A Hot Dog Is a Sandwich - What Flavor Is Dr. Pepper?

Episode Date: September 8, 2021

Today, we uncover the truth about Dr. Pepper. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This, this, this, this is Mythical. Everyone knows there are 23 flavors in Dr. Pepper, but no one can seem to tell you what they are or what medical school Dr. Pepper went to. I think Duke. Today, we uncover the truth. This is A Hot Dog is a Sandwich. Ketchup is a smoothie.

Yeah, I put ice in my cereal, so what? That makes no sense. A hot dog is a sandwich. A hot dog is a sandwich. What? Welcome to our podcast, A hot dog is a sandwich. A hot dog is a sandwich. What? Welcome to our podcast, A Hot Dog is a Sandwich, the show where we break down the world's biggest food debates. I'm your host, Josh Scherer.

And I'm your host, Nicole Inaidi. And today, Nicole, we are uncovering one of the great mysteries among many of the great mysteries in the soda world. Does cactus cooler contain any real cactus? I think yes. I think no. No, it's got to have real cactus. They can't just call it cactus cooler. It's pineapple and orange no. No, it's got to have real cactus. They can't just call it cactus cooler.

It's pineapple and orange. Yeah, but it's the saguaro cactus. That's like saying there has to be sprites in Sprite. You're telling me there's no Sprite? Oh, Sprite's like the fairies? Oh, that's a fun little niche thing to say. No, today we're talking about Dr. Pepper and what any of those 23 flavors might be

because there are a lot of myths surrounding Dr. Pepper and I in the past have perpetuated those myths. Yeah, you've just been pushing the lies. I've been pushing the lies. I've been pushing the fake news about Dr. Pepper because there was a very common rumor out there. Anyone could have believed it. Not just stupid people, you know, smart people too. I think that Dr. Pepper was prune flavored. Yeah, you've been saying that to me since like my first day here. Yeah, I've officially recanted and I've given like more of an apology than the

dude who said there were WMDs in Iraq for New York Times back in 2001. Hey-o! No, so Dr. Pepper is not prune juice flavored. Like not at all? Like not even a little bit of prune? So it's so funny funny when you go to the Dr. Pepper Frequently Asked Questions

website, which I, yeah, I'm on there all the time. I'm on the message boards just clowning them. They actually address the prune juice rumor

and they just say there's no prune flavor nor prune juice in Dr. Pepper. And then there's a what are the 23 flavors question and they say that is proprietary information.

They're not even like cool about it. Like they're not even like cool about it. Like they're not even like, that's for us to know and you to find out. They just are straight up like, that's proprietary information on the frequently asked questions website. Well, they're probably tired of getting asked all the time. And they're like, just put some lawyer speak there. Yeah, that makes sense. But the whole backstory as to why there are 23 flavors in Dr. Pepper to me is really, really fascinating.

So, Dr. Pepper. Sorry, I'm thirsty. Wait, hold on. I'm going to crack mine open. Oh. One thing we can agree on is that we're recording this in the morning. Dr. Pepper's a breakfast soda, right? Oh, yeah.

It's good. Dr. Pepper's the best breakfast soda on the market. People would think it's orange soda. Uh-uh. Dr. Pepper's a breakfast soda. For sure. Tastes like pancakes. Taste it. Taste it right now. think it's orange soda. Uh-uh. Dr. Pepper's a breakfast soda. For sure. Tastes like pancakes. Taste it. Taste it right now.

Taste it right now. Does that not taste like a pancake? Yeah, Dr. Pepper pancake flavor, right? It's not prune flavor. It's pancakes. Dr. Pepper's pancakes. Thanks for stopping by. No, okay, so the history about Dr. Pepper. So Dr. Pepper's the oldest major soft brink, soft brink-drand? Somebody's been having brink. I'm so sweaty right now. Why am I so sweaty? I don't know, but you're probably thinking about the movie Brink. Dr. Pepper is the oldest major soft drink brand in America.

It was created one year before Coca-Cola and about eight years before Pepsi. In 1885, it's believed that Charles Alderton, a pharmacist at Morrison's Old Corner Drug Store in Waco, Texas. Shout out to Waco, known for Baylor University. David Koresh? Yeah, David Koresh. David Koresh. The Branch Davidians.

And Dr. Pepper. They have the Dr. Pepper Museum there. Oh, and it's also the home to the God Loves Strippers Church. What? There's a church called, I believe, God Loves Strippers. One of my best friends, Chad Rosine, went to Baylor University, and he was telling me about all the attractions there. Oh, nice, nice. But anyway, so this pharmacist, 1885, he just had a passion for mixing sodas together.

That's fun. He's like a perfumer. Yeah. What a soda jerk man. Well, yeah, exactly. And the perfuming aspect of it was a thing because apparently he just loved the smell of his pharmacy. They had all these weird little root botanicals out there and he loved that smell and he wanted to combine all the smells into one drink which as far as origin stories go is really bizarre right it kind of makes sense because

like whenever you go into like a soap store whenever you go into like a perfume store any store actually it has a distinct smell so you probably just want to take the smell of his pharmacy and put it into something, you know, potable. Yeah, I want to do that. I want to do that. But with Subway, Subway sandwiches. You should make a Subway cologne. You just get like some old tuna, some like bread, fresh bread and bleach.

That is what all Subway smell like. Hot bleach, bread and just old turkey. And I want to get that in a candle. Can I ask you a question? Go ahead. Why was soda made by pharmacists? What happened that pharmacists were like, fizzy bublech plus all of these flavors equals medicine? Gazooz.

