Lemonade

Lemonade offers drinkers a refreshing, sweet, tangy, and lemony goodness. This versatile drink, made simply with water, lemon juice, and sugar, serves as a welcome drink for guests, and a cool beverage to beat the scorching heat.

In ancient times, lemons originated from what is today considered north-western India, with a high probability of lemon drinks being popular in the region. However, the first written record of a lemony drink comes from 11th-century Egypt, where lemon juice and sugar were mixed to create qatarmizat.

The poet-traveller Nasir-i-Khusraw detailed Egyptian life of the time and his work, along with documents in the Cairo Geniza, show that the Jewish community of Cairo drank, traded in, and exported qatarmizat throughout the 13th century.

The first written recipe of lemonade survives from the 13th century in an Arabic cookbook, where the lemonade is spiked with alcohol. This appears in Genghis Khan’s Mongolia where records reveal that qatarmizat was mixed with different alcohol varieties.

The next big moment for the beverage is in the 17th century, when lemonade pops up in Paris in 1630. Here, it was made with sparkling water, lemon juice, and honey. Sellers would have tanks strapped to their backs and sold the lemonade from that.

From here there’s much speculation about lemonade travelling to different areas through voyages and trade routes. The American image of lemonade being sold at corner stalls manned by children sprouted in the 18th century.

The popular phrase ‘when life hands you lemons, make lemonade’ probably gained fame when Elbert Hubbard presented an obituary for actor and humourist Marshall Pinckney Wilder in 1915. Three feet five inches tall, Wilder had a severe spinal deformity, but refused to let that hold him back. “Fate handed me a lemon, but I have made lemonade of it,” he allegedly said.

The fruity variant, the beloved pink lemonade, has a story all of its own. While two origin stories exist, it was certainly popularised by the travelling circus in America.

And while Nimbu Paani is the Hindi name for lemonade, variants like Shikanji also exist. Different concoctions of lemon juice and sugar exist all over the world, with carbonated alternatives or additions like mint leaves.

But whatever the variant, science agrees that sour drinks stimulate salivation and are great thirst quenchers. So the next time you crave lemonade, you know your body is asking to be refreshed!