When I was 9 years old, I had a lemonade stand. My secret ingredients were water, lemon juice, and sugar - shh, don’t tell anyone! But lemonade wasn’t always that simple. From preventing the plague to “purifying” bad water, people used to think lemonade could do a lot more than quench your thirst!
Sip like an Egyptian
As far as historians can tell, the first lemonade was served around 900 A.D. in Egypt. This citrusy drink was called kashkab, and was a mix of barley, mint, black pepper, and leaves from citrons, a predecessor to today’s lemons. When lemons arrived in North Africa, kashkab became qatarmizat, a drink made with lemon juice, water and sugar. The first written lemonade recipe comes from an Arabic book called On Lemon, Its Drinking and Use written by Ibn Jumay‘, a physician in the 1100s. He believed his recipes for lemonade, which included fruits, herbs, and spices, had important health benefits!
Have plague, will drink lemonade
In Medieval Europe, lemons were difficult to grow and expensive to buy. Some doctors believed lemonade had medicinal properties, but few patients could afford to try it. In the 1600s, declining lemon prices started a lemonade craze in Paris, France. Parisian street vendors began selling lemonade from tanks strapped onto their backs! Historians believe lemonade even helped stop the spread of the Black Death. Lemon peels contain a substance called limonene, which kills fleas and flea larvae. When rats nibbled discarded lemon peels, they ingested limonene, which killed the plague-carrying fleas on their backs!
As American as lemonade
In America, the first published lemonade recipe appeared in 1824’s The Virginia House-wife. This recipe involved freezing your lemonade mixture, so you ended up with more of a sherbet than a drink! Three years later, in 1827, a recipe booklet called Oxford Night Caps included a different lemonade recipe. It didn’t involve freezing the drink, but the ingredients were water, lemon juice, sugar, raw eggs, and gelatinous calves-feet jelly! Lemonade stands became a popular business venture for American kids in the 1900s. They didn’t use cow jam - usually!
Easy peasy without the lemon squeeze-y
In the late 1800s, people discovered the convenience of “portable lemonade”, a dry mix of sugar, lemon peel, and citric acid. This early powdered drink mix was especially popular with soldiers and people on the frontier. They often added it to bad water to mask the undesirable flavor and scent! Don’t try that at home - unsanitary water is never safe to drink, even if it tastes like lemonade!
Lemonade recipes have changed a lot over the centuries. Today, it seems like there’s a variation of lemonade for every day of the week! What’s your favorite lemonade drink? Click the blue button below to vote! 👓