Guide Note

Kool-Aid is an artificially flavored soft drink which has become a common household name. It is a powder that is reconstituted with water and mixed with sugar to create a brightly colored drink. It is used as an ingredient in desserts, beverages, and craft projects.

Fast Facts

1. Invented: 1927
2. Invented by: Edwin and Kitty Perkins
3. Invented in Hastings, Nebraska
4. Owned by Kraft Foods
5. Possible to dye yarn and hair with Kool-Aid
6. Pickles can be soaked in Kool-Aid and dyed
7. Original cost: 10 cents
8. Originally name: "Kool-Ade"
9. Official soft drink of Nebraska
10. Six original flavors: Cherry, grape, lemon, orange, raspberry, and root-beer

1. Mascot: Kool-Aid Man
2. 8' tall and 5' wide
3. He has three ice cubes in his head
4. Catch phrase: "Oh, yeah"
5. Usually red colored
6. Started in 1975
7. From the 1950s to 1975, known as "Pitcher Man"

Kool-Aid is a beverage with many uses, and has been a part of American consciousness for almost 80 years. It has come to take on some unusual associations. The phrase "Drinking the Kool-Aid" means having completely bought into a particular group or philosophy. It derives from the Jonestown Massacre, in which hundreds pf people commited suicide by drinking poisoned Flavor Aid, a similar drink to the better-known Kool-Aid. In the 1960s, putting LSD in Kool-Aid was a method of consumption and led to the name of Tom Wolfe's book The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test.