Dr Pepper — its official name has no period, which I assume frees it from having to produce a medical degree upon request — knows it’s not merely a soft drink. It’s a stately mixer.
The fruit-ish, cola-adjacent, difficult-to-describe soda is underappreciated for its ability to make a palatable cocktail with even the harshest of booze (Kamchatka, Fleischmann’s, any of the rubbing alcohol vodkas, really). Dr Pepper and whiskey is an easy, reliable mixed drink. And since bourbon country overlaps nicely with the college football fans Dr Pepper has eagerly courted every fall with a barrage of extended-universe advertisements, the soft drink goliath reached out to meet those fans halfway.