Like why? Yeah, because back then sodas was just their medicine. But it was also their recreational drugs. It's like how you hear about in, you know, the like 17th century like the barbers were just the surgeons it was like yeah you know we're both licensed to cut your hair and then like put leeches on you and bleed you out okay i guess you know which is so funny like thinking about all of you know the scientific advances over the last thousands of years right you know the mayans mapping out the galaxy or whatever uh and then up until like 300 years ago, we're like, I don't know, maybe you put these blood sucking worms on you and that'll get the disease out. So then, yeah, basically all of the sodas, all of these major soda brands in America, they all started as tonics, right?

Yeah. Which is really interesting. So Coca-Cola, we've talked about this before. It is literally the coca leaf, which is a natural stimulant. It relieves headaches where cocaine is derived from and the colonut, another natural stimulant from a different part of the world. Pepsi was literally referring to pepsin. And then 7-Up was referring to the atomic number of lithium, which is an antipsychotic. Yes.

But also just a mood elevator. psychotic. Yes. But also just a mood elevator. So all these sodas, they were either A, hard drugs just in some fizzy boobalek, or B, just meant as like a mixer to market their moonshine like Mountain Dew. That was basically all of it. Was there alcohol in Dr. Pepper? No, there was no

alcohol, but there are actually a lot of theories about where the name Dr. Pepper comes from. One, there was, I believe, an actual doctor with the last name Pepper that this pharmacist knew who like gave him permission to marry his daughter, but then he never married his daughter. So that's one of the theory.

The other theory is just that it's literally like Dr. Pep, like Dr. Pepper is going to put some pep in your step because we put amphetamines in our soda pop, which, you know, we can't legally say that Dr. Pepper ever did that or does that. Yeah. But that was the thing. It was like a tonic meant to, you know. Have you ever watched Married at First Sight? There's an actual Dr. Pepper

on there and it took me maybe like seven episodes to be like, like the soda. Yeah, Dr. Pepper Schwartz. Her first name is Pepper, but she's a doctor, so maybe it's named after her. Another theory comes to play.

And then the other, other other other theory is that pepper literally was like short for pepsin pepper so like dr pep dr pepper pepsin like trying to invoke thoughts of like a drug that would make your tummy feel better what what is that called whenever you say a word and it's like makes you think of another word uh it's like a test no it's like a test when they say oh i think it's called word association it's like makes you think of another word. It's like a test. Rorschach? No, it's like a test when they say. Oh, I think it's just called word association. It's a call.

Okay. What's it called when you associate one word with another word? It's like what? It's like 9.53. I've had four sips of Dr. Pepper. It's a great way to start my morning. I'm just in a good mood. I'm in an elevate.

I'm honestly in an elevated mood. I feel there is a pep in my step because of Dr. Pepper. I'm just in a good mood. I'm in an elevated... I'm honestly in an elevated mood. I feel there is a pep in my step because of Dr. Pepper. I'm not lying. The soda does its job. Anyway, so Charles Alderton would apparently just like mix all of the existing sodas that they were making and he would just combine things

together and eventually he settled on 23 different flavors that he mixed together or a combination of existing sodas that already had different flavors. So I have a theory about what this flavor actually is. Okay, take it away. I believe that Dr. Pepper is prunes.

Josh! No, I'm kidding. No, no, no, here's my theory. And I think this is actually pretty close. Okay. I believe that Dr. Pepper is, for all intents and purposes, a hybrid of root beer and cola. I think, and I think if you... But what is root beer?

Well, no, that's a good question. Because like a root beer drink and a cola drink could easily have 11 and a half flavors in each of them. Sure. And if you combine them, that creates 23 flavors. Cola has, well, what is the flavor of cola? Well, so cola is literally like the kola nut, right? That would be one. Two would be the coca leaf.

But then there's other stuff in there, right? There's like allspice. There's clove. There's a lot of like warm spice. There's lemon oil. And then there's all these like utterly bizarre roots that we look back on where it's just like mandrake root and like orange bell sweet root. Is it mandrake?

Ugly swamp roots. Mandrake root from Harry Potter? Yeah, whatever, dude. I looked at Maggie for like some clarification. I was like, did he just say mandrake? But you know what I'm saying? There's like a bunch of random roots. So like root beer, the original flavor I suppose would be sarsaparilla.

Is it sarsaparilla? My whole life I've been saying sarsaparilla. I swear to God it's sarsaparilla. My whole life I've been saying sarsaparilla. It's spelled sarsap sarsaparilla. My whole life I've been saying sarsaparilla. It's spelled sarsaparilla. Maybe it's like a mascarpone, marscapone situation. Oh, highly plausible. Highly plausible. So I believe, and I believe if you were to take Dr. Pepper next to root beer mixed with cola, I think they would taste roughly similar, right?

Because if you think about Dr. Pepper, you get like... That's insightful. When I think of root beer, I think of one like the kind of like vanilla spice. Yeah, like Barks. Like Barks. Barks to me is the best commercial root beer. Same. You know why?

Why? Because Barks has bite. I love Barks root beer. There was a tweet that went viral recently of someone just screenshotted a picture of a Barks root beer and just said like, man, Barks doesn't even advertise. They're just out here quietly being the best root beer on the market. And it went viral. They had the best marketing campaigns back in the day.

Really? I don't remember that. It was like, there were these utterly bizarre, what do they call it? Advertising. Okay. You know, like Quizno subs. Quizno subs. Because they are good to us.

I love the Quizno subs ad. And you know what? I love Quizno subs. I've never had a Quizno sub. You've never had a Quizno sub. It didn't work for you. No, but I was enamored with subs ad. And you know what? I love Quiznos subs. I've never had a Quiznos sub. You've never had a Quiznos sub. It didn't work for you. No, but I was enamored with the ad.

Like, I would just stare at it like, is this real? Am I actually watching this on television right now? I'm dead serious. Let's go to Quiznos because I think they're still better than

every other sandwich chain out there. Better than Subway? Much better than Subway. Better than Jersey Mike's? Better than Jimmy John's. Jersey Mike's is tough. Well, Jimmy John's sucks.

