Citrus Maximus
A PARTIAL TOUR THROUGH THE JUICY PRECURSORS TO LEMONADE
THE FIRST SQUEEZE
Humanity’s earliest known lemony drink sprang up around the tenth century, in Egypt. Kashkab was a mix of barley, mint, black pepper and leaf of citron (a tarter predecessor to the modern lemon). When lemons arrived in North Africa, they became central to the drink, thereafter known as qatarmizat: a blend of lemon juice, water and sugar.
PARIS, JE T’AIME
By the mid-17th century, carbonated lemonade was popular in Europe. In France’s capital, vendors carried vats of it on their backs, from which they filled glasses for passing pedestrians. As lemonade’s popularity rose, these resourceful merchants became so numerous that in 1676, they unionized as the Compagnie de Limonadiers.
AHEAD OF THE SCURVY
With the advent of long-distance ocean voyages came scurvy, a deadly aiction caused by a lack of vitamin C. Eventually, Britain came up with a solution: Beginning in 1795, the British Navy commanded its soldiers to drink lemon juice daily, which prevented the malady. Later, while at war with lemon-supplying Spain, the Brits switched to lime juice and earned the moniker “Limeys.”
THE SPIRIT OF ABSTINENCE
In the mid-1800s, the American temperance movement latched on to lemonade as a substitute for booze. Lucy Webb Hayes, wife of President Rutherford B. Hayes, one of the movement’s most public advocates, earned the nickname “Lemonade Lucy” after she prohibited all alcohol in the White House—oering visitors fresh lemonade in its place.
IN THE PINK
Legend has it that pink lemonade—a popular variation often containing strawberry or raspberry juice—originated at U.S. circuses. The 1912 obituary of Henry E. Allott, a Chicagoan who joined the circus as a teenager, records that he invented the drink by accident, when he inadvertently dropped cinnamon candies into a batch of concession lemonade. In a gnarlier vein, some historians say a vendor once served lemonade he’d made using water in which a circus performer had just wrung out her crimson tights.