Nobody outside Keurig Dr Pepper knows the 23 flavors of Dr Pepper: the recipe is a trade secret, and the label lists them only as "natural and artificial flavors." The list everyone quotes is a fan list. The version I use here is cola, cherry, licorice, amaretto, vanilla, blackberry, apricot, caramel, black pepper, anise, sarsaparilla, ginger, molasses, lemon, plum, orange, nutmeg, cardamom, allspice, coriander, juniper, birch and clove. The company has never published the full list, and the one thing it has ruled out in writing is prune juice, which is why prune, a staple of other lists, is not on mine. Ingredients checked against the current can label on October 7, 2026.
In short, Dr Pepper has seven ingredients on the can and a 23-flavor blend hidden in one of them. Below is that list grouped so you can actually taste it, what Dr Pepper really tastes like, the real ingredients from the can, where the recipe is kept, and the 2009 notebook that briefly looked like it had cracked the secret. If you meant the different Dr Pepper products (Cherry, Zero Sugar, the zero sugar cream soda can, Strawberries & Cream and the rest), that is a separate page: every Dr Pepper flavor in the current lineup.
The 23 flavors of Dr Pepper (the fan list)
This is the list that gets passed around soda forums, Reddit threads and trivia pages. It is fan speculation, not the official recipe, and different versions swap items in and out. With that firmly in place, here is the 23 I use:
1. Cola
2. Cherry
3. Licorice
4. Amaretto (almond)
5. Vanilla
6. Blackberry
7. Apricot
8. Caramel
9. Black pepper
10. Anise
11. Sarsaparilla
12. Ginger
13. Molasses
14. Lemon
15. Plum
16. Orange
17. Nutmeg
18. Cardamom
19. Allspice
20. Coriander
21. Juniper
22. Birch
23. Clove
Other versions of the list include prune, root beer, rum, raspberry, carrot, cinnamon and even tomato. I have left prune off on purpose: Dr Pepper has said in writing that there is no prune juice in it, and a list that pictures a prune is how the myth keeps spreading. There is no canonical 23. Lists that disagree with each other this much are the clearest sign that none of them came from the company.
The 23 flavors grouped by family
Read as one long list, the 23 are hard to taste. Grouped, they start to make sense of the can in your hand:
| Family | Fan-list flavors | What it does in the glass |
|---|---|---|
| Fruit (6) | Cherry, blackberry, apricot, plum, lemon, orange | The dark-fruit body most people notice first, with a little citrus lift |
| Warm spice (8) | Black pepper, nutmeg, cardamom, allspice, coriander, ginger, anise, clove | The "I cannot name it" warmth, and the reason people guess cinnamon |
| Sweet (4) | Vanilla, caramel, molasses, amaretto (almond) | The rounded, almost cherry-almond finish |
| Root and herbal (5) | Cola, licorice, sarsaparilla, birch, juniper | The old-fashioned soda-fountain backbone it shares with root beer |
That split is my reading of the fan list, not anything the company has published. It does line up with how tasters describe Dr Pepper, which is why the list has survived so long.
What flavor is Dr Pepper? (What it tastes like)
Dr Pepper tastes like cherry and almond over warm baking spice, with a cola-and-root-beer backbone and no single fruit in charge. That is the honest answer to "what flavor is it": it is a blend built to taste like itself rather than like any one thing. It is darker and spicier than Coke or Pepsi, less creamy than root beer, and fruitier than either.
If you want the Dr Pepper flavor profile in tasting-note form, this is how I would write it up:
| Stage | What you get |
|---|---|
| First sip | Cherry and a bright fizz, sweeter than a cola |
| Middle | Warm spice: nutmeg, clove and allspice notes, with a peppery edge |
| Finish | Vanilla and almond, the amaretto note people remember |
| Aftertaste | A faint licorice and root-beer backbone |
Those are my notes, not the recipe, but they are the notes most tasters land on.
