- [Narrator] There are over 400 varieties in America alone,
where half the population consumes
at least one glass every single day.
- Drinking a good soda out
of a frosted mug is like God cupping you in divine hands
and showing you all the things that are good about life.
- [Narrator] But 150 years ago,
soda as we know it didn't exist.
- Back then people didn't have an alternative
for a safe drink.
- There was no Pepsi or Coca-Cola.
They had not been invented yet.
- [Narrator] Until two pharmacists.
- Root beer.
- There was nothing like his drink on the market.
- [Narrator] 1500 miles apart.
- He was going to make a drink,
tastes like the drug store smelled.
- [Narrator] Kickstart the entire industry.
- Shoot me a Waco.
- [Narrator] Racing to bring temperance-friendly options.
- Soda began as the healthy alternative to alcohol.
- [Narrator] To a nation thirsty for more.
- I'm going to make Dr. Pepper America's favorite soda.
- Hires is the first nationally- distributed soft drink.
- [Narrator] But to get there. - See if this works.
- [Narrator] They'll have to invent
game-changing technology.
- It dispensed root beer in the perfect proportions.
- [Narrator] Endure national boycotts
and clash with new competitors.
- Do you really know what's in Coca-Cola?
- [Narrator] As they revolutionize
the world's drinking habits.
- In a massive soda market,
these are the sodas that built America.
- Perfect.
[upbeat music]
- [Narrator] In the early 1870s, American cities are booming
as roughly 3 million immigrants arrive
in just a few years.
Now, the overcrowding in urban areas
precipitates a health crisis.
- Sanitation back then wasn't that great,
and a lot of places in the United States
didn't even have internal plumbing.
Human waste gets into the groundwater.
The groundwater gets into humans. People get sick.
- [Narrator] As polluted water spreads
diseases like cholera, dysentery, and typhoid,
many city dwellers desperate
for safer drinking options turn to alcohol.
- They would mix alcohol into a water to kill the bacteria
and make near beers and watered-down wines.
- [Narrator] Thanks in part to this practice,
the average American consumes over seven gallons
of alcohol a year, roughly three times today's average.
And by 1874, protests against excessive use
of alcohol sweep through New York and much of the Midwest.
- You started seeing groups such
as the Women's Christian Temperance movements,
which was very pivotal in driving
the message of abstinence.
- They thought alcohol was destroying our society,
but people were drinking this all the time
because they didn't have an alternative for a safe drink.
- There was no Pepsi or Coca-Cola.
They had not been invented yet.
- And so you didn't have a lot of options for beverages.
- [Narrator] Creating an unlikely opportunity
for an ambitious young pharmacist on his honeymoon.
- Perhaps we could go for a walk
this afternoon before supper.
- Charles Hires was a big personality.
There are stories of him as a child mixing potions
and selling colored water,
and he very quickly developed
an affinity for being a pharmacist,
but he always had a side hustle going on.
- [Narrator] Hires is served an effervescent beverage,
typically only found in rural America.
- I'm sorry, what is this?
- Oh, it's a root tea, family recipe.
I hope you enjoy it.
- Root tea. It's been around for ages,
but it's made out of local roots.
- You would have to forage for roots, berries, herbs,
dry them out, boil them, strain them.
It was a labor-intensive task.
- [Narrator] The earliest version of root teas date back
to Native Americans who would serve it hot
and for medicinal purposes.
Colonists took the process a step further by adding yeast
and fermenting it briefly, stopping
before the beverage became alcoholic.
- The yeast is what made the drink carbonated.
As the yeast ferments, it adds that bubbly effervescence.
- [Narrator] But while root teas are popular in rural areas
elsewhere, they're virtually unknown.
- Charles Hires is not a rural guy,
and when he tasted this root tea,
[pensive music]
he immediately fell in love with it
and wanted to bring it back home.
- [Narrator] It's not just the unique flavor
that Hires responds to.
- Charles Hires did not believe in drinking alcohol at all.
