I don’t know all the ins and outs of the High-Fructose Corn Syrup vs. pure sugar debate; however, I do have some observations.
Back in November, I was down in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, and I picked up a 6-pack of Dr. Pepper in glass bottles. According to the label, it was made with “Imperial Pure Cane Sugar.” Fortunately, this saved me from a 4-hour round trip to Dublin (the Dublin, TX plant uses pure sugar in its Dr Pepper 24/7/365)
I took a side-by-side comparison between the glass bottle and a can of “regular” Dr Pepper. the glass bottled formula had a bit of a stronger kick to it with a distinctive aftertaste.
Tuesday, I was at a train club meeting in Johnson County. I noticed that one of the vending machines there had in a regular plastic bottle a product labelled as “Heritage” Dr Pepper, made with “Real Sugar.” I tried it and, lo an behold, it did indeed have the same flavor as the Glass bottled product I had picked up in Texas.
Long story short – I can distinguish between Dr Pepper using HFCS from that made with regular sugar.