Back in my military days as a young recoiless rifle gunner in Korea, the most important part of my duties was to take my crew, rifle and jeep to the mess hall every morning and fill up two Igloo coolers strapped onto the back of my jeep with ice and Kool-Aid to take to all the posted sentry areas around our air base. Korean summers are hellaciously hot and humid.
I would go into the mess hall and walk by the rows of grape, cherry, raspberry, lemon-lime, and countless other flavors of Kool-Aid and head for the area of the shelf with my childhood favorite, that's right, good ol' ORANGE Kool Aid!!. Yay!! It was orange in the morning, orange in the evening, orange for suppertime.....
After a while, I was getting real nasty looks from my shift when my explanation of all other flavors of Kool-Aid going down in a recent freighter accident in the North Pacific didn't seem to be ringing with truth.
I finally got the hint to vary the flavors when I pulled into a Stinger (anti-aircraft missile) position with two bright, shining Igloos of happy, happy, joy, joy Orange Kool-Aid and finding myself staring at the business end of a Stinger launcher with two angry crewmen stating that if I didn't have another flavor besides orange, that I would be blown to kingdom come. I was forcefully reminded that a missile designed for destroying aircraft would, at this range, reduce me and my Orange Kool Aid Crew to your basic, subatomic particles. I backed out slowly and went back to the mess hall and filled another Igloo with tropical punch Kool-Aid. What a grouchy bunch of ingrates....
According to my father, kool-aid doesn’t so much have flavors as it has colors. That is, green tastes different than red, but regardless of what the package says, red tastes pretty much like red (there’s some taste variation between the cloudy and clear varieties, but not a lot).
I disagree in one instance: black cherry has a distinctive taste that is different than all other reds and purples (it’s sort of between the two in color).
My favorites are black cherry and green. My least favorites are purple, red, and orange.
My absolute favorite used to be Berry Blue, but they discontinued that (according the Kool Aid FAQ) because the blue die was carcinogenic. I love the blue lemonade that is out there now.
I would have to say any flavor EXCEPT grape & cherry!!
My grandfather was in the military. Twice a year he and my grandmother would take shopping lists from my mother, my aunt and my uncle (their kids) and head off to the PX for those low food prices. On my mother’s list was Kool-aid - 2 bxs.
Now what my mother was thinking was 2 of the boxes you see on the shelves in the grocery store. What she got was 2 boxes - one grape and one cherry. Inside each box were EIGHT boxes - the ones you see on the shelf!! My two brothers and I had Kool-aid for years!
It was so bad, we were giving it away at Halloween! I think it took about 7 years to finally go through that supply. So grape nor cherry, PLEASE!
I just turned 26 last Saturday, and still, to this day, I have never, ever tasted any flavor of Kool-Aid. Anything that discolored the mouth was considered ‘garbage’ in my house when I was growing up. I was so deprived!
What flavors would you recommend to a Kool-Aid virgin?
“I wore an onion on my belt, which was the style at the time…”
Try grape or orange. Those are popular with kids, who haven’t yet developed their Kool-Aid taste buds, so they should be safe for beginners. Once you’ve built up your tolerance, add the various reds to the rotation, basing the variety and frequency on your comfort level. Then, and only then, you can experiment with other flavors if you’re the adventurous type.
And if you try Grape Berry Splash, let me know how it is. I have an unopened canister in my cabinet.