The cherry and amaretto notes are the ones most people can pick out, and cherry is the one Dr Pepper sells turned up: Dr Pepper Cherry is the full-sugar cherry can, and Cherry Zero Sugar, its no-sugar twin, lists the same ingredients with sweeteners in place of corn syrup. The spices in Dr Pepper, as far as anyone can taste them (nutmeg, allspice, clove, cardamom, anise), are why it is so hard to name, and why so many people are convinced there is cinnamon in it. Cinnamon is not on the label or on the list above (some other fan lists do include it), and the company has never said either way, so the honest answer to "is Dr Pepper cinnamon flavored" is: it tastes spiced, and nobody outside the company can tell you exactly why.
It is also not a cola, legally or by taste, which surprises people. The whole story of that is in is Dr Pepper a cola?, and the side-by-side with the two big colas is in Dr Pepper vs Coke vs Pepsi. The brand leaned into that for decades: an early 1960s jingle already called it "not a cola, not a root beer".
Dr Pepper ingredients (what is actually on the can)
Here is the part that is not speculation. The ingredients on a 12 fl oz can of regular Dr Pepper, in label order, per Keurig Dr Pepper's product facts:
- Carbonated water
- High fructose corn syrup
- Caramel color
- Phosphoric acid
- Natural and artificial flavors
- Sodium benzoate (preservative)
- Caffeine
That is the whole list. The famous 23 live inside line five. "Natural and artificial flavors" is the catch-all a label is allowed to use for a proprietary flavor blend, and it is exactly where a trade secret hides. So when people search for "the 23 ingredients in Dr Pepper", the truthful answer is seven ingredients, one of which is the secret blend of 23 flavors.
A 12 fl oz can also carries 41 mg of caffeine, under half a cup of coffee; every variety and size is in how much caffeine is in Dr Pepper. Calories and sugar are on the Dr Pepper nutrition facts page. Dr Pepper Zero Sugar swaps the corn syrup for aspartame and acesulfame potassium and keeps the same flavor blend.
Where is the Dr Pepper recipe kept?
Like Coca-Cola's formula, the Dr Pepper recipe is a trade secret, and the story that has circulated for decades is that it is split in two, with each half kept in a safe deposit box at a different Dallas bank. The company has never confirmed the details, which is rather the point of a vault. What a company spokesman did say, in 2009, is that only three Dr Pepper employees know the full 23-flavor blend.
The 2009 notebook that almost cracked it
In the summer of 2008, Bill Waters, a Tulsa man, paid $200 for a tattered ledger he found under a wooden medicine-bottle crate in an antiques store in Shamrock, Texas. Its letterheads pointed to the W.B. Morrison & Co. Old Corner Drug Store in Waco, the shop where Dr Pepper was first served, and its faded cover read "Castles Formulas", after John Castles, a partner of Morrison's who worked there from as early as 1880. One recipe inside was titled "Dr Peppers Pepsin Bitters", and when the story broke in 2009 it looked, briefly, like the original formula had turned up in a junk shop.
It had not, according to the company. Dr Pepper Snapple Group, the company's name at the time, said it was a recipe for a bitter digestive remedy that happened to carry the Dr Pepper name, not the soft drink. The ledger went up at Heritage Auctions in Dallas on May 13, 2009, and did not sell. So the 23 stayed secret, and every list online, this one included, is still a guess.
Does Dr Pepper have prune juice?
No. This is the most persistent myth about the drink, and it has been going since at least the 1930s. Nobody knows who started it: one theory is a delivery driver for a competing brand playing on prune juice's laxative reputation, and the Dr Pepper Museum believes it was a joke Bob Hope made on a visit to Waco. The company's answer, which the museum still reproduces, is direct: "Dr Pepper is a unique blend of natural and artificial flavors; it does not contain prune juice."
Prune turns up on a lot of fan lists because Dr Pepper genuinely tastes of dark, dried fruit, which is also why I keep it off mine. To me that taste reads as plum and cherry and spice, but where it actually comes from is as secret as the rest of the blend. It is not prune juice. The full story of the rumor is in does Dr Pepper have prune juice?.
Who invented Dr Pepper, and why is it called that?
Dr Pepper was created by Charles Alderton, a Brooklyn-born pharmacist working at Morrison's Old Corner Drug Store in Waco, Texas. The name was first used commercially in 1885, a year before Coca-Cola went on sale, which makes it the oldest of the major American soft drinks. The story goes that Alderton loved how the soda fountain smelled, all those fruit syrups mixing in the air, and set out to bottle that combined aroma. That origin is exactly why the 23-flavor legend feels believable. Early customers did not ask for it by name; they ordered "a Waco". It went national at the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition, the St. Louis World's Fair.