Yeah, it's just kind of basic. Yeah. They don't have the fun sauces that I like. fun well subway is a wet sandwich if you're not putting at least four to eight sauces on your subway you're not doing it i actually i went to subway for the first time because they have a new revamp menu oh cool and i was just like you know down in san diego for a wedding and i was like i need i need food to fill me up and i went to subway to see what their new menu was about and like the only things they highlighted were like new artisan Italian bread. Oh, I know.

Right. So excited. And then I ordered it and it's significantly less artisanal than their non artisanal Italian bread. Like it was just a white, it's just a white loaf. They call artisanal Italian. And then they're like, now our turkey shaved a little bit thinner. And I was like, oh, and you also seem to put just put less on the sandwich.

But that said, the whole thing comes together when you get to those sauce buckets. And you're like, give me the mustard, give me the creamy sriracha, give me the Chipotle Southwest, and then douse all the greens in that Parmesan vinaigrette, baby. Really? Oh, yeah. Oh, it's wet. It's like a French dip with salad dressing.

This podcast is just a love letter to Subway. We should just buy a Subway. Let's just buy a Subway and then buy a Quiznos and then have them in like maybe like 0.2 mile proximity to each other. We're always talking about what's next for the brand, right? Like, wow, do we expand to TikTok? Like maybe we hit up another streaming service, you know, something like that. No, no, no. Where Mythical Kitchen goes next, franchising Subways in Burbank.

And Quiznos. And Quiznos. So we just take the whole market. See, big brain passing in code. No, no, no. Where Mythical Kitchen goes next, franchising subways in Burbank. And Quiznos. And Quiznos. So we just take the whole market. See, big brain, passive income. Passive income, baby. Start our own LLC. That's, what is it, mailbox money?

Yeah. That's mailbox money, Kevin. How did this happen? Let's, okay, soda. Soda. Soda. So we're talking about Dr. Pepper is merely a mix of cola and root beer. I'm not saying that it's like Coca-Cola and A&W mixed together exactly equals Dr. Pepper. But go back to 1885 and think about like there were probably some bootleg wild colas out there.

Have you ever had any of these like really old artisanal cola brands? I have. I don't remember any off the top of my head. But I remember like whenever you go to like certain like shops, they just, you know. Rocket Fizz. Rocket Fizz. Rocket Fizz. Oh, man.

Rocket Fizz. Good old days. What's the Galco's? Have you been to Galco's Soda Shop? I mean, what's the Galco's? No. Galco's is in, gosh, is it like Atwater or something? But it's this really fantastic soda shop in LA that just has all these sodas from all around the world.

And it's so fun. But I remember trying all of these like very old root beer brands and very old cola brands that remained independent. And their flavors are just wild. And they're delicious. And I love them. So I'm imagining if you took these like old rudimentary cola flavors that had, you know, some random root that only grew in like the valleys of West Virginia that they

flavored it with. And you mix those together. I think that is roughly what was created to form Dr. Pepper. And so the 23 flavors are literally just, you know, a summation of that. Pepper. And so the 23 flavors are literally just, you know, a summation of that. Interesting.

Well, according to drpepper2010.com, it says... This is an unverified website that seems to have been created by fans and no one knows where this information came from. But that said, it's still very interesting because they do give a guess. Yes. About what the 23 flavors are.

We'll rattle them off. Honestly, I agree with these guesses. I think they make the most sense to me. Okay, ready? Yeah, yeah. Cola, cherry, licorice, amaretto, almond, vanilla, blackberry, apricot, caramel, pepper, an anise sarsaparilla ginger molasses

lemon plum orange nutmeg cardamom allspice coriander juniper

birch and prickly ash have you tasted all of these like flavors we have huh are you smelling the coke okay so I have

I have poured myself a Dr. Pepper into a cup. Nicole filled my cup with water. I'm sorry. And I had to drink it, and I'm mad about that because I hate drinking water. It tastes like sand. It's good for you.

Dr. Pepper is good for you. It gives you pep. Water gives you nothing. Water makes you have to pee. It gives you dehydrates. Water, physically, this is real. I'm a doctor, Nicole. I went to Johnny Hopkins.

Jonathan Hopkins. Jonathan Hopkins University Online. I paid $9,000 per semester on a very great rate on a loan it's only 20% compounding interest every month and I got my online holistic medicine degree from Aruba

the kids that apply to go to medical school in the US and they can't get in so they go to the random ones I got a buddy that went to veterinary school on the island of Grenada yeah yeah yeah so funny okay so I'm smelling the Dr.S. and they can't get in, so they go on, like, the random ones. I got a buddy that went to veterinary school on the island of Grenada. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We had a great time. So funny. Okay, so I'm smelling the Dr. Pepper right now.

Weirdly, the first thing you get off the bat is cherry. And I never noticed that before. That's actually something that, like... I get vanilla. You get a lot of vanilla off of that? When I smell? Yeah, I smell vanilla. But when I taste it, I also get a lot of vanilla.

But it's not a...'s not a fruity vanilla. It's not a creamy vanilla in like a cream soda. You said it's like a fruity vanilla? It's like a fruity vanilla. It's a different kind of vanilla than I would say like in a cream soda or like a root beer. I know what you mean. So there's this really cool, I think we've talked about this before. There's this really cool single origin vanilla ice cream brand.

Yes, you told me about that. That was so sick. And so they would have vanilla from Madagascar, from Mexico, from Tahiti, from all around the world. And you could really taste the different character of vanillas. Of course you can. And one of them really tastes like cherry or cherry blossoms. Yeah.

Which is very cool to me. And I can't remember which one it was exactly. Ugandan vanilla beans has a very fruity. Interesting. And then some are more kind of earthy and perfumey. I mean, all freaking delicious. Vanilla is one of my favorite flavors. It's an absolutely beautiful flavor.

