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Lemonade’s history evolved from an Egyptian peasant drink to a European luxury over several centuries.
This beverage has served both practical and social functions—quenching thirst in marketplaces, appearing at aristocratic gatherings, and fueling early American enterprise through children's lemonade stands.
Egyptian merchants documented the first lemonade recipe in 1000 AD.
It was a mixture of lemon juice and sugar consumed by local farmers.
Earlier medieval texts mention "qatarmizat," a honey-sweetened lemon drink.
Its likely that Egyptians had been making some sort of lemonade like beverage before this written record.
In 1630, Parisian street vendors introduced a new drink: carbonated lemonade. A kind of lemon soda.
It was made by mixing sparkling water with fresh lemon juice.
Vendors carried polished copper tanks on their backs, each holding 4-5 gallons of lemonade.
They walked fixed routes through Paris's busiest neighborhoods, selling cups to pretty much anyone, poor and rich alike.
In 1676, the city government created the Compagnie de Limonadiers, establishing strict rules for lemonade makers.
The guild's regulations specified exact proportions of lemon juice to water, required weekly tank inspections, and set fixed prices: 2 sous per cup for nobles, 1 sou for commoners.
In 1747, Scottish naval surgeon James Lind proved that citrus fruits could cure scurvy—a deadly disease that killed thousands of sailors on long sea voyages.
Through a controlled experiment on HMS Salisbury, Lind gave six pairs of sick sailors different treatments.
The two sailors who received oranges and lemons recovered within days, while others remained ill.
In his "Treatise on the Scurvy," Lind recorded his crucial finding: "The most sudden and visible good effects were perceived from the use of oranges and lemons."
Learning the news, the British Navy started stocking ships with citrus fruits and lemonade for long voyages.
It protected sailors from scurvy so effectively that other nations' sailors nicknamed the British "limeys."
In 1700s Europe, aristocrats sipped violet-scented lemonade at 3 francs per glass (a lot of money at that time).
Émile Zola captured this luxury in "The Ladies' Paradise":
"The most exquisite lemonades, scented with violet and flavored with the juice of other fruits."
Each glass required two Sicilian lemons and four ounces of Caribbean sugar, both ocean-shipped luxuries.
The historian John Evelyn recorded this expense in 1678:
"The cost of lemons, sugar, and other ingredients, maketh it a drink only for the rich or the sick, who may benefit from its salubrious properties."
In 1873, thirteen-year-old Edward Bok set up a wooden crate on a busy Brooklyn street corner and sold chilled lemonade for two cents per glass.
His stand was made of simple planks of wood balanced across two crates.
It was America's first documented children's lemonade business.
Bok's venture sparked a cultural phenomenon.
Within five years, similar stands appeared in neighborhoods across Brooklyn, with children adapting his basic model: fresh lemons, sugar, water, and a high-traffic location.
By 1880, lemonade stands had become a familiar sight in New York's residential areas, with young entrepreneurs setting up operations on street corners from Manhattan to Queens.
Lucy Webb Hayes banned alcohol from White House functions during her time as First Lady (1877-1881), earning her the mocking nickname "Lemonade Lucy”.
At state dinners and receptions, she replaced wine and spirits with lemonade, spring water, and fruit juices.
Foreign diplomats complained about the dry events, while temperance advocates praised her stance.
Hayes maintained the alcohol ban throughout her husband's presidency, even when criticized in newspaper editorials and political cartoons.
The move helped build momentum for the growing prohibition movement of the late 1800s, with the passage of the 18th Amendment in 1919.
In 1945, Minute Maid introduced frozen concentrate orange juice, followed by frozen lemonade concentrate.
Before this innovation, making lemonade required squeezing fresh lemons, a time-consuming process.
The new concentrate came in small metal cans that fit in freezer compartments.
Home cooks simply mixed the thawed concentrate with water—a three-minute task compared to the previous twenty minutes of manual squeezing and straining.
At 15 cents per can (making 32 ounces of lemonade), the concentrate cost half as much as using fresh lemons.
By 1950, Minute Maid's frozen concentrates reached over 20 million American homes.
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