Kool-Aid's Problematic Reputation Explained | The History of Kool-Aid

[@ph43drus]

you can't use Jim Jones in your thumbnail and not talk about Jonestown, that was some ClickBait bullshit.

[@crankychris2]

They didn't use Kool-Aid at Jonestown, they used Flavor-Aid which was much cheaper.

[@ph43drus]

@@crankychris2 That was not the point of my comment but thanks for the clarification Mr. Pedantic.

[@8ahda388]

Glad I saw this b4 I watched the whole thing

[@MavonEast]

​@@crankychris2 Thank you! I was just about to point it out.

[@waltdiesel]

I thought Jim was related somehow.

[@AndSaveAsManyAsYouCan]

Well... if the Kool-Aid man would have just started his own home demolition business, he would have became a monopoly in the industry.

[@Deezy07]

You'll be needing labourers to remove the demolition garbage. Give the workers Kool-Aid and now we're talking!

[@harrylewis4430]

Oh yeah

[@bigfootwalker5399]

have you ever wondered what the Kool-Aid Man would do if someone refused to drink even after he broke down a wall just to demand their obedience.

[@bizbaby]

The thumbnail is so wild to me because they weren’t even drinking Kool-Aid 😂😂

[@comancheviperrrr]

You are never too old for pop rocks, my friends. I’m 54 years old and I absolutely love them. It’s a timeless thing from your childhood that you don’t have to give up. So much is gone from our childhood. From foods and restaurants and such as that we remember there are no longer around. It’s nice there still there for us. Even if most of us don’t think about it on a regular basis. But we know it’s there

[@a-supernova-girl]

This was very interesting and all brand new info to me, but i guess from the title, I assumed you were going to touch on the conflation of Kool-Aid and Flavor Aid and the whole...messed up event that is being referenced when people mention "drinking the kool-aid"

[@gastonbell108]

"Drinking the Flavor Aid", although considerably more accurate, didn't have the same brand recognition. Kool-Aid was right to be pissed.

[@JamieWoods-go1cv]

The summer before Jonestown my mom apparently thought Flavor Aid was the same as Kool-Aid, only at a lower price. I'm talking the stuff in the little pouches. Mom's two daughters immediately noticed the difference. Flavor Aid just did not taste the same. A few months after Jonestown, my sister said the poisoned drink was Flavor Aid. Since I hadn't heard this on TV news or saw it in the newspaper, I didn't believe it at first. Remember in 1978-79, there was no internet to research things

[@Sparty-pi3jq]

The cutaway in Family Guy, where Kool-Aid man is introducing his new fiancee Yoo-Hoo, to his parents😂😂😂. Great video!

[@quentinjersey6935]

I incorrectly assumed the problematic reputation would be Jones Town as well as the expression "drank the kook aid"

[@huhhuhhuhwood]

techinally i think that was flavor aide but still we associte it with koolaide

[@roscoe75]

@@huhhuhhuhwood, it was flavor-aide.

[@myragroenewegen5426]

The smoking ceasation product is an interesting one in this history,showing that people were aware of smoking's addictiveness and trying to break smoking addiction with nicotine products very early. In smoking and anti-smoking history, that's actually quite a useful thing to note.

[@matthewdrummond1340]

Great video, loved it! The title and thumbnail were incredibly misleading tho

[@gags730]

I am in my 50s and I drink Kool-Aid every day! It is my favorite beverage, specifically the Tropical Punch and Grape, with Lemonade a distant third. I only use the packets to make Kool-Aid otherwise it taste terrible! So if you never had Kool-Aid buy the packets and make it yourself! I was never big on carbonated drinks but Kool-Aid has always been a big hit for me. I drink TANG too! The best thing about using the flavor packet and adding the sugar is that you can adjust how much sugar you use. I personally use 3/4 of a cup max per half gallon instead of the full 1 cup.

[@Agent-vj3ns]

"Daymmmn, Yall ain't never got two things that match. You got peanut, no butter, ham no burger, kool-aid no sugar!!"

[@MyNameIsUnavailable]

I look like Janet Jackson

[@mr.sanchez9522]

​@@MyNameIsUnavailable more like Freddy Jackson 😅

[@nolantolson652]

I'm from Hastings Nebraska and I have memories of going to the local museum to the Kool-Aid exhibit.

[@moondoggy02116]

The title is very misleading - I actually thought this would be about racial stereotypes. But it was still a very interesting video. Your face is endearingly expressive when you taste things - you’re a meme waiting to happen.

[@FrithonaHrududu02127]

Ok now I've watched it and yeah, it is misleading, why put a picture of Jim Jones in the thumbnail and then not mention the Kool Aid getting confused with Flavor Aid. I thought you meant it was misleading because it wasn't about stereotypes, but I see that it's just plain misleading, sorry.

[@tedgraham6548]

I’m glad you said that because I thought it was about to be about some real crazy things going on.

[@FrithonaHrududu02127]

@@moondoggy02116 why would you think racial stereotypes and not Jonestown? There's literally a picture of the Kool aid man and Jim Jones in the thumbnail

[@moondoggy02116]

@@FrithonaHrududu02127 I’m familiar with Jonestown, but not enough to glance at a thumbnail and recognize him. Plus, I don’t think of that incident as being reputational - it’s obviously not “reputed” to be poisonous, but it is reputed to be a drink that black people favor, so again, the title is misleading.

[@CrAck-MoNey]

I'm excited that you are doing this channel. Awesome work.

[@EATSHISTORY]

More to come!