And I hate that it has been synonymous with boring sex because of that one book, The Hunger Games. What? It was a joke about Fifty Shades of Grey. I feel like the term vanilla ended up more in people's consciousness after Fifty Shades of Grey to describe things as boring. I guess. I love vanilla. People that don't like vanilla are vanilla. See?

There you go. There you go. Okay. Let's look at the other flavors. Okay. What does it say? Burnt orange? Nothing about burnt orange, but there's black beer.

I get burnt orange off the nose. Okay. Are you being serious or are you just being pretentious? I'm dead ass serious. I have dehydrated orange peel. You ever take the cocktail garnish that's like they take the orange slices- And they're on fire? Yeah, yeah. And they and they burn it yeah i'm smelling a lot of can stop smelling the can nicole you gotta pour it in the coffee mug but mine has water in it i don't want to drink water right

because water sucks water is the worst beverage why would i drink water when there's dr pepper that is my exact i think life is too short to drink water. Also, let's bust some water myths out here. Dr. Pepper hydrates you just as well as water. Doesn't it also dehydrate you? No, it doesn't. So, electrolytes, right? Dr. Pepper has a little bit of sodium in it. Them's is electrolytes.

And then, ipso facto, Dr. Pepper hydrates you better than water. Dr. Pepper is essentially a sports drink as well as a breakfast soda, and it is pancake flavored. Do you still stand by that statement that it's pancake flavored? it was just the warning it was so let me tell you what happened it was like that weird word association thing you said soda breakfast soda and i said oh my god breakfast soda would clearly taste like pancakes and i tasted it and that strong vanilla flavor i had an association with pancakes you know what dr pepper has influenced me to do though what okay so i believe i believe the same thing about Dr. Pepper that I feel about a barbecue spice rub. Okay, that's logical.

Where if you just combine enough things together, it will probably taste good. Most of the spices in your pantry are designed to make food taste good, right? Yes. So it doesn't necessarily matter your ratio of paprika to chili powder to mustard seed to black pepper to white pepper to brown sugar to whatever. It's going to be good regardless. You mix a bunch of crap together and if you just keep your salt and sugar levels right in that, it's going to taste pretty damn good. And you don't make it too spicy, whatever. You don't hit the really aggressive, you know, notes too hard.

I feel that way about soda. I think Dr. Pepper just combined things together, like in the same way that, you know, maybe Tony Sachery's or Lowry's or Stubb's barbecue rub, like you just combine enough things together that are meant to taste good and then keep your sugar levels right in a soda. I think it tastes good. What do you think would happen? We have a whole thing of artificial extracts, probably like 30 of them in the kitchen. What would happen if we just made like a syrup, carbonated water, and then added every single artificial extract to that?

It would probably taste pretty good, right? We have like apricot, we have almond, we have pancake, we have, you know... We have a bunch of stuff, yeah. What is it like, what's that butter, buttery dough? Yeah, you have like dough conditioners or something like that. No, no, no, there's literally an extract that is called buttery

dough flavored extract. It's this, there's like these weird extracts that are like, I can't even explain it. No, no, no. There's literally an extract that is called buttery dough flavored extract. There's like these weird extracts that are like I can't even explain it. It's like this liquid. It's a liquid concentrate. It's not an extract. Interesting. Yeah, it's like soluble in like doughs and like oils and stuff.

Very weird. But yeah, we have a bunch of them. And I don't think they'd be good. I think there's art to it. Like you can't just randomly put a drop of each and say, okay, this is my new them and I don't think they'd be good. I think there's art to it. Like you can't just randomly put a drop of each and say, okay, this is my new soda. I don't know. I think you can. I think that's what Dr. Pepper did. How many iterations of the mix do you think happened before Dr. Pepper like went to market and was like, now it is perfect. I think one.

I think it was one and done. Are you for real? I think one and done. No way, Josh. I don't think there was a multi-year process. I think. Of course it was bs no way are you kidding me do you know how many hoops you have to jump through to get your stuff

in stores in 1885 none but like the hoop you jump through they're like i'm talking about modern soda i'm talking about modern soda here in 1885 they were like sir you're sure there's real heroin in this drink and be like by golly sir i swear there's real heroin in this drink? And I'd be like, by golly, sir, I swear to God, there's real heroin in this drink. They're like, well, put it on the shelves. No, I'm talking about the soda we're looking at right now and drinking right now. You'd think they just were like, okay, do whatever you want. No.

Low-key, yes, I do. Because of Nicole, the FDA. How do you get a consistent product then if you're... What? Well, no, no. You make a big batch and then you copyright it and then that becomes a thing. But you never have to disclose the fact that you just took a bunch of bottled extracts and just mixed together a random thing because of the natural flavors loophole in the FDA labeling process. So that's why Dr. Pepper, they can get away with being completely opaque and saying we have 23 unique flavors inside here. And what they don't know is that Dr. Charles Alderton, or he wasn't even a doctor,

that that dude just took a cola product and a root beer product and mixed them together and then said he did all this work. And it's BS, man. I call BS on the Dr. Pepper. I don't think he just did it one time. He's like, oh, this is good. I think he did it a bunch of times to find one that worked. Are you okay?

Why not 24, for example? How did he get to 23? You were blinking a lot. I was like, are you okay? Periodically, as we're talking, I keep taking sips of Dr. Pepper and going, mmm, Amaretto. I don't even know what Amaretto is. I mean, I know it's a liqueur. You ever had Disaronno?

Disaronno? Yeah, yeah, yeah. But what's the flavor of Am I mean, I know it's a liqueur. You ever had Disaronno? Yeah, yeah, yeah. But like, what's the flavor of Amaretto? It's like an almond liqueur. So is it just almond flavored? Is it Amaretto flavored? I think it's like deeper than almond flavored. When I was a kid, you know what like my favorite treat was?

