 | |
| Product type | Drink mix |
|---|---|
| Owner | Kraft Heinz |
| Country | United States |
| Introduced | 1927; 98 years ago (1927) |
| Markets | Worldwide |
| Website | koolaid.com |
Kool-Aid is an American brand of flavoreddrink mix owned byKraft Heinz based inChicago, Illinois. The powder form was created byEdwin Perkins in 1927 based upon a liquid concentrate namedFruit Smack.
Kool-Aid was invented byEdwin Perkins inHastings, Nebraska. All of his experiments took place in his mother's kitchen.[1] Its predecessor was a liquid concentrate called Fruit Smack. To reduce shipping costs, in 1927, Perkins discovered a way to remove the liquid from Fruit Smack, leaving only a powder; this powder was named Kool-Aid. Perkins moved his production toChicago in 1931 and Kool-Aid was sold toGeneral Foods in 1953.[2] Hastings still celebrates a yearly summer festival called Kool-Aid Days on the second weekend in August in honor of their city's claim to fame. Kool-Aid is known asNebraska's officialsoft drink.[3][4]
An agreement between Kraft Foods andSodaStream in 2012 made Kool-Aid's various flavors available for consumer purchases and use with SodaStream's home soda maker machine.[5]
There is an active scene of Kool-Aid collectors. A rare old Kool-Aid package can be traded for up to several hundred dollars on auction websites.[6]
Kool-Aid is usually sold in powder form, in either packets or small tubs. The actual beverage is prepared by mixing the powder with sugar (the packets of powder are usually, though not always, unsweetened) and water, typically by the pitcherful. The drink is usually either served with ice or refrigerated and served chilled. Additionally, there are some sugar-free varieties.
Kool-Aid is also sold as single-serving packets designed to be poured into bottled water, as smallplastic bottles with pre-mixed drink, or as such novelties as ice cream or fizzing tablets.
The colors in Kool-Aid will stain, and hence the substance can be used as adye for eitherhair[7] orwool.[8]
The Kool-Aid Man, ananthropomorphic pitcher filled with Kool-Aid, is themascot of Kool-Aid. The character was introduced shortly after General Foods acquired the brand in the 1950s. In television and print ads, the Kool-Aid Man was known for randomly bursting through walls of children's homes and proceeding to make a batch of Kool-Aid for them. Hiscatchphrase is "Oh, yeah!". In 2013, Kraft decided to overhaul the Kool-Aid Man, reimagining him as a CGI character, "a celebrity trying to show that he's just an ordinary guy."[9]
Starting in 2011, Kraft began allocating the majority of the Kool-Aid marketing budget towards Latinos. According to the brand, almost 20 percent of Kool-Aid drinkers are Hispanic, and slightly more than 20 percent are African-American.[10]
| Original 6 flavors[11] | Cherry, Grape, Lemon-Lime, Orange, Raspberry, Strawberry[12] |
| Singles flavors[13] | Black Cherry, Tropical Punch, Lemonade, Pink Lemonade, Cherry, Watermelon, Orange, Summer Punch |
| Sugar-free flavors[citation needed] | Cherry, Grape, Lemonade, Soarin' Strawberry Lemonade, Tropical Punch, Raspberry, Watermelon, KiwiLime |
| Water flavors[14] | Jamaica, Mandarina-Tangerine, Mango, Tamarindo, Piña-Pineapple |
| Other flavors worldwide or previously available[14] | Apple, Arctic Green Apple, Berry Blue, Bunch Berry, Blastin' Berry Cherry, Blue Berry Blast, Blue Moon Berry, Candy Apple, Cherry, Cherry Cracker, Chocolate, Cola, Eerie Orange, Frutas, Vermelhas, Golden Nectar, Grape, Grape Blackberry, Grape Tang, Melon Mango, Strawberry Splash, Great Blueberry, Great Blue-dini, Groselha, Guaraná, Ice Blue Raspberry Lemonade, Incrediberry, Kickin-Kiwi-Lime, Kolita, Lemon, Lemon Ice, Lemonade, Lemonade Sparkle, Lemon-Lime, Lime, Man-o-Mangoberry, Mango, Mountainberry Punch, Oh-Yeah Orange-Pineapple, Orange, Orange Enerjooz, Peach, Pina-Pineapple, Pink Lemonade, Pink Swimmingo, Purplesaurus Rex, Rainbow Punch, Raspberry, Roarin' Raspberry Cranberry, Rock-a-Dile Red, Root Beer, Scary Black Cherry, Scary Blackberry, Shaking Starfruit, Sharkleberry Fin, Slammin' Strawberry-Kiwi, Soarin' Strawberry-Lemonade, Solar Strawberry-Starfruit, Strawberry, Strawberry Falls Punch, Strawberry Split, Strawberry-Raspberry, Sunshine Punch, Surfin' Berry Punch, Swirlin' Strawberry-Starfruit, Tangerine, Tropical Punch, Watermelon, Watermelon-Cherry |
"Drinking the Kool-Aid" is a phrase suggesting that one has mindlessly adopted adogma of a group or a (cult) leader without fully understanding the ramifications or implications. The backdrop of this are events culminating in the 1978Jonestown Massacre. At Jonestown, Guyana, followers ofJim Jones' Temple drank from a metal vat containing a mixture of "Kool Aid",cyanide, and prescription drugsValium,Phenergan, andchloral hydrate. Present-day descriptions of the event sometimes claim the beverage was not Kool-Aid, butFlavor Aid,[15] a less-expensive product fromJel Sert reportedly found at the site.[16]Kraft Foods, the creator of Kool-Aid, has stated the same.[17][18] Implied by this accounting of events is that the reference to the Kool-Aid brand owes exclusively to its being better-known among Americans. Others are less categorical.[15] Both brands are known to have been among the commune's supplies: Film footage shot inside the compound prior to the events of November shows Jones opening a large chest in which boxes of both Flavor Aid and Kool-Aid are visible.[19][better source needed] Criminal investigators testifying at the Jonestown inquest spoke of finding packets of "cool aid" (sic), and eyewitnesses to the incident are also recorded as speaking of "cool aid" or "Cool Aid."[20] However, it is unclear whether they intended to refer to the actual Kool-Aid–brand drink or wereusing the name in a generic sense that might refer to any powdered flavored beverage.
There have been multiple documented instances of Kool-Aid being spiked with the psychedelic druglysergic acid diethylamide. Most notable of these was duringProject MKUltra, in which subjects would be given Kool-Aid that was spiked with LSD, before beingbrainwashed andpsychologically tortured.[21]
Ken Kesey and theMerry Pranksters frequently held and advertised parties they called theAcid Tests, during which they gave out Kool-Aid that was laced with LSD.Tom Wolfe later wrote about these parties in his bookThe Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test.
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