Dr Pepper Blackberry is the newest permanent addition to the Doctor's family.
I Tried the New Dr Pepper Blackberry—Here’s My Honest Review
Published on Feb. 05, 2025
I can’t pass up a new soda flavor. So, of course, I had to try the brand new Dr Pepper Blackberry. From Coca-Cola Starlight, which supposedly tastes like space (spoiler: it doesn’t) to 7Up Shirley Temple, which mimics the famous kiddie cocktail—if it’s bubbly and new, I’m all for it.
Dr Pepper has always marched to a different drummer. It’s not a cola and not a root beer. It’s a caramel-colored soda that claims to have a proprietary combination of 23 flavors. And the brand loves to get creative with its variations. There was the limited-edition Hot Take, aka spicy-hot Dr Pepper, a flavor that blends classic Dr Pepper with cream soda and even a bourbon-inspired (but nonalcoholic) version. And don’t forget when the Dr Pepper crew tried to get us all to heat up its beverage, recreating a 1950s-1960s party drink.
Blackberry Dr Pepper Review
Blackberry and Dr Pepper sounded like an inspired mix. Dr Pepper already has a sort-of berry taste to it, separating it from its Coke and Pepsi rivals. And blackberries offer a special tart-sweetness that’s not overused in flavoring as much as strawberry or cherry.
Blackberry Dr Pepper comes in regular and zero-sugar flavors. I tried zero-sugar first, and appreciated the delicate yet strong blackberry aroma when I cracked the can and poured the drink over ice. But then, yikes! My husband compared it to cough syrup, but I thought the zero-sugar Dr Pepper Blackberry tasted like a bad mix of chemicals with a strong artificiality and lingering aftertaste overwhelming any blackberry soda flavors. I’m not sure how this one made it out of the flavor lab, because my mouth puckered and recoiled after every sip.
Thankfully, the regular Dr Pepper Blackberry was far better. It still had the fragrant berry aroma, but the sugar mellowed the taste, and there was none of that artificial sweetener aftertaste. It doesn’t hit your tongue with an overwhelming blackberry splash—in fact, if I were doing a blindfolded challenge, I might struggle to identify the flavor. It tastes more like melted red Jolly Ranchers than the sweet bite of an actual blackberry. I could see this making a fun cocktail, though, if you spiked it with your liquor of choice.
Blackberry Dr Pepper Release Date
Dr Pepper Blackberry isn’t one of those come-and-go sodas. It’s a new permanent flavor in the Dr Pepper line, joining such other flavors as Dr Pepper Strawberries & Cream and Dr Pepper Cherry.
I spotted 20-ounce bottles in my store on February 1, though the official launch date is February 5. The 20-ounce bottles are only available for a limited time, but 12-packs of 12-ounce-cans should soon be hitting retailers nationwide.
The regular Dr Pepper Blackberry is a fun flavor to pluck off the shelves and try—and maybe have in the fridge for Super Bowl parties. But as far as the zero-sugar version, I’d suggest the beverage chemists go back to the huddle and call a new play.