What? This is one of those stories that's like sad because we were poor, but I look back on it was happy. My dad would steal a bunch of the flavored coffee creamers from 7-Eleven, and then I'd just drink them. Oh, honey. Because they were free, and they were a free little treat. You should have seen me when we used to go to Denny's.

I would just stack those cups up like it was my job, those little ones. Oh, I would just drink them. Oh, taking shots. Well, it's so funny. They were like Irish cream flavored, amaretto flavored. You know, the little, was it International Delights? Yeah, I think they were International. Well, I don't know what they were. You know, the little, was it International Delights? Yeah, I think they were International. Well, I don't know what they were.

It's all a blur, to be honest. It was getting trashed off of the Irish cream flavored creamers. All I remember was that it had a pink label on it. Those were my favorites because they were pure. Pure uncut cream. None of the flavors. Oh oh we had the same childhood kind of that's like my only context

for what like amaretto is since I was a child I've had like Di Serrano on the rocks because I saw a commercial for Di Serrano on the rocks and I was like

seems sexy yeah me too I was like what like maybe I was like 22 and I'm like I'm gonna go to a bar and order like

an amaretto on the rocks and you're like this tastes like syrup I don't like, I'm going to go to a bar and order like an Amaretto on the rocks. And like, this is like syrup. I don't like this anymore. What was your, what was your first adult drink order at bars? Like when you would go to a bar and you'd be a little nervous to order it. Gin and tonics. Oh, but did you say anything special or you just said gin and tonic?

I just said gin and tonic. Oh man. I would, I would go and I would say gin and tonics. One, it's the perfect first adult drink, right? Yes. To order at a bar. Yeah. It's neither too pedestrian nor too fancy.

Yeah. But I would go gin and tonic, Tanqueray if you got it. Anything's fine. Tanqueray if you got it. I don't know. Tanqueray! Solely because I saw those Tanqueray commercials. Nice. And I was just like, I don't even know if this is a good gin.

But yeah. Now I say Hendrix Martini. Ooh. Have you ever had a cocktail with dr pepper oh my god i've had a flaming dr pepper i'm looking at it right now wait but there's no actual dr pepper oh wait this could be a clue though beer amaretto overproof yeah that makes sense so it's the amaretto well okay so one the overproof rum is spiced rum right so it's gonna be it, yeah, it's, it's a dark rum. And so it's a spiced rum. Oh no, we drank too much Dr. Pepper.

Oh God. The Dr. Pepper in the podcast was a bad idea. Oh boy. Wait, Nicole, look up what spices are typically in spiced rum. Cause it's, you gotta imagine it's a ton of those winter spices, right? Uh, mace, clove, allspice, maybe juniper, something. According to this, well, to make your own,

Liquor.com says, a bottle of rum, vanilla bean, orange peel, cinnamon stick, allspice, clove, black peppercorn, ground nutmeg, and ginger. But I'm sure there's mace. There's probably mace. There's always mace. My money's on mace. Have you had a Flaming Dr. Pepper, though? Never, but I want to go to a bar and order one.

I went to a bar in Austin where they, like, stacked all the Flaming Dr. Peppers on top of each other. And then someone, like, hit it with a flamethrower and then they all just lit on fire. But then it, like, fell over and it, like, poured on the ground and it almost burned down the building. Oh, why didn't you tell me? I would have totally gone. But that's really interesting that the drink Flaming Dr. Pepper probably has about 16 of the same flavors that are in Dr. Pepper between the Spice Rum and the Amaretto, right? Makes total sense.

If you really think about that, all of the spices that are in Spice Rum are probably also in Dr. Pepper, which makes me think, why don't people drink more liquor in Dr. Pepper? I, like, people are like Rum and Coke or like, what is it? Jack, what is it? Jack and Coke's like a big one. Jack and Coke. Or like a Crown Royal and 7-Up or something.

Yeah, I don't know. Or Seagram 7 and 7-Up. They call it 7 and 7. Yeah. Crown and Coke. Yeah. Ginger ale. You know what we used to do in college?

What? Root beer and Jaeger. Ew. Yeah, it tasted terrible, but we just do it because it's funny. I feel like it would taste dark. Is that correct? It tasted so dark. Yeah.

I mean, we should start putting, I don't know, what's a good alcoholic pairing for Dr. Pepper? Don't say Amaretto. Oh, it's something new. No, yeah. What's something cool? Something, oh, Armagnac. Oh, what? Armagnac.

French apple brandy. I have a bottle of Armagnac that my brother got me. Does that hurt when you drink it? Armagnac is incredibly, it is 80 proof, 40% alcohol, and it is so smooth and sweet and vanilla-y and absolutely delicious. It'd be perfect for Dr. Pepper. That's what we need to do. Okay, great. Also, I think we need to make our own soda.

We need to combine all the extracts that we have into one soda. Sell that at the Subway. And then put some purple food dye in it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know? Yeah, sell that at the Subway. And then sell that at the Subway. Yeah, I think so. In summation, what have we learned at the Subway. And then sell that at the Subway. Yeah, I think so.

In summation, what have we learned today? Not a ton. Not a lot. Not a ton. I just feel like we were talking. Nice little comment. Okay, so Dr. Pepper,

23 flavors, just started by combining random flavors from this pharmacy, which as we learned, it was just where they put all the narcotics into fizzy boobaleg.

Cherry, vanilla, licorice, sarsaparilla, let's just start naming things. Ginger, allspice. Orange. We're at seven. Orange, mandrake root. Almond. Sarsaparilla.

Prickly ash. Prickly ash. What is prickly ash? I don't know. Prickly pear. They call it prickly ash in Japan. It's Sancho pepper. What?

