“I’m not Jesus Christ but I can turn water into Kool-Aid”*…

More than 563 million gallons of Kool-Aid are consumed each year; more than 225 million gallons in the three summer months.  That’s to say, 17 gallons of Kool-Aid are consumed every second during the summer season…

The story of Kool-Aid begins with another hyphenated product: Jell-O. Edwin Perkins—whose father owned a general store in Hastings, Nebraska—was fascinated with Jell-O. He persuaded his father to sell it at their general store and later began selling products directly to customers. Eventually he began manufacturing his own homemade products including perfumes, food flavoring and a bottled beverage he called Fruit Smack. Forming his own sales company and selling his products door-to-door, Perkins began bringing some of his concoctions to the general public. A spirit of DIY and interest in developing products led him to create the precursor to his most famous invention.

Before it was developed by Perkins in 1927, Kool-Aid was…