50 free Dr Pepper trivia questions with answers — food & drink quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
40 free Dr Pepper trivia questions with answers. Dr Pepper is a year older than Coca-Cola, is legally not a cola, and in 2024 overtook Pepsi to become the second best-selling soda in America. This Dr Pepper trivia quiz covers all of it: pharmacist Charles Alderton mixing it at Morrison's Old Corner Drug Store in Waco, the customers who ordered a 'Waco', the national debut at the 1904 World's Fair, the full stop that vanished from the logo, the two Dallas banks that supposedly hold half the recipe each, and the prune-juice rumour the company still has to deny. It also gets into the advertising (10-2-4, 'Be a Pepper', the Dr Pepper Girl, hot Dr Pepper with lemon), the lawsuits (Peppo becoming Mr. Pibb, the end of cane-sugar Dublin Dr Pepper), the products (Diet, Ten, Cherry, Zero Sugar, Strawberries and Cream, Creamy Coconut) and the corporate story from Cadbury Schweppes to Keurig Dr Pepper. Easy questions suit anyone who drinks the stuff; the later ones are for Texans and soda historians. Every answer was checked against a reference page and shows its source once you have answered.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Dr Pepper was created in the 1880s in which Texas city?
Waco
Early customers at Morrison's Old Corner Drug Store soda fountain simply ordered 'a Waco'.
Q 02What was the profession of Charles Alderton, who formulated Dr Pepper?
Pharmacist
Brooklyn-born, he mixed the drink at Morrison's Old Corner Drug Store and first offered it to the store's owner to taste.
Q 03Before it had a brand name, what did soda-fountain customers call Alderton's new drink, after their own city?
A Waco
Alderton gave the formula to store owner Wade Morrison, who first sold it as 'Dr. Pepper's Iron Phosphate'.
Q 04The name 'Dr. Pepper' was first used commercially in which year?
1885
That put it one year ahead of Coca-Cola, a fact the brand still enjoys pointing out.
Q 05Dr Pepper preceded the introduction of which Atlanta-born rival by exactly one year?
Coke
Coca-Cola arrived in 1886; the two would tangle in court over 'Peppo' nearly a century later.
Q 06Why may Wade Morrison have named the drink after Virginia doctor Charles Pepper?
He had given him his first job
Other stories say Morrison was sweet on Pepper's daughter, but the article treats the first-job version as the plausible one.
Q 07Dr Pepper was introduced to a national audience at which 1904 event?
The Louisiana Purchase Exposition
That is the St. Louis World's Fair; the drink was first marketed nationally the same year.
Q 08The full stop after 'Dr' in the Dr Pepper logo was permanently dropped in which year?
1950
It had been used only intermittently before then, and its removal supposedly made the logo's typeface easier to read.
Q 09According to the brand, Dr Pepper is a proprietary combination of how many flavors?
23
The recipe is supposedly split in half between safe deposit boxes in two separate Dallas banks.
Q 10A persistent rumour since the 1930s claims Dr Pepper contains what ingredient?
Prune juice
The company's FAQ flatly denies it, and some believe a rival's deliveryman started the story.
Q 11In 1966, the US Food and Drug Administration formally declared that Dr Pepper is not a what?
Cola
That ruling later let Coca-Cola bottlers in New York carry Dr Pepper without breaching their cola exclusivity.
Q 12According to one famous promotion, 'Dr Pepper Time' came at which three times of day?
10, 2 and 4
During World War II a syndicated radio show called The 10-2-4 Ranch aired across the South.
Q 13In the early 1960s, Dr Pepper promoted an unusual way to serve the drink in winter. What was it?
Hot, with lemon slices
Early adverts had claimed the drink 'aids digestion and restores vim, vigor, and vitality'.
Q 21In which year was the Dr Pepper Snapple Group spun off as an independent company?
2008
Based in Plano, Texas, it also owned 7UP, Canada Dry, A&W and Hawaiian Punch, with $6.69 billion in sales by 2017.
Q 22Which coffee-pod company acquired the Dr Pepper Snapple Group in July 2018?
Keurig
The deal created Keurig Dr Pepper, headquartered in both Burlington, Massachusetts and Texas.
Q 23The 2018 merger that created Keurig Dr Pepper was valued at how much?
$18.7 billion
In August 2025 the combined company announced it would buy JDE Peet's and split its coffee and drinks businesses.
Q 14Which singer was chosen in a 1963 nationwide search to be the 'Dr Pepper Girl'?
Donna Loren
She represented the brand until 1968 while appearing in the Beach Party films.
Q 15Which songwriter wrote the lyrics to the 1977 'Be a Pepper' jingle?
Jake Holmes
The TV commercial built around it ran from 1977 to 1985, led on screen by actor David Naughton.
Q 16Which actor fronted the dancing 'Be a Pepper' commercials of the late 1970s and early 1980s?
David Naughton
He went on to star in An American Werewolf in London in 1981, while the campaign kept running until 1985.
Q 17Which Dr Pepper president, nicknamed 'Foots', got a rival cola's New York bottler to distribute it in 1969?
W. W. Clements
He could only do it because Dr Pepper had been legally established as a non-cola three years earlier.
Q 18In 1972 Dr Pepper sued its Atlanta rival over a soft drink called 'Peppo'. What was Peppo renamed?
Mr. Pibb
It was later reformulated as Pibb Xtra and remains Coca-Cola's answer to Dr Pepper.
Q 19The diet version first appeared in cans in 1962 under what name?
Dietary
'Dietary Dr. Pepper' sold slowly and was renamed Sugar Free Dr. Pepper in 1966; the Diet name only arrived in 1987.
Q 20Which acquisition-hungry British confectioner bought Dr Pepper/Seven Up in 1995?
Cadbury Schweppes
Cadbury Schweppes spun the American drinks arm off in May 2008 as the Dr Pepper Snapple Group.
Q 24In mid-2024, Dr Pepper passed which brand to become the second best-selling soda in the United States?
Pepsi
Only one brand now sells more in US retail.
Q 25Which firm makes and sells Dr Pepper in the United Kingdom, Ireland and Japan?
Coca-Cola
Suntory handles most of the rest of Europe, while Keurig Dr Pepper covers the US, Canada and Mexico.
Q 26The Dr Pepper Museum in Waco opened in 1989 in a 1906 building that was originally what?
The first plant built to bottle the drink
The Artesian Manufacturing and Bottling Company building kept bottling until 1965.
Q 27Dublin Dr Pepper, made in Dublin, Texas, was famous for refusing to switch from cane sugar to what?
Corn syrup
The tiny bottler drew about 80,000 visitors a year despite being limited to a 44-mile sales radius.
Q 28In which year did a lawsuit settlement end Dublin Dr Pepper, the oldest surviving bottler?
2012
Dr Pepper Snapple sued for trademark dilution in 2011; the plant became Dublin Bottling Works and now makes its own sugar-sweetened sodas.
Q 29Franchise agreements limited the Dublin bottler to selling within what radius of the town?
44 miles
Fans drove from across Texas anyway, which was part of what annoyed the parent company.
Q 30Dr Pepper Ten, discontinued in 2018, blended a little sugar with which two artificial sweeteners?
Aspartame and Ace-K
Its 'not for women' ad campaign is remembered better than the drink itself.