Or Japanese prickly ash. What? I don't know. What are you talking about? Dr. Pepper's got a bunch of stuff in Japanese prickly ash? What? I don't know. What are you talking about? Dr. Pepper's got a bunch of stuff in it. Why are you sweating? I'm so sweaty. I told you earlier I was sweaty. Here's the thing. Dr. Pepper, they come out with Cherry Vanilla Dr. Pepper. What the hell?

Cherry Vanilla's already in Dr. Pepper. No, no, no. They just up the Cherry and the Vanilla. Which to me is disgracing the legacy of Charles Alderton. What do you mean? He's making more money disgracing it. What do you mean? I have no idea. All I know is Dr. Pepper.

It's my favorite soda. It is unequivocally my favorite soda to drink. It is a perfect breakfast soda. It is not flavored like prunes. And to me, it's kind of a metaphor for the ingenuity of the human spirit that we can just dump crap in a vat, put it in a can, and sell it to people and become a 130-year success story. All right, Nicole, we've heard what you and I have to say. Now it's time to find out what other wacky ideas are rattling out there in the Twitterverse. It's time for a segment we call...

Opinions are like casseroles! That was good. We nailed that one. You know what's funny? What am I singing earlier? Rude? Yeah, it was pretty bad. It was pretty bad.

So rude. You've heard me sing. It's atrocious. My God. I don't even know how my voice hits those register. It's literally like mumble from Happy Feet. Never watched it. You've never from Happy Feet. Never watched it. You've never seen Happy Feet?

No. There are so many great musical numbers with like, I believe Hugh Jackman is in it. And he's all singing and then some other people. And then Mumble, the penguin who's different from everybody. And they castigate him out of penguin society because he dances instead of sings. But every time he tries to sing, he just goes. And that's like me trying to sing a karaoke. That's me doing Sk8er Boi by Avril Lavigne

because that is my karaoke song. That was very loud. We never even got into the business side of Dr. Pepper. What are you talking about? You can't discuss Dr. Pepper without discussing the Sherman Antitrust Act. Josh, we're the opinions of like cast. No, I know, but this is something I want to get to.

So both PepsiCo and Coca-Cola have tried to purchase Dr. Pepper, but they couldn't because of antitrust laws because PepsiCo and Coke are easily the two biggest beverage brands, you know? And so Dr. Pepper had to remain independent, but since then Dr. Pepper teamed up with Snapple to form the Dr. Pepper Snapple Group, and they own a bunch of all these oddball drink companies, which I'm going to list them off right now

because I just think the list is hilarious. Here we go. Snapple, Dr. Pepper, 7-Up, A&W Root Beer, Sunkissed Soda, Canada Dry. And then you get a little bit weird. Hawaiian Punch, Schweppes, RC Cola, Diet Right, Mott's Apple Juice, Clamato, Mr. and Mrs. T, Holland House Mixers, Yoohoo, Orangina, and Stewart's. Love Orangina. I love Yoohoo. I used toers Yoohoo Orangina and Stewart's I love Orangina I love Yoohoo I used to love Yoohoo

What do you mean you used to love Yoohoo? What happened? A guy I used to date drank Yoohoo a lot so I cast it out of my life Don't No

No Let Yoohoo back into your life No I'm not ready It is the world's greatest chocolate aid It's not chocolate milk I'm not ready I tried it recently actually

It was not good I love it The strawberry chocolate Yoohoo though tastes like vomit I believe that The strawberry's not chocolate milk. I tried it recently, actually. It was not good. I love it. The strawberry chocolate yoo-hoo, though, tastes like vomit. I believe that. The strawberry's not great. All right. Hey, speaking of vomit, we got, at Asthmatic Donkey, beer tastes bad and no one really likes bread yeast water more than cocktails that are really smoothies.

Yeah, I don't really like beer either, but I'm going to drink it anyways. I was discussing this with a teen yesterday. A teen? Well, they were like early 20s, but I'm considering them a teen because they're a teen in my mind. I feel like there's not nearly as much pressure these days to enjoy the taste of beer. Yeah. Whereas for us growing up, I feel like you went to a party and it was like, oh, I really love the orange notes in Blue Moon.

You know what I mean? There was this weird pressure to act like you actually enjoyed beer. Yeah, for me it was just a water bottle full of vodka. Sorry. Different parties. But that said, I do really enjoy beer. It's a learned, it's an acquired taste. It's a learned taste.

Like black coffee. Exactly. Where you associate it with a positive emotion and now you drink it and you really love it. And there's some beers that I really love. Shout out to Three Weavers Brewing Company's Extra Special Bitter. That was one of my favorite beers and their Expatriate IPA favorite brewery of all time. I like Red Stripe. If you ever see me in the streets, just give me Red Stripe.

Start throwing beers at Nicole. That said, people certainly do like beer. Also, I do not like cocktails that are smoothies. I hate creamy cocktails. I don't care about a pini. If it's a really hot day and I'm at a pool, if I'm on a Carnival Cruise Line cruise, I'll get a pini colada just for funsies. But if I'm drinking, I like to taste the alcohol. Me too.

Yeah. Totally. So all the cocktails that I drink are generally like 80 plus percent spirit and then other things added in. Same. I don't love just like crushable, poundable cocktails. Like I'd rather just drink something like that without alcohol in it and then slam a tasty hard liquor drinks. Agreed. Heck yeah.

Barbara Stanberry says cooked tomatoes are so gross to me. Can't get over the texture. They're good. Just got to, you know, enjoy. What do you eat pasta with? Not cooked tomatoes? Think about, though, like, not like a tomato sauce, but like when you get cow bob, right? You get that just whole charred tomato.

I love that. I love that, too. But sometimes when the tomatoes are undercooked, I don't love the texture. When they're kind of halfway between raw and cooked. I get that. You know, but when it gets, like, really, really charred and fudgy, I don't love the texture. When they're kind of halfway between raw and cooked. I get that. You know, but when it gets like really, really charred and fudgy, I do agree that the texture is weird. I just love it. It is a weird texture.

