I thought maybe it was just a chemists notebook, but had nothing to do with the actual Dr Pepper beverage, since there was only the one recipe for the Dr Pepper named product.
It is quite possible it was genuine, but at the time I believed it to be something else.

 

[shoshani]

I definitely think that Dr. Pepper's Pepsin Bitters later evolved into Dr Pepper, for two reasons.

One, the original labels for Dr. Pepper's Phos-Ferrates boast "Wheat, Iron, and Pepsin". The Pepsin Bitters formula does contain pepsin, specifically pepsin manufactured by John Wyeth & Bro., who pioneered the extraction and preparation of pepsin from hog stomachs in the mid-19th century. To have added iron and some sort of wheat extract would have been trivial; Google Books is chock full of formularies from the late 19th and early 20th century that show how to do just that. Pepsin was a big thing back then.

The other reason is an ad I stumbled upon in American Bottler from March 15, 1907. Google Books digitized this from the New York Public Library, but part of the original page is missing. The ad is apparently in response to an attack publisher William Keller made in the National Bottler's Gazette in February, 1907. That publication is not online and I've not been able to find hard copies, but R. S. Lazenby took out this very testy full page ad in American Bottler in which he not only calls Keller a skunk and an ass, he answers Keller's charges by saying that Dr Pepper started as a medicinal preparation, but as its popularity as a beverage increased the medicinal elements were removed, and the Artesian Bottling & Mfg. Co. had not called it "Phos-Ferrates" or touted wheat iron and pepsin for nine years (eg, since 1898).

In trying to find a better copy of this ad (which I am attaching to this post), I did find that Keller sued American Bottler for libel in the state courts of New York for this ad, and won.