The Kansas City Star reports that Beverage Digest reports that Coca-Cola plans to replace Mr. Pibb with a new “spicy cherry” brand. Coke won’t confirm this news. While researching this I found some strange information on the Ultimate Pibb Site. According to them, Dr. Pepper leases the right to bottle Dr. Pepper to various bottlers, Coke and Pepsi included. In areas where Coke has the right to bottle Dr. Pepper, they can not produce Mr. Pibb, or, perhaps the no compete states “spicy cherry soda” instead of the exact brand. If it does, I assume Coca-Cola also won’t be able to produce their new version in their Dr. Pepper areas either. The site also has a Mr. Pibb availability map. The soda industry is a strange place. But I suppose many industries have their interesting quirks. (KC Star article via /usr/bin/girl)