Stuff You Should Know - Short Stuff: Lemonade

Episode Date: November 14, 2018

Ever wonder where lemonade came from? Let’s up the stakes a little, what about pink lemonade? Well wonder no more! Join Josh and Chuck as they (briefly) cover the history of putting lemons together with sugar and water and coming up with something great.  Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hey friends when you're staying at an Airbnb you might be like me wondering could my place be an Airbnb and if it could what could it earn? So I was pretty surprised to hear about Lisa in Manitoba who got the idea to Airbnb the backyard guest house over childhood home now The extra income helps pay her mortgage. So yeah, you might not realize it But you might have an Airbnb to find out what your place could be earning at air bnb.ca Hey and welcome to the shorty. I'm Josh. There's Chuck. There's Jerry. Let's get things started. Yeah, let's get it started in here Did you ever have a lemonade stand growing up at all? I Believe I did but it was Kool-Aid Actually, who am I kidding? It was flavoring

So you're a cult leader. I I don't I think I might have had one at some point, but I you know very famously grew up on a In the woods on a street with like six houses So I don't I can't imagine that it would have been on my street because it would have been completely pointless So your trick or treating just sucked. Well, we had to go other places. Did you have to take a car to go other places? Yeah, I drive over to a friend's house who lived in a big neighborhood that I was so jealous of that's a good friend to have No, I feel like we've had this conversation before probably We've had every conversation before by now

Yes, but this is not about Halloween This is about the origins of lemonade and also of the lemon itself. Yeah, so I did not know this Chuck We have no idea where the lemon came from none We know that it was a high. It's a hybrid of a sour orange and a citron So we know that it was crafted by human hands, but we have no idea who did this Where they did it and exactly when they did it which I find Fascinating I liked lemons before now. I'm in love with them. Yeah, and I believe didn't you talk about citrons in the Pompeii Pompeii episode that's what you were getting there, right?

Right, but I didn't realize that they were citrons right you were like those weird big lemons that don't have any juice and are all Rined yeah the size of your head Yeah, that's about right, but you know everyone knows you can't get a lot of juice from a citron So what you need if you wanted to make lemonade was a real lemon and apparently They have traced at least the precursor to lemonade To medieval Egypt where they made something called Kashkab not cash cab the great TV show or kashkari the guy who handled the Tart bailout That's right kashkari

Mm-hmm Fermented barley combined with mint roux black pepper and citron leaf And I could see you actually trying to make a cocktail out of this an ancient cocktail. Yeah, I had to look up roux It's like a very pretty meadow flower. I'm not sure what it would taste like but yeah They had me at fermented barley really there's some yeah, there's some extra vodka in there and you're set like I love Fermented anything. I love it man. I'm crazy about kombucha. I love pickles olives anything if you ferment anything I will eat it. Yeah, throw an old shoe and a vat of vinegar You'll eat it in a month. I if I go I should say when I eventually go to Iceland

I will be trying that fermented shark. That's supposed to be like the nastiest thing in the world Mm-hmm. I will try it cuz I love fermented stuff. Yeah, no, thanks There's another thing that came out of Egypt. I think as well called Katar Mazat and And it's lemonade. There's really no other way to put it and it was made in at least the 10th century so again medieval times in Egypt It was either created or sold or consumed or all three of those by the Jewish community in Cairo

And they just basically added sugar and lemon juice together to make Katar Mazat Which again is that's lemonade and I think earlier than that honey was probably what people used But you know lemons are so tart you need some sugary agent to cut that and make it drinkable for sure But we so we know that they made something from Something like maybe citron or if not lemon the first reference to a lemon tree comes from the 10th century as well in an Arabic book on farming by a guy named Custis al Rumi and He was the first to mention a lemon tree ever so we know that they were around by then They may have been around for a few hundred years by then from what I saw I think northern India

And then it was in Italy by 200 CE. This is lemons not lemonade yet. We haven't reached lemonade exactly yet Yeah, so if you want to talk about what we think of modern lemonade you need to go to 17th century Europe Where in Paris in fact they even have a day supposedly August August 20th 1630 It made its debut which was a sparkling version a sparkling water lemon juice and honey Yeah, man. Have you ever added to sparkling water to lemonade? No, but I drink those Things that we used to have here in the office that are so delicious surge No, I can't remember the name jolt It's the one where you peel like the foily paper off the top of the can first. Oh Sam Pellegrino