- Hires believed in the temperance movement
and he thought the way to make money was
to give other options to people who didn't drink,
to be in a social context
and have a drink that didn't contain alcohol.
- [Narrator] Immediately after his honeymoon, Hires returns
to his pharmacy in Philadelphia with a list
of root tea ingredients from the innkeeper's wife.
- Charles wanted to get the perfect mix of ingredients
and the perfect ratio.
[suspenseful music]
- [Narrator] Hires mixes a delicious concoction
of 16 herbs, berries and roots,
including dandelion, ginger, licorice, vanilla,
and sassafras, among others.
- He wanted to make something at his pharmacy
for families all over Philadelphia.
He also wanted to appeal to people who were middle class,
who were working class, and
who loved the idea of beer.
And so he thought, why don't I create a temperance drink
that still has the feeling of beer,
because it's effervescent and because it's fermented.
- [Narrator] To create a drink he can sell in stores,
he needs to invent something that's not only delicious,
[mortar and pestle clinking]
but shelf stable.
His solution is decades ahead of its time.
- He created powdered mix,
so instead of having to collect roots and berries,
all of that work was cut out.
Boil it, add water, add sugar, add yeast, let it ferment.
- But he called for the fermentation process
to be cut short, creating
a naturally non-alcoholic beverage.
- [Narrator] After weeks of experimenting,
Hires believes he's crafted a ready-made powder
for the perfect temperance-friendly drink.
To make sure it will be a hit with the locals,
he seeks advice from a man
who knows the neighborhood better than anyone.
- Charles met with his friend Reverend Russell Conwell
and told him about this new beverage.
- What do you call this?
- Root tea.
- These men around here, they don't drink tea.
Kind of looks like a beer.
- The recipe contains something called sassafras root,
which has a property that gives it a foamy
or creamy like head to it.
- Well, it's brewed like a beer.
- So call it a beer.
- Root beer.
Root beer.
- Charles Hires wanted to market it to a general audience.
So even though he didn't drink,
he decided to call it root beer.
- [Narrator] Without realizing it,
Charles Hires has invented an entire category of beverage
that will go on to rake in over $600 million a year globally
and help ignite the soda industry.
But first, he needs to let people know his beverage exists
and the perfect way to do that, maybe in his own backyard.
- The Centennial Fair,
in 1876, was like nothing Philadelphia had ever seen.
It took over Fairmount Park
and in six months it saw over 10 million visitors.
- It was the precursor to the world's fair.
- [Narrator] Hires spends all of his savings
to debut his revolutionary product
in front of a massive audience.
- There were all different kinds of businesses there,
premiering their products, showing them off to the world.
- Everybody was going there to look for what was new.
- [Narrator] More than 14,000 businesses
from around the world display their products here,
including the first commercial typewriter from Remington
and the first demonstration of the telephone
by Alexander Graham Bell.
- People are also flocking to see what kinds
of wild foods are being introduced.
Waffles, popcorn, Heinz ketchup, even bananas,
which are an exotic novelty that at the time
are being eaten with a fork and knife.
- So Charles Hires sees the opportunity
to give away free samples of his root beer.
- [Narrator] Hires rents a costly booth
in the food exhibition,
offering free samples of his root beer.
Thousands of people taste his product here
for the first time.
- When Hires introduced this non-alcoholic beverage,
he's actually introducing something
that legitimately tastes delicious.
- And he reached a semi-national audience
at the Centennial Fair.
- [Narrator] Hoping to capitalize
on that wide exposure,
Hires gets his product ready
to sell in grocery stores across Philadelphia.
- Charles packaged it in a little yellow packet
with black writing that said,
"Hires Root Beer Extract."
25 cents makes five gallons
and it had directions right on the package
of how to make this at home.
- [Narrator] But in his first year,
he only manages to sell a meager 864 packets.
- When he gives away free glasses of it for people to try,
they love it,
but when Hires is selling his powdered root beer,
the reaction's kind of meh.
