Although mystery shrouds its origins, Dr Pepper’s connection to Virginia runs deep. Roanoke is recognized as the Dr Pepper Capital of the World: it was home to the first bottling plant east of the Mississippi River in 1936, and Star City of the South also broke the world record for Dr Pepper consumption from 1957–1959 and again in 1961. To this day, Roanoke has among the highest per capita consumption rates of the spicy soda in the U.S.
But who was the Dr. Pepper? Theories abound, but there’s one common thread: They all converge in Virginia. The Dr Pepper Museum in Texas—the birthplace of the drink concocted by Wade Morrison, who owned Morrison’s Corner Drug Store in Waco, and pharmacist Charles Alderton—places Dr. Charles T. Pepper from Big Spring, Virginia, as the most likely namesake. Some tell the story of a young Morrison honoring the doctor for giving him his first job, and others claim Morrison pined for Pepper’s daughter…