Yeah, the Pellegrino lemon. I don't know many of them cuz they're like super sugary and stuff. So good They're so delicious. Yeah, and like their blood orange the grapefruit all of them are so good. Yeah, you're right They are pretty sugary though, and if you read the back of the can you like whoa, it's like a coke Yeah, exactly. So that's you know, I gotta avoid that stuff, but it's worth it though once in a while You got to treat yourself Chuck. Yeah, so these vendors in Paris would sell the stuff from tanks on their back and it was wildly successful across Europe because it is so refreshing and Apparently even in 1676 it was so popular that the vendors got together and formed a union eliminate union called the Compagnie de l'Emonadier

nice work and then eventually it had a bigger craze because of A man named Joseph Priestly Probably related to Jason Priestly. I think clearly we've talked about him in the nitrous oxide episode. Yeah, he invented the thing that made carbonated water I guess was that before mr. Shwepp? Yes, okay. No, maybe maybe Contemporaneously, yeah, I think he was around the same time. He was in the late 18th century. Maybe mid 18th century But yeah, Shwepp came up with his thing in the 1780s, right? So that made it even more popular with this fizzy version

And let's take a quick break and then we'll move across the pond to America right after this On the podcast pay dude the 90s called David Lacher and Christine Taylor stars of the cult classic show Hey, dude bring you back to the days of slip dresses and choker necklaces We're gonna use hey dude as our jumping-off point But we are going to unpack and dive back into the decade of the 90s We lived it and now we're calling on all of our friends to come back and relive it It's a podcast packed with interviews co-stars friends and non-stop references to the best decade ever Do you remember going to blockbuster? Do you remember Nintendo 64?

Do you remember getting frosted tips? Was that a cereal? No, it was hair Do you remember AOL instant messenger and the dial-up sound like poltergeist? So leave a code on your best friend's beeper because you'll want to be there when the nostalgia starts flowing Each episode will rival the feeling of taking out the cartridge from your Game Boy Blowing on it and popping it back in as we take you back to the 90s Listen to hey dude the 90s called on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts Hey, I'm Lance Bass host of the new iHeart podcast frosted tips with Lance Bass The hardest thing can be knowing who to turn to when questions arise or times get tough

Or you're at the end of the road Ah, okay, I see what you're doing Do you ever think to yourself what advice would Lance Bass and my favorite boy bands give me in this situation? If you do you've come to the right place because I'm here to help this I promise you Oh god Seriously, I swear and you won't have to send an SOS because I'll be there for you Oh man And so my husband Michael

Um, hey, that's me Yep, we know that Michael and a different hot sexy teen crush boy bander each week to guide you through life step by step Oh, not another one Kids relationships life in general can get messy. You may be thinking this is the story of my life Oh, just stop now If so tell everybody yeah everybody About my new podcast and make sure to listen So we'll never ever have to say bye bye bye

Listen to frosted tips with Lance Bass on the iHeart radio app apple podcast or wherever you listen to podcasts All right, dude, so we've made it across to the united states. What a journey by the 18th century Um, lemonade's all over america And again people are adding like sparkling water or soda to Lemonade which I want to encourage it. It's so good. It's good um, and By about the time of the um, the late 19th century Lemonade it was pretty popular people liked it. Um, and the temperance movement actually clamped onto it and said this is a really good alternative

To liquor you want some liquor forget about it Just drink some sparkling lemonade and you'll you'll be as trashed as you want Yeah, especially if you enjoy it in its best form, which is to add liquor All right, I think the temperance movement was like don't do that Yeah, it was it was apparently sun kissed even back then which I didn't know was around back then They had a slogan that said goodbye to liquor his to lemonade Yes And everyone went uh, that's a lame substitute. They said do we have to choose?