People drink it and it's like, oh, that's good,
and it's kind of convenient, and then they kind of move on.
So his plans are a bit dead at this point.
- Charles Hires spent everything he had on this exhibition,
but now he's stuck with a bunch
of packets and no one is buying.
- [Narrator] Unless Hires can turn things around,
his radical idea
for a non-alcoholic carbonated drink
will be a complete flop.
- [Narrator] In 1877,
a new root beer powder invented
by Philadelphia pharmacist Charles Hires
is failing to catch on locally.
- Despite not having a ton of money at this point
to help him sell it, he's still convinced
that he's sitting on a million dollar idea.
- [Narrator] In a last ditch effort,
he gambles everything on a bold strategy.
- He bought advertising on credit,
but at that time, advertising a drink.
It's not something that's done.
It's like throwing your savings into a wishing well
and hoping to strike it rich.
It's crazy.
Drinks weren't seen as money makers.
The market didn't even exist.
So he's risking everything on the off chance
that sales are gonna take off,
before creditors demand to be paid back.
- [Narrator] Hires begins by posting ads
in local newspapers.
- Hires Root Beer goes
on a real marketing campaign to promote itself
as a healthy, moral alternative to alcohol.
- Hires leans into the medicinal properties of root beer.
- It had ginger to help with stomach issues, phosphoric acid
to deal with hypertension.
- [Adam] He says it has blood purifying properties.
- And the idea was to get across this is so healthy
and good for you, it's something you can trust.
- [Narrator] By the end of the 1870s,
new orders start trickling in.
- It was kind of crazy, but it works.
There was nothing like his drink on the market,
and once people had more exposure to it,
it became wildly popular.
So much so he was able to pay off this debt.
- [Narrator] After saturating the Philadelphia market
Hires sets his sights on something much bigger,
and something practically unheard of.
- The idea of spending what little money you had and try
to nationally market a beverage
really was considered foolish and reckless.
- [Narrator] Hires boldly proceeds anyway, and by 1884,
his root beer extract is being sold in grocery stores
from coast to coast.
- Hires Root Beer is the first
nationally-distributed soft drink.
- National brands of any sort were just starting to emerge,
but Hires was one of the first.
His name belongs up there with Kellogg's and Heinz.
- [Narrator] Sales of Hires extract soar
from 11,000 packets a year to 1.5 million.
But just as his mix begins
to dominate the beverage industry, his sales flatline as
a new trend starts threatening his entire business model.
The soda fountain.
- The genesis of soda fountains really started
from the apothecary where you had druggists
that were putting together these elixirs
for supposed health benefits.
- Back then, drug stores sold drugs in powder
and liquid form, and it tasted terrible,
but they would add the powder
to whatever soda flavor you wanted with sugar
to make it more palatable.
- But many of these early tonics contained ingredients
that we would consider extremely dangerous today.
- Heroin was used as a cough suppressant.
- [Theresa] And there were no regulations.
- Laudanum for pain relief.
- As a pharmacist,
you could say whatever you wanted about it.
- Cocaine was a bit of a cure all.
Everything from headaches to sleeplessness to nervousness.
- And sell it to whoever you wanted.
- Eventually, pharmacists began mixing in non-medical syrups
to attract people with a little extra cash.
- They take a glass, they put flavored syrup in,
put the glass under the nozzle.
By alternating this, jerking the handle back
and forth, you would be able
to mix the soda without using a spoon.
It was this jerking motion
that gave the title soda jerk to the operator.
- [Narrator] With a push from the Temperance Movement,
soda fountains open in towns
and cities across the country as Americans search for places
to socialize other than saloons.
- Soda fountains were really just a place
where families could go and hang out
and have a nice time and get a nice treat.
- It also was considered a safe place.
A woman would never set foot in a bar back then,
but in a soda fountain, an unescorted lady could stop
and enjoy a drink,
which is why drinking straws were invented
because lipstick was so hard to get off the glassware.
