Invention of Kool-Aid by Edwin Perkins

Kool-Aid a powdered fruit flavored beverage was created by Edwin Perkins head of the Perkins Products Company of Hasting, Nebraska. Perkins was interested in inventing and making new products.

The firm manufactured a wide array of products sold through mail order. Eventually, he was selling over 100 different products. In 1920 Perkins marketed his first soft drink concentrate, Fruit Smack, syrup that consumers mixed with water and sugar.

Fruit Smack showed great promise, but its glass bottles were plagued by leakage and breakage.

Kool-Aid

Perkins then designed a powdered beverage concentrate that could be sold in paper packets. Customers were only required to combine powder with water and sugar.

Perkin called his product Kool-Ade and it became very popular across the nation. Perkins opened a larger factory to make Koll-Ade, Later he changed the name to Kool-Aid.

By 1929, Kool-Aid was sold throughout the United States. In 1953 Perkins sold his company to General Foods.

In 1988 General Foods merged with Kraft Foods, which launched new product lines such as Kool-Aid Slushies and ready-to-drink Kool-Aid splash.
Invention of Kool-Aid by Edwin Perkins