Kool-Aid is a brand of flavored drink mix owned by the Kraft Foods Company.
Invention and production
Kool-Aid was invented by Edwin Perkins and his wife Kitty in Hastings, Nebraska, United States. All of his experiments took place in his mother's kitchen. 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 to Chicago in 1931 and Kool-Aid was sold to General Foods in 1953.
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 as Nebraska's official soft drink.
Advertising and promotion
Kool-Aid Man
Kool-Aid Man, an anthropomorphic frosty pitcher filled with Kool-Aid, is the mascot of Kool-Aid. The character was introduced shortly after General Foods acquired the brand. In TV and print ads, Kool-Aid Man was known for bursting suddenly through walls of children's homes and proceeding to make a batch of Kool-Aid for them. His catch phrase is "Oh, yeah!" The Kool-Aid Man mascot has been around since the 1960s in their earlier years of production.
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.
In popular culture
"Drinking the Kool-Aid" refers to the 1978 Jonestown Massacre; the phrase suggests that one has mindlessly adopted the dogma of a group or leader without fully understanding the ramifications or implications: at Jonestown, Jim Jones' followers followed him to the end: after visiting Congressman Leo Ryan was shot at the airstrip, all the Peoples Temple members drank from a metal vat containing a mixture of "Kool Aid", Cyanide, and prescription drugs Valium, Phenergan, and chloral hydrate. Present-day descriptions of the event often refer to the beverage not as Kool-Aid but as Flavor Aid, a less-expensive product reportedly found at the site. Kraft Foods, the maker of Kool-Aid, has stated the same. 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. 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. 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. However, it is unclear whether they intended to refer to the actual Kool-Aid–brand drink or were using the name in a generic sense that might refer to any powdered flavored beverage.
The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test is a work of literary journalism by Tom Wolfe depicting the life of Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters. The book's title is a reference to an acid test in Watts, California, where the Pranksters spiked a batch of Kool-Aid with the psychedelic drug LSD in the 1960s.
Family Guy has often featured the Kool-Aid Man bursting through a wall and exclaiming "Oh yeah!" This happens at inappropriate times, leaving the Kool-Aid Man embarrassed as he retreats back into the hole he made, e.g. towards the end of the courtroom scene in "Stewie Kills Lois" (Season 6, episode 4).
Comedian Dane Cook has a comedy routine about the Kool-Aid Man.
Flavors
Original 7 flavors Cherry, Grape, Lemon-Lime, Orange, Raspberry, Strawberry, Root Beer (Discontinued)
Singles flavorsBlack Cherry, Tropical Punch, Lemonade, Pink Lemonade, Rhubarb, Cherry, Watermelon
Sugar-Free flavors Double Double Cherry, Triple Awesome Grape, Lemonade, Soarin' Strawberry Lemonade, Tropical Punch, Raspberry, Watermelon
Agua Frescas flavors Jamaica, Mandarina-Tangerine, Mango, Tamarindo, Piña-Pineapple
Other flavors worldwide or previously available Apple, Bunch Berry, Blastin' Berry Cherry, Blue Berry Blast, 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, Lemonade, Lemonade Sparkle, Lemon-Lime, Lime, Man-o-Mangoberry, Mango, Mountainberry Punch, Oh-Yeah Orange-Pineapple, Orange, Orange Enerjooz, 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, Sharkleberry Fin, Slammin' Strawberry-Kiwi, Soarin' Strawberry-Lemonade, Strawberry, Strawberry Falls Punch, Strawberry Split, Strawberry-Raspberry, Sunshine Punch, Surfin' Berry Punch, Tangerine, Tropical Punch, Watermelon-Cherry, Shaking Starfruit, Watermelon
Also available were Solar Strawberry-Starfruit , Artic Green Apple , Swirlin' Strawberry-Starfruit and Lemon Ice.
Other products
Kool-Aid Twists Mountain Dew
Kool-Aid Ice Cream Bars
Kool-Aid Singles
Kool-Aid Bursts
Kool-Aid Jammerz
Kool-Aid Fun Fizz
Kool-Aid Pop 'n Drop
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