- Eventually these became like hangouts.
It was a non-alcoholic bar. A soda shop. [chuckles]
- [Narrator] Hires soon discovers
that soda fountains offer a wide array
of non-medicinal and non-alcoholic beverages.
- One soda, please.
- In the late 1800s, soda fountains were everywhere.
And a lot of soda makers would develop a syrup
that could be mixed with carbonated water.
- Soda came in so many different flavors
like pineapple, celery, rhubarb, coffee.
Basically, if it was edible, you could make a soda syrup
out of it, and a lot of people did.
[soda trickling into glass]
[light suspenseful music]
- Times were changing and Charles realized
that he needed to develop something different.
- [Narrator] Now, Hires must create
his own fountain syrup formula
or risk being wiped out by the competition.
1500 miles away,
a young pharmacist is also experimenting
with flavored sodas.
- Charles Alderton was originally from New York.
He had been working in Galveston as a pharmacist.
- Then he became the pharmacist
at the Old Corner Drug Store in Waco.
- Waco was a bustling frontier town in the late 1800s.
They had pharmacies, groceries,
and they also had some saloons, obviously.
[pensive western music]
- In the Wild West, the saloons were the center
of the social community, and people would go there
and drink beer to enjoy themselves.
- [Narrator] The popularity of Waco's saloons
gives Alderton an idea.
- By all accounts, he really loved being a pharmacist.
He enjoyed making medicine and making sodas,
because that was seen as a type of medicine.
- But he had noticed that the customers were getting bored.
They'd got used to orange soda.
They got used to cherry soda,
and sales was starting to drip off.
- [Narrator] So his boss allows him time each day
to experiment with new flavors.
- Wade Morrison was a businessman
who owned the Old Corner Drug Store in Waco,
and he hired Charles Alderton to be his pharmacist.
[liquid squirts into glass]
- Make sure and clean that up when you're done.
- You got it.
[light suspenseful music]
- He loved the way the pharmacy smelled when he walked in.
He loved the amalgamation of all the different syrups
that were in there, and he said,
"Is there a way for me to put this all in a bottle?"
- So he decided he was going to make a drink
taste like the drugstore smell.
- [Narrator] Working around the clock,
Alderton hopes to impress the locals enough
to drive them out of the saloons
and into the old corner drugstore.
[propulsive music]
- Finally, he comes up with this combination
of 23 different flavors.
- [Narrator] Charles Alderton has no idea
that his concoction will one day sell
over 500 servings every single second,
raking in $14 billion a year,
and he'll never see a dime of it.
[dramatic music]
[gentle guitar music]
- Charles, we gotta speed up, man. Come on. Yes, ma'am.
Two minutes. Two minutes. Yes, ma'am. Yes, ma'am.
- [Narrator] In the mid 1880s,
Charles Alderton has created a new flavor of soda
that's become an unexpected hit.
- He wanted to really get his customer base excited
about the soda, but he doesn't even have a name for it.
- [Narrator] So the customers come up with their own.
- Shoot me a Waco. - [Wade] Waco. Yes, sir.
- It was definitely a favorite in Waco
when it first came out.
You couldn't get it anywhere else in the world.
So they would go to the soda fountain and say...
- Shoot me a Waco.
- One Waco. Come on, Charles.
- The "shoot me" comes from that motion
the soda jerks are making where they're pulling the handle.
- [Wade] Two bits. One more, Charles. We're getting you, sir.
- [Narrator] More important than
what they call Alderton's creation is how it tastes.
- He created something that is singular,
something that is one of a kind.
- The difference between root beer
and Dr. Pepper is the difference
between a classical concert and going to see the Clash live.
Root beer is a subtle blending of different herbal extracts.
Dr. Pepper is a mishmash of flavors
that are everything all over the place as loud as possible.
- It's fruity, but not as fruity
as a grape soda or cherry soda.
It also has almost a cinnamon note to it,
and that's sort of the magic of it.
