TikToker Bailiee Gilbert (@baill.lee) didn’t need much time to discover she was bamboozled. The Dr Pepper fan posted a viral clip for everyone else who enjoys the soda, highlighting her grievance with a restaurant that served her something she did not order.
She shows in her video, which gathered over 364,000 views on the platform, a drink she was served.
“Only true Dr Pepper drinkers would understand that this does not look like a Dr Pepper.” After making this claim, she slides a tumbler of soda into the frame, showing off the carbonated, caramel-colored beverage.
“Did in fact not taste, nor look like a real Dr Pepper,” she writes in a caption, intoning something was off about the drink.
TikTokers weigh in
Folks who responded to her video seemed to clock the problem immediately. “That’s definitely a bad mix. We find that Chuy’s has one of the best mixes,” one commenter wrote.
The “mix” the aforementioned user is referring to is the syrup used in fountain soda machines. These widely used devices are comprised of three main components: Carbon dioxide, water, and flavored syrup. While there are many different varieties of these machines that have their individual nuances, these three factors are constant throughout.
The commenter suggests that the machine that delivered Gilbert’s soda had a problem including one of these three components. It could be that the fountain machine at the restaurant she visited wasn’t mixing the syrup properly.
According to The Restaurant Store, weekly cleanings of soda fountain machines are recommended for proper operation. Also, by taking the time to clean machines, business owners might be able to spot problems early on, like this one, for instance, that was detailed in a Foodservice Equipment Report.
In the piece, a soda fountain repair technician uncovered the source of a mysterious syrup soda fountain leak. After noticing the flavor of the beverage was off, the tech looked into how much syrup the business was using. It seemed like a lot, so they inspected the machine further, leading them to a “pool” of leaked syrup.
Then, this led them to check the source of the possible leak, which finally brought them to realize an O-ring on a hose had gone bad prematurely. After swapping out the O-ring, the soda came out fizzy, flavorful, and refreshing.
Discolored Dr Pepper
While the aforementioned soda tech had to taste the beverage to know something was off, TikTokers only needed their eyes for Gilbert’s clip.
One person penned, “I don’t drink Dr pepper and I know it’s not dark enough. Either it’s the wrong soda or it’s missing syrup.”
While another remarked that the beverage “looks light and watered-down.” Gilbert confirmed in a reply that this was a correct assessment. “Exactly how it tasted,” she said.
Someone else didn’t think it was a syrup problem but rather a case of the wrong drink entirely. “That’s coke or Pepsi 100%,” they said.
Another agreed that the hue of Dr Pepper is much darker than that of Coca-Cola. “Dr Pepper is very dark, one time a waiter put my drink down and before I even tried it I said, that’s a coke,” they wrote. “He said but you haven’t even tried it…I don’t have to!”
One commenter who works as a server said they can visually assess if a drink is a Dr Pepper. “As a server if I have a coke and Dr Pepper and forgot which is which I can tell by the color!” they claimed.
@baiii.lee Did in fact not taste, nor look like a real Dr Pepper 😔 ##drpepper ♬ original sound – Bailee Gilbert – Bennett
America loves Dr Pepper
Many would probably think Pepsi is the second most popular drink in the United States after Coca-Cola, and they’d be right. However, what lots of folks might not know is that Pepsi shares that number two spot, and it’s with Dr Pepper.
WATE 6 On Your Side reports that the soft drink, which was originally created by a Texas pharmacist in 1923, is tied with Pepsi in U.S. sales. These figures only relate to Pepsi cola, and not all of the other drinks under the brand’s product umbrella, however.
Pepsi is also a massively popular global brand, with numerous products being enjoyed by folks in a number of different regions. And although Dr Pepper isn’t as beloved as much on a global scale, it still gets around. For instance, folks in the United Kingdom seem to like it enough to rank as the region’s 7th most consumed soft drink.
The Daily Dot has reached out to Gilbert via TikTok comment and Dr Pepper via email for further information.
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