Cherry Chocolate Diet Dr. Pepper
A question that has been pondered by modern Wise Men for decades remains unanswered, so far as I know. That mighty riddle would be ‘How many licks does it take to get to the Tootsie Roll center of a Tootsie Roll Pop?’ Deep, deep stuff here folks. Well, someone hidden well underground in the Dr. Pepper labs just got tired of asking, melted a Cherry Tootsie Roll Pop down, mixed it with Diet Dr. Pepper, and Cherry Chocolate Diet Dr. Pepper was born. No more licking, just sip.
This product is simple novelty, yet another ‘Limited Edition.’ A regular commenter noted in another post that these ‘Limited Editions’ are getting out of hand. My thinking is as the soft drink industry is losing ground to teas, coffees, energy drinks, and juice products, they’re getting desperate and throwing ideas against the wall, praying that something will stick. By slapping ‘Limited Edition’ on the label, if it fails miserably, they can yank it and say ‘Oh well.’ If one succeeds, I bet we’ll see that label fall off pretty quickly.
Will Cherry Chocolate Dr. Pepper succeed? Probably not. That doesn’t mean it’s bad, it’s not, just mediocre. It’s also far too ‘niche’ to justify keeping in production for a long time. What do I mean by ‘niche?’ First, it will only appeal to consumers of diet soda. Second, and this is bigger than you might think, diet soda consumers who drink something besides Diet Coke. Third, it takes a brave soul to even sample a beverage flavored with cherries and chocolate, and with it being so ‘unique’ in flavor, only a certain percentage of those people will ever purchase it again. Out of those that would purchase it again, how many will make it a part of their regular rotation? See where I’m going?
For the folks that think Cherry Chocolate Diet Dr. Pepper would be disgusting, it’s not, and I feel safe recommending it for a sampling. This is destined to be one of those ‘love it or hate it’ products. If you’re in the ‘Love it!’ category, I suggest you start stock piling. If you hate it, it shouldn’t be in your way for very long. $1.25ish (20oz) wherever Dr. Pepper products are sold. May your God or Gods be with you.
–Jeremy Hobbs
dr. pepper, diet dr. pepper, cherry chocolate diet dr. pepper, soda, diet, beverages
February 18th, 2008 at 3:36 pm
Good to see you give your opinion on this one. I thought for sure you were going to hate it. Talking to the Pepsi guys, I think the cherry vanilla is a bit more popular, and might make it out of “limited” status. Sales will tell . . .
March 20th, 2008 at 4:57 pm
The lack of interest is probably the old brand name - old, tired - anything new with the same flavor might be successful, new products will always be niche initially.