- [Narrator] As Alderton struggles to meet demand,
Charles Hires has been working tirelessly for months,
determined to create the perfect root beer syrup
to sell at the increasingly popular soda fountains.
- So he re-engineered his recipe by making a root beer syrup
that was pre-sweetened and ready to be used.
- [Narrator] But before launching
his root beer syrup nationwide,
Hires visits local soda fountains
to make sure it's being prepared correctly.
- That's way too much syrup.
- Charles was a perfectionist.
- The foam, the foam.
The foam.
- [Narrator] Hires' investigation reveals
a new problem.
- He didn't like that the perfect drink
was in the hands of a soda jerk.
- Soda jerks might use too much syrup.
The next one might have too little.
There's not any consistency.
- So his root beer didn't taste
the way it was supposed to taste.
- [Narrator] Hires must find a way to regulate
the quality of his soda
or risk becoming an afterthought in the industry
he helped launch.
Meanwhile, by the end of 1885,
Alderton's unique soda is outgrowing its roots.
- Other drug stores and soda fountains
in the central Texas area are hearing about this drink
and they want to sell it to their customers.
So Morrison starts brewing up lots of syrup
to transport out to these local soda fountains.
- [Narrator] As the soda expands beyond Waco,
Morrison gives their beverage a new name.
- Back in the late 1800s we see a lot
of different products having the word doctor in their names
whether or not there was actually a medicinal benefit.
- Kind of how we use organic today.
Your organic potato chips aren't exactly healthy,
but maybe you feel a little bit better eating them.
Dr. Pepper did contain phosphates,
which are good for bone health and iron,
which is good for your blood and muscles.
But were the health effects being exaggerated? Yes.
- [Narrator] But not long after they begin
to sell Dr. Pepper syrup to local soda fountains.
- It's getting late.
- One more batch, we'll call it a night.
- [Narrator] Alderton has second thoughts
about the soda business.
- Okay.
- Even though Charles Alderton created this uniquely
American drink, he wasn't able to profit
from the formula because he was creating work product
for Wade Morrison.
- Charles Alderton realizes he already has his dream job
as a pharmacist, so he takes a step back
and he leaves the soda with Morrison.
- [Narrator] With Alderton out of the picture,
Morrison brings on a ruthless businessman
who will do whatever it takes to make Dr. Pepper
a national hit,
and in the process upend the entire soda industry.
[vibrant music]
[pensive music]
- [Narrator] In the mid 1880s,
Charles Hires races to create something
that can regulate the quality
of his root beer at soda fountains.
- He developed his own machine to dispense Hires' syrup
and carbonated water in the perfect amount.
- [Narrator] His state-of-the-art invention
is constructed of eye-catching
white marble and silver-plated pipes.
- [Charles] See if this works. Hmm.
[suspenseful music]
[soda pouring]
- It was much smaller than soda fountains
and it dispensed root beer in the perfect proportions.
- Perfect.
- [Narrator] He calls it the Hires Automatic Munimaker.
[soda pouring]
- His munimaker machine was pioneering
because it automatically combined syrups
and carbonated water at the right quantities
and was really the precursor
for the soda machines of today.
[soft intense music]
- [Narrator] Soon Hire sells over 1000 munimakers,
but the game changing machine isn't
even his biggest innovation.
- Charles wanted to trademark the phrase root beer,
but you can't trademark commonly used words.
- So he simply changes his name from Hires Root Beer
to just Hires.
This was groundbreaking.
This really revolutionized how we named things,
not just in the soda industry, but in food.
It's not Pepsi-Cola, it's just Pepsi.
- [Narrator] Within a year,
Hires becomes the number one soda brand in America.
[soft intense music]
Back in Waco, Wade Morrison aims to surpass Hires
by asking a local bottler
to help distribute Dr. Pepper syrup
to soda fountains beyond Texas.
[soda pouring]
[glass clanking]
- Robert Lazenby was well respected in the Waco community
and he created different bottling plants.
