DP Lovers wants to help you fill your soda craving prescription.
Dr. Pepper is a divisive drink in Japan. Japan already isn’t as cola-crazy as the U.S. in general, and when compared to its more straightforwardly sweet rivals Coke and Pepsi, Dr. Pepper’s busier flavor profile often gets it saddled with a “medicine-y” image among non-fans in Japan.
Because of that, Dr. Pepper is regularly squeezed off/out of store shelves, vending machines, and menus by more broadly popular soft drinks. However, there are people in Japan who like Dr. Pepper. There are even people in Japan who love Dr. Pepper, and they’re the ones who’ve created the DP Lovers Map, an online map compiling all the places in Japan where you can buy Dr. Pepper.
The map, which can be found at the DP Lovers website here, isn’t just a bunch of plain pins dropped on the map, either. Click on any location and you’ll be presented with a list of the following information:
● Whether Dr. Pepper is being sold by a store, restaurant, or vending machine at that location (and the store/restaurant’s name)
● Whether the Dr. Pepper is sold chilled or at room temperature
● Whether it’s sold in cans or bottles
● The price
● Whether electronic payment is accepted
● The date when the Dr. Pepper was seen at that location
Obviously, the largest clusters of availability tend to match up with the largest population centers, which in turn have the largest variety of shopping/dining options. But the DP Lovers Map also includes listings for Dr. Pepper found in vending machines on lonely rural roads, sometimes with no other sightings until several towns over.
In addition to Japan-born Dr. Pepper fans and in-Japan expats craving that fizzy taste of home, there’s another group that can benefit from the DP Lovers Map. In an online poll in Japan a while back, 21.5 percent of respondents said they don’t like the drink compared to 32.3 that said they do. The top answer, though, was the 33.4 percent who said they’d never tried it, reflecting how tough Dr. Pepper can be to find in certain parts of Japan. So for anyone who’s curious to try Dr. Pepper, but hasn’t stumbled across it during their daily routine, the DP Lovers Map will save them the legwork of scouring the surrounding area for someplace that sells it. The DP Lovers site even has a list of alcoholic and non-alcoholic cocktails.
▼ There’s one for mixing Dr. Pepper with Ice Box, confectioner Morinaga’s amazingly refreshing frozen grapefruit-flavored treat.
Of course, vending machines, stores, and restaurants are constantly shuffling their beverage lineups, and so the DP Lovers Map is a living document, one that asks for the collective help of all Dr. Pepper fans in Japan. To that end, there’s a submission form on the site here where you can supply spots where you’ve found the drink, with the option to submit anonymously or with a nickname so you can bask in the glory of helping the cause.
And who knows, maybe one day we’ll see a similar map for root beer in Japan.
Related: DP Lovers Map
Source: DP Lovers via IT Media
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