What's the best Kool Aid flavor?

Kool-Aid is a brand of flavored drink mix owned by Kraft Foods. Kool-Aid was invented by Edwin Perkins in Hastings, 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 to Chicago in 1931 and Kool-Aid was sold to General 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 as Nebraska's official soft drink.

An agreement between Kraft Foods and SodaStream International in 2012 made Kool-Aid's various flavors available for consumer purchases and use with SodaStream's home soda maker machine. Kool-Aid is usually sold in powder form, in either packets or small tubs. The drink is prepared by mixing the powder with sugar and water (typically by the pitcher-full).

The drink is usually served with ice or refrigerated and served chilled. Additionally, there are some sugar-free varieties. Kool-Aid is/was also sold as single-serving packets designed to be poured into bottled water, as small plastic bottles with pre-mixed drink, or as novelties (ice cream, fizzing tablets, etc.) Most consumers know Kool-Aid for its advertising character the 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 the 1960s. In TV and print ads, 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.

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. "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" (actually Flavor 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,11 a less-expensive product reportedly found at the site. 12 Kraft Foods, the maker of Kool-Aid, has stated the same.

1314 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. 11 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.

15 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."16 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. In 1995 An American trio TLC released a single from their 1994 sophomore album CrazySexyCool entitled Diggin' on You which contains the lyrics "I was chillin' with my Kool-Aid". 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. 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). Deep-fried Kool-Aid balls were introduced at the 2011 San Diego County Fair.

In his 2012 album "Election Special", Ry Cooder wrote a song named "Kool-Aid" which references the Jonestown massacre. In 2012, Natalia Kills released a promotional video entitled "Controversy" containing the lyrics "Drink the Kool-Aid, don't drink the Kool-Aid".