Diet Cherry Vanilla Dr. Pepper

Feeling a little tired this afternoon, I decided I needed some caffeine to pep me up. So I checked out the vending machines here at work for the first time. I just started this job a couple weeks ago – and you have to pay for soda here. Which sucks, cause at Mongrel & Bastard (my former place of employment) the soda’s were free. Ok, well not really – they were a quarter, but I always just stole quarters out of the receptionist’s desk.

Anyway, we have two big soda machines here. I wanted to drink something with caffeine, so my usual Sprite was out of the question – so I was pleasantly surprised to see that we had Diet Dr. Pepper. Or so I thought! As I reached down to extract the soda from the machine, I realized I had just bought a Diet Cherry Vanilla Dr. Pepper! What the heck?

I have been perplexed by this flavor since the first time I saw the commercials for it – it’s diet, and cherry, and vanilla and a doctor and a pepper? How can they possibly fit that many flavors into one little can? I don’t like cherry flavored stuff anyway – so I was disappointed at this colossal mistake I had just made! But being the cheap ass that I am – I didn’t want to spend another $.50 on something better, so I decided to give it a shot.

And you know what? It’s not half bad!
It’s like a fine Napa pinot noir. Layer with complex flavors…(sniff)… the robust Dr. being the first thing you can taste…but you can still find…(more sniffs)…a little pepper….maybe some diet…and there’s even a hint of like cherry…or like a nutty vanilla.

Are you chewing gum?