You got to mix it with something else. It's very, it's very fleshy. Yeah. There's a Vietnamese soup. I'm going to mispronounce it really poorly, but like Bun Rieu. Okay. It's like a crab, pork and tomato soup. Okay.

With noodles in it. And I had it the other day at a restaurant. crab, pork, and tomato soup with noodles in it. And I had it the other day at a restaurant. And what they do is they took a half of a tomato, it was half of a plum tomato,

and they peeled it and they just boiled it in the soup. So it was still just like a whole half of a boiled tomato. Interesting. And you just like pick it up with your chopsticks

and take a big old bite out of it in between, you know, rounds of noodle and broth. And it is a jarring texture if you're not someone who loves that. I love it though. Oh, it's just juicy

like a melon. Oh my God. Love the who loves that. I love it, though. It's juicy like a melon. Oh, my God. Love the texture of cooked tomatoes. All right, we got at Miss Taylor Bingham. Coleslaw is a salad. This is a weirdly controversial opinion. Of course it's a salad. Of course it's a salad.

Slaws are salads. And it's very silly to me that people don't think coleslaw would be a salad. I guess it depends if you're essentializing coleslaw as, like, say, the KFC coleslaw. If someone ate a giant bucket of KFC coleslaw for lunch and they were like, I just had a salad for lunch, I'd be like, a little bit of a stretch, I suppose. Well, it's greens and dressing. No,

you're preaching to the choir, but I think like, the KFC coleslaw, I mean, it's like ground almost, right? It was like you took coleslaw and you ran it through a grinder. Yeah, but for all intents and mean, it's like ground almost, right? It's like, it was like you took coleslaw and you ran it through a grinder. Yeah. But for all intents and purposes, it's like saying my chopped salad. It's true. Oh, it's true.

Finely chopped salad. That's true, true, true. It's like a green juice. Like a smoothie from nectar. Nectar. You know the smoothie place Nectar? Yes, I do. Where they like flip the E's upside down to look fancy.

Yeah. But then like it pronounced it like Nectar. Nectar. Nectar. The more you say but then like it pronounced it like nectar. Nectar. Nectar. The more you say it, the less it's a word. Nectar. Nectar juice bar. The more you say it, the less it's a word. Okay.

H. Moles says strawberry ice cream with a squeeze of lemon juice on top. Chef's kiss. This sounds good. I am opposed to this. Why? I am opposed to this, and I will tell you why. I will tell you why, Nicole, because my favorite ice cream place in the world is McConnell's Ice Cream from Santa Barbara, California. They are now distributing pints across grocery stores in America.

Yeah. Fantastic. They had one flavor that I went to the original scoop shop in Santa Barbara. Wow. I know. I know. And it was Meyer lemon zest. Okay.

And so it was sweet cream ice cream with a ton of Meyer lemon zest in it, so there was no acidity, just the essential oils. To this day, it is the best ice cream I've ever had. Wow, I just got goosebumps because I can taste that in my mouth. And I thought that, wow, I love this. Other people must. This is going to become a staple in the American ice cream canon. Turns out it was a limited run

flavor that I don't believe they ever made again. That's sad. Yeah, McConnell's ice cream, if there's anyone out there listening to this podcast, please tell me if that flavor ever comes back because they have another flavor called Eureka, Eureka lemon and Marion berry. And I was like, okay,

this might be close. And then I tried it and it was acidic. It was an acidic lemony, juicy ice cream. And I don't like that. I don't like acid in my ice cream. I don't think you should add any more acid to your ice cream. I mean,

if you enjoy it, of course do it. I think they're just drizzling on the top though. Like, but I don't like acid in my ice cream. I don't think you should add any more acid to your ice cream. I mean, if you enjoy it, of course, do it. I think they're just drizzling it on the top, though. But I don't want the acid in my strawberry ice cream. To me, acid is for sorbet. If I'm eating ice cream, I just want that sweet, sweet cream. Sweet, sweet cream. Sweet, sweet cream.

Although, Squeeze the Lemon Juice does jazz up a lot. At Black Swan Taylor, Buffalo Chicken Bacon and cheese, aka fancy mac. Buffalo chicken and bacon on mac and cheese sounds fan-freaking-tastic. Maybe it's because

I'm quite hungry right now. It sounds really good. I love buffalo chicken, mac and cheese. Just the marrying of the buffalo sauce, that acidic, beautiful sauce,

the fake stuff, not the real stuff. The chicken and the real stuff. The chicken and the creamy mac. I love it so much. And the bacon. Nice addition. I don't always love the bacon.

I'd rather do green onions on the top, but that's just me. I'm waiting for buffalo chicken to have a resurgence. I've always thought it's been so popular. People love buffalo chicken.

But I feel like Nashville hot chicken, as far as spicy fried chicken, instead of taking over, Nashville hot chicken seems to be the one that's in the zeitgeist right now. True, true, true. And feel like Nashville hot chicken, as far as spicy fried chicken, instead of taking over, Nashville hot chicken seems to be the one that's in the zeitgeist right now. True, true, true. And I love Nashville hot chicken, but I think a bad Nashville hot chicken is

worse than a bad buffalo chicken. Because to me, it's just harder to strike that balance with Nashville hot, right? And it's kind of like a strange, almost counterintuitive mix of flavors, right? Yeah, the sweet and the fatty. The grease, the sweet, the fatty, the deep chili flavor. It's a treat.

Whereas buffalo is very easy. It's so good. It's butter, acid, spice. That's it. Fantastic, yeah. And so for me, like buffalo, people got too complacent with their buffalo chicken because it's easy to make a fine one and hard to make a bad one. So I think we need this resurgence of like artisanal buffalo chicken. Clarified yak butter with, you know, an artisanal buffalo sauce.