So there was actually a period in um, in the 19th century 1877 to 1881 Where if you were invited to a white house dinner or function or something You were not going to be served liquor Now you had to sneak in a flask You would probably you probably get in big trouble because rather for B. Hayes. He was the one who um, who who signed that um, that executive order to apparently to curry favor with the The prohibition party. Yeah But his wife was very well known as a tea toddler

She was a big time into the temperance movement his wife Lucy Lucy Hayes and she was dubbed lemonade Lucy because um people I guess wanted to to poke fun at her for her beliefs And that wasn't a very good job And she sighed and said well, I guess it's better than liquor Lucy They said we hadn't thought about that So I didn't know that lemonade had a circus connection. Did you nope? I had no idea That this was a thing but apparently lemonade and especially pink lemonade. Mm-hmm has a circus connection Uh, and that it came from the or at least in 1879 from west virginia's wheeling register newspaper

Told a story about how the circus Turned lemonade pink and there are a couple of different or many different versions, but the two, uh two stories that stuck Of how this happened one is Sounds like it could be delicious and one is really gross. Yeah, so one is found in a 1912 Obituary in the new york times for a guy named henry e alet And this would have happened years and years before because he ran away as a boy to join the circus and this this story is that he was um

He accidentally dropped some red colored cinnamon candies into a vat of lemonade and just said well I'm not going to throw this away And he sold it as pink lemonade and people loved it. I bet that's good. That's what I'm thinking is that And what are the little cinnamon candies that we ate when we were kids? Cinnamon candies. Do you remember their name? They were like right next to the lemon heads. Yeah. Uh, oh I remember yeah red hot. It's a good job. The other one I remember is alexander the grape The other I remember is boston bake beans Yeah, which are not actually beans. They're nuts. They're candy coated peanuts such a weird name. It is

Like have you ever had boston cottage cheese? It is not that God But this pink lemonade I bet with a like a little hot cinnamon. I bet that's a pretty delicious thing to drink It could be sure like today when you make pink lemonade It's usually like red food coloring or something like that. But back in the day after pink lemonade was created Um, what's dr. Kellogg's name the guy from battle creek? No, I can't remember his first name. Well he um

He came up with a recipe that uses like either a grenadine or cranberry juice or something like that to make it pink And just kind of slightly alter the flavor Right the other origin story though that is gross that I mentioned was from 1857 And this is when a circus concession worker was in a big hurry to make a batch of lemonade Grab the first water they could find which apparently was a wash tub full of Pink water from a performer's dirty pink tights Ugh

And they used that and people Enjoyed it. Well, I don't think they knew what the the source was of the pink water. Yeah That's pretty gross that is But either way, so we're gonna go with the other one the henry e al at one. Okay. Yeah the red hots agreed Well, uh, that's it for lemonade, right? Yeah, I got nothing else unless I actually should we mention the make lemons out of lemonade origin. Oh, oh, yeah, good call, man Yeah, apparently this was a borrowed phrase by elbert hubbard in 1915 for an obituary for a humorous named marshal pickney wilder

And wilder was three and a half feet tall and he was a world famous kind of a household name comedian And at one point he didn't want people to be stigmatized and he said something like fate handed me a lemon But I've made lemonade of it and that's the earliest place that people can find that good for that guy. Yeah That's awesome. I got nothing else. It's a great origin story. Well, I don't either if you want to get in touch with me and chuck you can Go to stuff you should know calm it's got all of our social media links there And uh, you can send us female to stuff podcast at how stuff works dot com On the podcast hey dude the 90s called david lasher and christine taylor stars of the cult classic show

Hey, dude bring you back to the days of slip dresses and choker necklaces We're gonna use hey, dude as our jumping off point But we are going to unpack and dive back into the decade of the 90s We lived it and now we're calling on all of our friends to come back and relive it Listen to hey, dude the 90s called on the i heart radio app apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts Hey, i'm lance bass host of the new i heart podcast frosted tips with lance bass Do you ever think to yourself? What advice would lance bass and my favorite boy bands give me in this situation? If you do you've come to the right place because i'm here to help and a different hot sexy teen crush boy bander each week

To guide you through life tell everybody you everybody About my new podcast and make sure to listen so we'll never ever have to say bye bye bye Listen to frosted tips with the lance bass on the i heart radio app apple podcast or wherever you listen to podcasts