- Dr. Pepper is still only a regional hit in Texas
and Morrison needs this.
If he wants to grow, Lazenby is his guy.
He's the gatekeeper.
[soft intense music]
- What do you think?
[soft intense music]
- To be honest,
I've never tasted anything quite like it.
- Lazenby, in addition
to being a pretty shrewd business person
and also maybe a little bit of a shady one,
is also a very brilliant self-taught chemist.
He knows about soft drinks.
- Lazenby's bottling company is successful,
but he wasn't about to be a millionaire anytime soon.
But after one sip of Morrison's unique soda, he knew.
- This is too good to be stuck in Waco, Texas.
- So I take it then, you're interested?
- Interested.
- He's hitching his wagon to Dr. Pepper.
- I'm going to make Dr. Pepper America's favorite soda.
[soft intense music]
- [Narrator] But first, Lazenby makes a brash stipulation.
- To patent food, you would have to divulge the recipe,
which would then enable copycats.
- So he decided Dr. Pepper must keep its ingredients secret
[soft pensive music]
- [Narrator] As Lazenby agrees to ramp up shipping
of Dr. Pepper syrup,
Charles Hires is trying to stay one step ahead.
[soft pensive music]
- People are coming to Charles Hires
and telling him how much they like his root beer.
So he wants to develop a way for people
to have a pre-mixed root beer across the country.
- This was the golden age of railroads.
You could get your product anywhere
in the country quickly and cheaply.
- But there were issues transporting bottled soda
with the corks.
How do you stop these from leaking?
How do you keep in gas so that the soda isn't flat?
How do you stop them
from exploding if there's too much pressure?
- [Narrator] That's when he learns
about a game-changing technology invented just last year.
[metal clamping] [soft pensive music]
- How long does the seal last?
- No one knows.
[suspenseful music]
We're still waiting for one to leak.
[soft upbeat music]
- The Crown Bottle Cap
really revolutionized distribution of soda.
It kept the carbonation inside and they didn't explode.
- You could ship a bunch across the country
and allow the carbonation to stay inside,
so people can enjoy root beer
the way he intended for them to.
[soft intense music]
- [Narrator] Hires sells more than a million bottles
of his non-alcoholic beverage nationwide.
But his unparalleled success makes him a target,
ironically, from a group within the Temperance Movement
that has become even stronger over the past two decades.
- [Theresa] At that time,
the Women's Christian Temperance Union was a
very powerful organization
and you didn't wanna be in their way.
- They'd heard that Hires makes the root beer by using yeast
and it's fermented and therefore it has alcohol.
- They believed that it contained enough alcohol in it
that it was just like buying any other beer at the saloon.
- So they launched this national boycott of his drink.
[soft suspenseful music]
[footsteps approaching] [paper slapping]
- There was a New York Times article that was published
that said "Is Root Beer Insidious?'"
[newspaper thudding]
[soft intense music]
Even though there is no evidence
of someone ever getting drunk on root beer.
- [Narrator] Hires' decision to call his root tea,
root beer is now coming back to haunt him.
[birds chirping] [soft intense music]
Meanwhile, sales of Dr. Pepper are skyrocketing,
allowing Lazenby to open a second syrup bottling plant.
But just as he's racing to capitalize on Hires' troubles
and dethrone them as the number one soda brand in America,
a new threat arrives,
that will one day eclipse both of them.
[suspenseful music]
[powerful percussive music]
- In the early 1890s, a new soda popular
in Georgia starts to take the nation by storm.
It's created by an Atlanta pharmacist named John Pemberton.
- When the Civil War began,
Pemberton was slashed with a saber across his stomach
and he became addicted to morphine
and at that time there was no narcotics act.
Anybody could basically get hold of drugs.
- [Narrator] To wean himself off morphine,
Pemberton creates a medicinal beverage
with what was considered a less harmful ingredient.
- Because it was made from the coca leaf.
It had trace amounts of cocaine in it, not enough
that people could ever really get a powerful buzz out of it,
but I'm sure it helps sell this stuff.
