Kool-Aid

Kool-Aid concentrated soft-drink mix was created by Edwin Perkins, head of the Perkins Products Company of Hastings, Nebraska. The firm manufactured a wide array of products and sold them through mail order. In 1920 Perkins marketed his first soft-drink concentrate, Fruit Smack, a syrup that consumers mixed with water and sugar to produce a sweet beverage. It proved successful, but the four-ounce glass bottles were heavy and often broke in the mail. Inspired by the tremendous success of Jell-O dessert powder, Perkins decided to sell a powdered beverage concentrate in paper packets. All the customer had to do was mix the powder with water and sugar.