The taste of Dr Pepper is at once singular and complex: Singular because there's no other flavor like it, and complex because it contains a multitude of flavors in one sip — 23 of them, in fact. Dr Pepper was created by pharmacist Charles Alderton in Waco, Texas in 1885. Alderton mixed 23 flavors of syrup to create a brand-new soft drink with an entirely unique flavor.
It's like when you poured every soda fountain drink into one cup as a kid, but evidently tastier (and much more financially successful). Dr Pepper's proprietary combination of 23 flavors remains a secret to this day and is naturally the subject of much speculation, with many amateur sleuths claiming to have reverse-engineered the recipe. Variations can be found across the internet, but the most popular speculative list of Dr Pepper's 23 secret flavors is as follows: amaretto, almond, blackberry, black licorice, carrot, clove, cherry, caramel, cola, ginger, juniper, lemon, molasses, nutmeg, orange, prune, plum, pepper, root beer, rum, raspberry, tomato, and vanilla.
What does Dr Pepper taste like? Dr Pepper defies classification. It's fruity but unlike any specific fruit. It's not a cola or a root beer or a citrus soda.
It doesn't even actually contain pepper (as far as I know). Although pepper is included on most of the speculative flavor lists created by internet sleuths, the Keurig Dr Pepper company has never confirmed or denied that Dr Pepper contains pepper in any form, and it's not on the official ingred.