- And he made it out of cola nuts,
which had caffeine in it,
so he called it Coca-Cola.
[soft intense music]
- Pemberton starts selling Coca-Cola out of his pharmacy
and people are loving Coca-Cola,
which gives them a little bit
of an extra kick to get through their day.
- It's laced with cocaine and caffeine.
Who wouldn't love it? [chuckling]
- [Narrator] As Coca-Cola enjoys a surge in local business,
despite its questionable ingredients,
Charles Hires is still reeling
after wild accusations about the ingredients
in his soda have triggered a national boycott.
[soft intense music]
- This boycott does real damage to his momentum.
He was doing really, really well
and this was a major setback
because it destroyed trust in his brand.
- The whole purpose of root beer is to give people
an alternative to alcohol during the Temperance Movement.
But the term beer in the name root beer
becomes confusing to a lot of people.
- [Narrator] But even as sales plummet,
Hires refuses to give up.
- Charles Hires really has to fight
to clear his name and his brand.
- So Charles commissioned his own study of his root beer
and he had a chemist analyze it.
- He ran a bunch of different tests
and he eventually concluded there's more alcohol
in a loaf of bread than there was in his drink.
- And the reason he picked a loaf of bread was to prove
that not every time yeast ferments, it produces alcohol.
And he published the findings of this study
that it was a non-alcoholic drink
and it was completely safe to consume
without any ill effects.
- And that silenced what the WCTU was doing
and he was able again to sell it.
- [Narrator] But Hires doesn't stop there.
- He just took out this advertising campaign
that restated that it was a non-alcoholic drink.
It was a healthy drink.
It was for men, women, and children.
- [Narrator] By 1894 Hires gets back on track,
selling over 15 million gallons of his signature drink.
- He ended up winning the battle
with the Temperance Movement
and root beer to this day is seen as a temperance drink.
- [Narrator] But Hires is about to discover
there's a bold new competitor on the national market.
- By 1895, Coca-Cola is enjoyed coast to coast
in soda fountains and people love its crisp,
refreshing taste.
- But some people start to complain
about the cocaine that's in it,
and this is something people are giving to their children.
- [Narrator] After removing cocaine from their recipe,
Coca-Cola continues to expand,
building syrup factories across the country,
including in Texas, [suspenseful music]
right in Dr. Pepper's backyard.
[soft pensive music]
- So Robert Lazenby sees Coca-Cola coming
and he's not happy with that.
- This is Robert Lazenby. Is Commissioner Abbott home?
Thank you.
- James Abbott is a very powerful man.
He is the Food Commissioner for the State of Texas
and his main responsibility is to make sure that food
and drink that Texans consume is safe.
- I'm sorry to bother you so late in the evening,
but I didn't want to call you at the office.
- By the end of the 1800s,
people were growing more and more concerned
about dangerous drugs being in soda,
and doctors were starting to turn against caffeine
'cause it makes you kind of hyper
and they thought it was harmful to health.
- I want to talk to you about caffeine.
- Dr. Pepper's caffeine free.
So Robert Lazenby goes
after Texas Food Commissioner, J.S. Abbott, urging him
to ban drinks that have caffeine added to it.
- It's a simple question.
Do you really know what's in Coca-Cola?
- [Narrator] What Lazenby doesn't realize
is that his effort to best Coca-Cola
will only make it stronger.
is that his effort to best Coca-Cola]
- Shortly before the turn of the 20th century,
Dr. Pepper is the number two soda in America,
right behind Hires.
[soft suspenseful music]
To prevent further competition,
Lazenby lobbies the State Food Commissioner of Texas.
- There must be something the government can do.
- [Narrator] In an attempt to take down
the soda industry's newest phenomenon, Coca-Cola.
- I appreciate it.
- It did kind of cause a bit
of a stir in Texas.
Some people thought the Food Commissioner had been turned
into a mouthpiece for the Dr. Pepper Company.
