Photo by Mike Overall

​The bitter, extended legal battle between the 120-year-old Dr Pepper plant in Dublin, Texas and its parent company, Dr Pepper Snapple (DPS), has finally been resolved. At issue were the liberties that the Dublin plant had taken both with its distribution and merchandising, as the plant had long sold its cane sugar-sweetened cola far outside of its allowable distribution area as per the terms of its franchise agreement with DPS. Whether that resolution will please avid fans of the Dublin brand of Dr Pepper remains to be seen.

According to a press release sent out this afternoon, Dublin Dr Pepper as we knew it has now ceased to exist. Says the release:

Under the terms of their agreement, DPS has purchased all of the Dublin bottler's sales and distribution operations and related assets, as well as the rights to distribute Dr Pepper and other DPS brands in the six-county territory previously served by Dublin. The former Dr Pepper bottler now does business as Dublin Bottling Works Inc. It will continue to produce other soft drinks at its bottling facility and operate its museum and Old Doc's Soda Shop, offering tours and selling soft drinks, food and officially licensed Dr Pepper merchandise.

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Photo by Joanna O'Leary

Keep it classy with a chilled wine glass.

​Although I feel distaste for Bethenny Frankel, I did recently purchase the newish White Cranberry Cosmo from the Skinnygirl cocktails. I told myself I was not being a hypocrite because Frankel sold the franchise to Fortune Brands, which then independently created this particular low-calorie drink.

Having never sampled the Skinnygirl Margarita (Frankel's claim to fame) nor the Skinnygirl Sangria, I had no idea what to expect from the white cranberry cosmopolitan. The classic cosmo is one of my favorite alcoholic beverages, though I'm loathe to drink the over-juiced, Kool-Aid versions proffered by many Houston bars.

I expected the Skinnygirl version to have a classy exterior that belied an interior trashiness, sort like a spoiled New York housewife. Also, white cranberries? Maybe it's the former New Englander in me talking, but I like my crannies bloody red.

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www.starbucks.com

​You say "hot chocolate," I say "hot cocoa." Both equal Liquid Holiday Spirit, so here's an assemblage of hot chocos to try all within a few zip codes. It's a beverage crawl for which you won't need a designated driver. (Unless you consider sugar high a form of impairment.)

5. Chocolat du Monde. Your marathon begins at Rice Village's cutest chocolate shop. Their hot chocolate (and I mean "hot chocolate") is made with milk mixed with enough melted fine Belgian chocolate to make your hair curl. Tip: Arrive in the late afternoon as they close just around sunset.

4. Starbucks on South Shepard. Not kidding. Just a few sips of their mass-produced peppermint mocha/white chocolate shiznit will make that first cup from Chocolat Du Monde taste all the sweeter and get you psyched for the better brews to come. It's only uphill from here.

3. Brasil. Fresh off the corporate blandness of Starbucks, you will appreciate Brasil's smooth, not-too-rich rendition of hot cocoa, which I recommend getting "to go" so as to facilitate evening window-shopping and antiquing.

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Chuck Cook Photography

Justin Burrow pours a craft cocktail on a quiet night at non-pretentious Fitzgerald's.

​Justin Burrow, who recently received the Favorite Mixologist nod for the My Table Houston Culinary Awards in October, is using his experience to create a casual and accessible cocktail night every Tuesday evening at Fitzgerald's.

Fitzgerald's has been around for 34 years and is a Houston live-music institution. Burrow has early memories from here and is fond of the place. "I remember my dad bringing me to Fitzgerald's when I was four years old to watch his friend's band. Being able to do something cool in this building is an honor."

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Photo by Joanna O'Leary

Two paths, one destination.

​Or, "Does Differentiating Between Hot Chocolate and Hot Cocoa Make You An Inveterate Douchebag?"

I hope not, because now I feel compelled to. Up until a year ago, I used the terms "hot chocolate" and "hot cocoa" interchangeably. Then, one day while reading my friend Carolyn's ridiculously cute blog about her married life with husband "Mr. O," I stumbled upon a post titled "A Controversy."

Mr. O, who nearly nightly makes me a delightful chocolate beverage, informs me what I have been calling hot chocolate for years is not, in fact, hot chocolate. Apparently, it is hot cocoa....Anyway, after alerting me to my years-old misapprehension, Mr. O explained that hot chocolate is made with actual chocolate -- as in, shavings -- while cocoa is made with cocoa powder. Hrmph.

Who knew? Not Carolyn, and certainly not me.

At college in Boston (certainly one of the chilliest periods of my life), I referred to L.A. Burdick's decadent beverage made with melted chocolate bars and imported cocoa as "hot cocoa," but called a freeze-dried packet of brown powder from the dining hall mixed with hot water "hot chocolate."

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​An ode to the case of Muscle Milk that inexplicably arrived in our offices today:

Why are you so sweet?
Your cloying fake chocolate
Makes you tough to bear

Let us not discuss
The fact you contain no milk
Lies taste of despair

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Photo by John Suh

The green soda can ubiquitous in Vietnamese households

​What is it?

Often made from carbonated water, corn sugar, and coconut extract, coconut soda tastes like a sweetened club soda with a hint of coconut milk. They are packaged in typical aluminum soda cans and come in packs of six.

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Photo by John Kiely

He wasn't joking.

​We know what goes with margaritas and with beer, and for wine pairings, Jeremy Parzen, enough said. But we're fans of a few lesser known matches that have that special something.

Coffee with Chocolate Croissant and Orange Juice
This combo came from an interview with author/director Sam Hoffman on Popmatters.com.

My ideal breakfast is coffee, a chocolate croissant and a fresh squeezed orange juice. Hard to imagine a more sublime combination of tastes in the morning.

It sounded like way too much sugar and acid, but Mr. Hoffman has a winning trio. I follow his ideal often, with La Madeleine's chocolate croissants. I also like Mr. Hoffman's website, Old Jews Telling Jokes, particularly "Drobkin" by Malcolm Busch.

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John Kiely

You Bet

​Nothing could be more purely Brooklyn, New York than an egg cream, right? The drink, yes, but there's something suspicious about the name of the required chocolate syrup, Fox's U-bet. Who says that in New York?

I wonder how long Robert De Niro's career would've been delayed, had he stood before a mirror as Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver, drawing his pistol and proclaiming, "You bet!"

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Photo by megpi

This bottle of Dublin Dr Pepper made it all the way to Los Angeles.

​In late June, the 120-year-old Dr Pepper plant in Dublin, Texas announced that it was being sued by its parent company, Dr Pepper Snapple (DPS).

The plant, which is the world's oldest and smallest Dr Pepper bottler, found itself at odds with DPS after repeated warnings not to distribute their Imperial cane sugar-sweetened Dr Pepper outside the 44-mile radius of the small town. The soda, the only Dr Pepper sweetened with cane sugar, is notoriously popular throughout Texas -- as well as the rest of the world -- and Dr Pepper bootleggers are infamous for buying the soda in Dublin and distributing it to the four corners of the earth.

Just because its soda is popular, however, doesn't mean that the little plant -- which only has 37 employees -- has a lot of money to fight its legal battles. So they've turned to the public and Dr Pepper fans across the world for support, asking them to contribute to a legal defense fund to help fight the DPS lawsuit.

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