Dr Pepper — its official name has no period, which I assume frees it from having to produce a medical degree upon request — knows it’s not merely a soft drink. It’s a stately mixer.
The fruit-ish, cola-adjacent, difficult-to-describe soda is underappreciated for its ability to make a palatable cocktail with even the harshest of booze (Kamchatka, Fleischmann’s, any of the rubbing alcohol vodkas, really). Dr Pepper and whiskey is an easy, reliable mixed drink. And since bourbon country overlaps nicely with the college football fans Dr Pepper has eagerly courted every fall with a barrage of extended-universe advertisements, the soft drink goliath reached out to meet those fans halfway.
Behold, Dr Pepper Bourbon Flavored Fansville Reserve:
The limited edition brew can only be won via random drawings through Dr Pepper’s Perks website. You sign up and, through next week, get one online scratch-off card per day to try your luck at one of 2,300 cans. I used my media credentials and politeness to ask nicely for a sample to review, but in the spirit of full disclosure I also won one this morning after weeks of trying. Hooray!
I sampled the full sugar beverage — I generally lean toward diet sodas so as to make my caloric intake from beer less devastating — and wrote that up as our Beverage of the Week. But since I’m fighting off a cold and didn’t have the resources to put together a proper College Football Cocktail — Will Levis’ Irish mayonnaise coffee will have to wait until Week 13 — I went real basic with it.
I added bourbon to the bourbon Dr Pepper.
The Fansville Deliverance
- 6 oz. Dr Pepper Fansville Reserve
- 1.5 oz bourbon (Central Standard)
This was the logical progression after lucking into a can of bourbon-flavored soda. I was happy to sauce up Utah’s internet-famous dirty sodas a few months back, so of course I was going to see how bourbon pairs with, uh, bourbon-flavored soda.
For my booze I opted for Wisconsin’s Central Standard Craft Distillery’s cabernet-barreled bourbon. Bit of a weird choice, I know, but I didn’t want to mix Old Forester and I’ve been leaning pretty hard on Brother’s Bond lately. Plus, wine and Dr Pepper seem like a fit, right? My wine expertise ends at hastily-finished bottles of banana red MD 20/20 so it’s possible I don’t know what I’m talking about.
Turns out I might! The bourbon — poured probably too stiffly — blends nicely with the Dr Pepper to create a pleasant overall experience that ups the malt and fruit and hell maybe a little bit of chocolate? into a solid two-step cocktail.
It’s easy and, importantly, tasty. Dr Pepper knew what it was doing when it made a bourbon-flavored reserve. Adding booze to it doesn’t really change much, but it will help you accept the outcome of Texas A&M’s season more easily.
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