Why "Dr Pepper" is less settled. One theory is simply the habit of the time: putting "Dr." in a product name to make it sound healthful. The more romantic story is that store owner Wade Morrison named it after a Dr. Charles T. Pepper of Rural Retreat, Virginia, who supposedly gave him his first job, but a museum curator who checked the census records found Morrison lived 40 miles away and no evidence he ever worked for Pepper.
You can still order a fountain Dr Pepper a few blocks from where Alderton worked, at the old soda fountain inside the Dr Pepper Museum in Waco. The company side of the story, from Waco to Keurig Dr Pepper, is in who owns Dr Pepper.
Frequently asked questions
How many flavors are in Dr Pepper?
23, according to the brand, all blended into the one "natural and artificial flavors" line on the label. The brand advertises the number; it has never published the list of what the 23 are.
What spices are in Dr Pepper?
The company does not say. Going by taste, the fan lists credit it with nutmeg, allspice, clove, cardamom, coriander, anise, ginger and black pepper. That warm-spice group is what separates Dr Pepper from the colas.
Is Dr Pepper a mix of 23 sodas?
No. The 23 are flavorings in one syrup, not 23 sodas mixed together. The idea probably comes from the origin story, in which Alderton wanted to capture the smell of all the fountain syrups at once, but the drink itself is a single proprietary blend.
Can you taste all 23 flavors in Dr Pepper?
Not reliably, and nobody can check your answer because the real list is secret. Most people can pick out cherry, a vanilla or almond note and a warm spice. The rest of the fan list is guesswork that happens to fit the taste.
Why does Dr Pepper say 23 on the can?
The 23 on current cans refers to the blend of 23 flavors the brand advertises. It is a marketing promise about the recipe, not a list, and the label itself still only says "natural and artificial flavors."
Is Dr Pepper cinnamon flavored?
Cinnamon is not on the label, and it is not on the fan list above, though some other versions include it. Dr Pepper tastes warmly spiced, which reads as cinnamon to a lot of people, but the company has never said whether cinnamon is in the blend.
What is Dr Pepper made of?
Carbonated water, high fructose corn syrup, caramel color, phosphoric acid, natural and artificial flavors, sodium benzoate and caffeine. The secret 23-flavor blend is inside "natural and artificial flavors."
Did someone find the original Dr Pepper recipe?
A ledger from the drugstore where Dr Pepper was born, found in a Texas antiques store in 2008, contained a recipe called "Dr Peppers Pepsin Bitters". The company, then Dr Pepper Snapple Group, said it was a digestive remedy, not the soda, and the ledger failed to sell at auction in 2009.
So, what are the 23 flavors of Dr Pepper, really?
The 23 flavors are a real claim about a real secret blend, but the specific list is not public. The fan list is a good-faith guess that matches the taste: dark fruit, warm spice, a vanilla and almond sweetness, and an old soda-fountain root-beer backbone. The can lists seven ingredients, the prune juice rumor is false (which is why prune is not on my list), the recipe is reportedly split between two Dallas banks and known to three employees, and the one time a formula book surfaced, it turned out to be for stomach trouble. That mystery is exactly why this drink stays more interesting than anything else in the cooler.
Where to go next
If the 23 flavors got you curious, these are the pages people read next:
- Which Dr Pepper is actually best? My Dr Pepper flavors ranked, from the one I would defend to the death to the one I would not buy twice.
- What can you buy right now? Every Dr Pepper flavor in the current lineup, with a tasting note for each.
- What disappeared? The discontinued Dr Pepper flavors people still miss.
- Cook with it. Dr Pepper's spice blend is why it works in a glaze or a braise; the Dr Pepper recipes start with the brisket.
- Is it a habit yet? Take the two-minute Am I addicted to Dr Pepper? quiz and get your tier, or read the signs of a Dr Pepper addiction.
- Wear it. Dr Pepper merch and gifts for the person who already knows all 23 by heart.