Give me the artisanal buffalo. I don't want it. I don't want it. I want some good old fashioned buffalo. Okay. Constantine underscore 2310 underscore underscore says, is Snapple Jell-O a good idea? Absolutely. Yeah.

Hell yeah. That sounds rad. I am shocked that Jell-O has not done a collaboration with Snapple. What Snapple flavor would you turn into Jell-O? The pink lemonade. Ah. I would go peach iced tea from Snapple. I knew you were going to say peach iced tea.

I want an iced tea flavored Jell-O. Why has no one done iced tea flavored Jell-O? They should. Yeah, Constantine, you're on the right track, buddy. Keep going. Keep pushing. Keep hustling and grinding out there. You should just literally tell Jell-O corporate.

Like email the corporate Jell-O email and just say, hey, I have an idea. Who knows? It might take you somewhere. This is becoming a business podcast more than anything else. Yeah, yeah. Planet Money, make us an offer for 10% of our podcast. Shucks. All right.

At Megan.Marine. This is a good one. And I have felt this and it's never been posed to me in a more eloquent manner than now. Cumin smells like your sweaty uncle, but still be tasty. 100%, right? It's cumin smells, especially old ground cumin. I don't associate cumin with body odor the way some people do. There's got to be something scientific about that. Like, what is it?

There's like the aldehyde matching in a fart and also in truffles or something. Yeah, no. I understand that the association exists. Personally, for me, when I smell cumin or taste cumin, I don't get that sweat factor that people talk about because it's not an uncommon thing. People talk about because it's not an uncommon thing people talk about this i just don't associate that spice with body odor and sweat i just think i just think you got to do it for a non-judgmental place like uh feet and cheese feet and cheese right okay people's feet will smell cheesy and people think that's gross that's not gross that's freaking awesome and delicious i love that you go into a cheese cave

and you just smell deliciousness. You smell someone's feet, you smell deliciousness. This is taking a weird turn, but I'm dead serious. Josh likes feet. Well, you know, I'm not hurting anybody out here, you know. Get me out of this podcast. No, I'm saying like there

are certain odors that you take for granted, Like cheese. Like you smell a ripe cheddar cheese. All that is is just rotten bacteria, right? Funk, yeah. It's just funk. And for me, there's something similar for whatever reason about especially old, like kind of stale, jarred ground cumin. Okay.

Because I've started just toasting up fresh cumin seeds. I've been making a lot of Jira rice at home. Nice. Like I even made some gumbo and then I was going to make the rice for it. And I was like. Jira rice with gumbo? Yeah. Sounds delicious. And then I just made Jira rice with home. Nice. Like I even made some gumbo and then I was going to make the rice for it. And I was like. Jira rice with gumbo? Yeah. Sounds delicious.

And then I just made Jira rice with gumbo. Sounds delicious. It was a delight. And so I'm all in on the cumin train. Fresh cumin seed toasted in butter is my single favorite spice out there. Utterly delicious. And used in a ton of different cuisines. I like fennel seed more than cumin seed.

Fennel seed just reminds me of Mama Celeste. Really? Oh, the sausage? Yeah. They just put a ton of fennel seed just reminds me of Mama Celeste. Really? Oh, the sausage? Yeah, they just put a ton of fennel seed on there because it must be cheap. JojoGirl1991 says,

Raisins are the best work snack in nature's candy. Sorry, we're a prune business here. We only believe in prunes being the best work snack. Yeah, yeah, get out of here with the raisins. Raisins are just

the poor man's prunes. I don't, I don't like, you know, like, would your mom ever put you the little sun-made raisins back in your lunchbox? Oh, yeah. I don't like raisins. You know, like, would your mom ever put you the little sun-made raisins back

in your lunchbox? Oh, yeah. No, I love raisins. I don't like raisins that much. I prefer golden raisins. I knew you were good. I can't.

I don't know. I don't love raisins anymore. Really? I'm not into it. You've fallen out of love with me. You need to go get your groove back. I know.

I know. I do like raisins in like rice, like Persian rice when they do like a raisin rice. I like that. But like just eating like a handful of raisins and like trail mix does not do it for me. What about the yogurt covered ones? You mess with raisinets? I'll eat a raisinet.

The yogurt covered ones though? Like, no. How do they? We really took for granted that they just turned yogurt into a candy paste. What does that even mean? Is there any real yogurt in that? That's the next podcast. Yogurt powder probably.

How do they make yogurt-covered raisins when yogurt is the thing you eat with a spoon? Makes no goddang sense. No goddang sense. It makes less sense than anything that happened in the whole Dr. Pepper story. This dude was just pouring together sodas. Hold on, no, I'm mad about it again. He was just pouring together other people's sodas, and now he's just like, oh, I mixed 19

together. All he did was he went to the AM PM. Other people's Pepsi. Other people's Pepsi. High five. And on that note, thank you for listening to A Hot Dog is a Sandwich. If you want to hear, god dang it, I'm out of Dr. Pepper. Maggie, another.

Here you go. If you want to hear more from us here in the Mythical Kitchen, we got new episodes for you every Wednesday. If you want to be featured... Oh, God, that's good. It's still making me laugh. That's a good breakfast soda. If you want to be featured...

I'm doing what? Opinions are like casseroles. You can hit us up on Twitter at MythicalChef or nhandizada with the hashtag OpinionCasserole. You can hit us up on Twitter at MythicalChef or nhandizada with the hashtag OpinionCasserole. And for more Mythical Chicken, check us out on YouTube where we launch videos every week. And of course, if you want to share pictures of your dishes, hit us up on Instagram at MythicalKitchen, not MythicalChicken. Yeah, and when Nicole said that I like feet, we were just joking around. All right, we'll see you next time.