NEW YORK -- Coca Cola is still America’s No. 1 soda, but there’s a new No. 2.
Dr. Pepper inched ahead of Pepsi in 2023 and the second most popular brand of soda in the country, according to research from Beverage Digest, a trade publication.
co*ke captured 19.2% of market sales in 2023, maintaining its strong hold on No. 1, CNN reported, citing the Beverage Digest research.
Dr. Pepper, which has slowly gained market share for years, inched passed Pepsi. Both registered 8.3% with rounding, but Dr Pepper was technically ahead, researchers said.
Two other brands bottled by Coca Cola came in at No. 3 and No. 4. Sprite recorded a market share of 8.1%, and Diet co*ke registered 7.8%.
“Dr Pepper has been gaining, [Pepsi] has been declining, and they’re meeting in the middle,” Duane Stanford, editor of Beverage Digest, told CNN in an interview.
Dr. Pepper, which originated in 1885 in Waco, Texas, preceded co*ke and Pepsi. It has successfully grown by marketing itself as a “spicey alternative” to cola products. It claims to be a blend of 23 flavors.
Coca-Cola came along in 1886 in Atlanta. A product called Brad’s Drink, introduced in New Bern, North Carolina in 1893, became Pepsi-Cola in 1898.
“The soft drink industry itself, as a whole, was still really trying to figure itself out in the late 1800s, early 1900s,” Joy Summar-Smith, associate director of the Dr Pepper Museum in Waco, told CNN in a 2022 interview. “Each town had their own soft drink manufacturing facility.”
As Dr. Pepper gained traction with a national audience, it also has experimented with new flavors.
Recently, the brand introduced Dr. Pepper Creamy Coconut. It introduced Dr Pepper Strawberries & Cream in 2023, something Timothy Cofer, CEO of Dr Pepper parent company Keurig Dr Pepper, described as “a standout success,” during an analyst call in April.
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