- [Narrator] Lazenby posts ads claiming
that unlike Coca-Cola,
Dr. Pepper is a pure food beverage.
- Lazenby felt he had an outstanding product
that was better than Coca-Cola
because his product didn't have caffeine.
- Back then, Coca-Cola had the level of caffeine
that a current Red Bull does,
and worse than that, they were marketing it to children.
So the government got them
to limit the amount of caffeine.
Then it's about 35% of what it was back then.
- [Narrator] During a protracted battle
that goes all the way to the Supreme Court,
new scientific studies declare
that caffeine isn't necessarily harmful.
- There was some very good, early double-blind research
that showed that caffeine did help keep people awake
and it did help them to perform better on some tests.
- The countless sums Lazenby spent shining a national light
on caffeine, only help Coca-Cola sales skyrocket,
leading him to do the unthinkable.
- He failed to get caffeine banned,
may as well join the club.
- So
around 1917,
Lazenby decides to add caffeine to the Dr. Pepper formula.
- And they promote themselves as a kind of energy drink.
- [Narrator] While sales slowly increase,
it's too little, too late and Dr. Pepper falls
to third place, directly behind Coca-Cola.
[soft suspenseful music]
Then in 1919, every soda brand gets an unexpected boost
after Congress ratifies the 18th Amendment,
banning the sale and production of alcohol.
[soft intense music]
- Prohibition happened almost overnight.
Before it, the average American was consuming 2.6 gallons
of alcohol every year,
but after that number reduced by 70%.
- [Narrator] Unable to legally purchase alcohol,
the nation looks for a substitute.
- Could you imagine the economic impact
of thousands of small bars
around the United States closing all at once?
So the Department of Commerce
actually published books encouraging people
to turn their bars into soda fountains and ice cream shops.
Before prohibition, there were 4,000 soda fountains,
but after prohibition, there were 100,000 soda fountains
in the United States.
- [Narrator] Within six months of prohibition being enacted,
sales of soda soar by 200%,
including 65 million glasses a year
of America's number one soda, Hires Root Beer.
[soft intense music]
Then at the age of 72,
Hires passes the company's reigns to his son, in 1923.
[soft intense music]
- Hires Root Beer remained the number one soft drink
in the 1920s,
but when Charles Hires takes the back seat
and he's not at the helm anymore,
the company takes a bit of a nose dive.
[soft intense music]
- [Narrator] The company also gets hit
as prohibition opens the floodgates
for new root beer brands like Barq's and A & W.
- There's no specific recipe to make root beer.
There's probably a hundred different flavors,
which is why all these root beers today
taste slightly different.
- [Narrator] Dr. Pepper's unique style keeps it
in a category all its own.
- Lazenby ended up forming what we now know of
as the Dr. Pepper Company.
The drink really was able to start spreading
across the nation and become this national drink.
[soft suspenseful music]
- [Narrator] In 2008,
the Dr. Pepper Snapple Group acquires the Hires brand,
becoming the world's third largest soft drink company
behind Pepsi and Coca-Cola.
[soft upbeat music]
Three years later, they remove Hires from stores
to boost sales of their other root beer brand, A & W.
- It's a shame that Hires isn't more widely known,
but really I think you have root beer today
because of Hires.
- Charles Hires started out as a struggling poor pharmacist,
but through ingenuity and hard work,
he was able to establish the first national soda brand,
a pioneer in the soda industry.
I mean, he was the epitome of the American dream.
- [Narrator] Today,
Dr. Pepper is the oldest major American soda brand
still in existence
with revenues reaching over $14 billion a year.
- To this very day,
we still don't know exactly what's in Dr. Pepper.
All we know is it's hella good with pizza.
- [Narrator] The average person now drinks 45 gallons
of soda a year,
more than beer and coffee combined.
[upbeat music]
And thanks to Hires and Dr. Pepper paving the way,
American soda is currently a more
than $440 billion
global industry.
[upbeat music]