What can sustain you after a hard night of drinking or a long walk in the Sahara desert? What can excite your taste buds with the crisp refreshing juice of cherry, watermelon, grape, and many other fruity flavors? One thing has been around for a long time that helps rehydrate the mind, body, and soul. Kool-Aid.
Kool-Aid was invented in Hastings, Nebraska by a chemist, Edwin Perkins. In his childhood years, Perkins developed many flavoring extracts and perfumes later leading to the invention of the current product. Many people do not know that Kool-Aid was originally Kool-Ade when it first began it’s production of a tasty drink.
Kool-Aid is supposedly most popular in Tennessee, that’s what they say at least. Oklahoma, where I live, is also one of the top popular states for the drink, but with my past experience with it I say that Oklahoma could take Tennessee any day of the week with the refeshing liquid. Sugar. Water. Flavor. How can three simple things be so enjoyable? There are many facts about Kool-Aid such as the fact that it’s sold more the week before and after the 4th of July than any other product out there. It’s no wonder why so many Americans love their drink!
After a long, hard day, coming home to a yummy glass of Watermelon Kool-Aid can be quite relaxing. There were seven original flavors of the drink, including: Cherry, Lemon-Lime, Grape, Root Beer, Orange, Strawberry, and Raspberry. Being packed with your Recommended Daily Value of vitamin C, it can also keep your immune system pumping and keep you on the energetic go.
During the summer season, just guess how many gallons of Kool-Aid are consumed? 5? 10? Good try, but it ends with a whopping 17 gallons. That is a ton of flavor! One of the greatest things about it, is the fact that it has beat inflation since 1947! Edwin Perkins may not have known that Kool-Aid would explode as an American treasure, but he did have the right idea by keeping confidence about his product and marketing it.
Many children who are shown pictures of the first president of the United States and Ronald McDonald can only recognize the latter, I do believe if the same was done with the Kool-Aid Man that results would be the same as he has been a very popular icon in America for years upon years.
Kool-Aid was in the making since Edwin was a boy, he had always dreamed of being a business man, and loved inventing. The current product was founded in 1914 when Edwin bought the patent of Kool-Aid from a man named Jake Ross. The forerunner to Kool-Aid was a tasty syrup beverage called Fruit Smack, but the cost of producing it, especially in the glass bottles that it was contained, was too much of a cost and eventually grew thin.
As the demand rose for Kool-Aid, the branches of flavors sprouted outward leading to many deliciously delicate tastes! Now-a-days it’s hard not to know what Kool-Aid is, but is that a bad thing? Absolutely not, especially when you are ready for something delightful to quench and satisfy your thirst.
Kool-Aid facts were taken from http://members.tripod.com/~koolaidgirl/facts.html and http://inventors.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http://www.bookcase.com/library/faq/archive/food/kool%2Daid%2Dfaq.html respectfully.