[@norbertvidarramberg7024]

Just got my KoolAids Orange. Perfect

[@NextNate03]

You forgot about the Jones Town incident. *Edit* That was the only reason I watched the video.

[@mar4kl]

Did they put the kids' poison in name-brand Kool-Aid, or were the reporters just using Kool-Aid to refer generically to any cheap, powdered drink mix, kind of like referring to any facial tissue as a Kleenex?

[@a-supernova-girl]

@@mar4kl People have been incorrectly referring to it as 'kool-aid' for years, but the brand 'flavor aid' was used during the incident. Thus...Problematic Reputation?

[@morrillstillrules]

Same lol, also watched to make sure he said it was Flavor Aide and not Kool Aide 😂

[@hagerty1952]

I'm glad you addressed the Ade/Aid issue, but you never mentioned who came up with the name in the first place. It was Fruit Smack, then formulated into a powder, then going through the packaging issues before suddenly popping up on store counter "silent salesmen." I'm curious who actually created the name and what some of the rejected ones were.

[@phookadude]

My grandfather owned a business in Hastings and Edwin tried to get funding for cool aid from him. My grand dad didn't take the offer.

[@kentmorton2872]

He didn't drink the Kool-aid 😅

[@AndSaveAsManyAsYouCan]

Is anyone else picturing the Robot Chicken Kool-Aid Man versus Macho Man Randy Savage OH YEAH show down? 😅😂🤣

[@BELCAN57]

The Wyler company used to make a liquid drink mix that was quite good.

[@cocoaorange1]

Is Wyler's soft drink mix still around? I recall it in the 70's and 80's as a young person.

[@n8spectacular]

The thumbnail made it look like you would cover Jonestiwn and possibly even Ken Kesey.

[@JBgoodiebag]

That’s wild that they even said “20%” juice in the ad

[@DRACOFURY]

I still have tome magazine and national geographic magazine in my gates that I collected. I did a study on him in junior high. *"DON'T DRINK THE KOOL-AID"*

[@hhairball9]

That was fascinating! Thank you for this. Now, I'm going to go check out what else you got!

[@tarawalker7193]

Great Bluedini was one of my favorite flavors as a kid!

[@terrigodmother]

Unsweetened Kool-aid makes a perfect diet drink if you add artificial sweetener. My husband and I drank gallons of this no-calorie drink back in the 70's! Much tastier than diet cola!

[@joshuasjericho3915]

That's way more unhealthy for you than raw sugar!!! "Artificial" means CHEMICALS!!! 😮

[@JamieWoods-go1cv]

Joshua -- What about diabetics? They have to use artificial sweeteners.

[@spacecase13]

Kool-Aid in Pop Rocks format? Totally wild. Great food history video!

[@tedgraham6548]

14:33 it would be wild come see a loved one buried to know next to them was the man who invented kool aid.

[@Kalvinjj]

That was a pretty interesting history of the brand and all... And I have zero clue about what's problematic on it's reputation here.

[@roseharrell1021]

I heard it was "Flavoraid" at Jonestown.

[@charlesdiggs5297]

I have been headed in years.I'm sixty years old now but my favorite used to be purple suares rex

[@garbo8962]

Had a copy cat type while in the Boy Scouts ( which we called bug juice ) and while in the Army. Neither came close to delicious sweet Kook aide. In Viet Nam we used to have Kool Aid mailed to us to mask the horrible water. Always keep a few dozen boxes of assorted Kool aid in our frig for me & the grandchildren. Kool aid, Kool aid taste great, wish I had some toooo late!

[@pattrell5257]

Anyone notice that Kool-Aid's mascot eerily has 666 in its face?! I used to love KA and it's been a while since I discovered this, but--once I realized this--I haven't had another drop!

[@BloodStainedTear]

No reason to show Jim Jones that massacre was actually Flavor Aid not Kool Aid

[@mar4kl]

Drank it as a kid. Didn't care for it once I hit high school age or thereabouts. Same for all powdered drink mixes, although I actually tolerated Tang until my freshman year of college. (Then came an incident of lightheadedness during a blood donation led to the attendants practically pouring 27 fluid ounces of ice-cold Tang down my throat. Couldn't even stand the sight of Tang without feeling nauseous after that.) I did enjoy the advertising jingles and the antics of the mascot long after I stopped drinking the product.

[@TheNiteinjail]

I could never fit eight cups of water and one of sugar into that little pouch.

[@ThruHerSkull]

Thought you were gonna talk about Jonestown?

[@DanielWhalen-m8w]

Only drink the Kool-aid mixed-up by Ken Kesey or one of the Merry Pranksters.

[@FrithonaHrududu02127]

I'm curious , what about the title made you think it was about racial stereotypes? I haven't watched it all the way through but by looking at the thumbnail and title I'm assuming it's about the history of Kool Aid and how people always get the Jonestown thing wrong. Now I'm wondering what stereotypes you mean, everyone drinks Kool Aid right?

[@77gmcnut]

During the Persian Gulf war people were sending packets of kool aid to our warriors in that region.

[@kawaiiyet8514]

and the problematic part is where in the video.....?

[@DOCTORJAN714]

"Lack of processing?" Huh?

[@pitmichalak84]

Congratulations! Great job! I Love history ♥️ Życzę powodzenia 🌎

[@claudespeed277]

Its the drink to die for! 😅

[@DustinKeating-yk3vq]

All i drink is kool aid lemon lime and grape been drinking it my hole life and still do

[@recoveryguru]

The great depression was a time of deflation, not inflation

[@makeupyourmindinator]

I prefer my Kool-Aid with vodka.

[@natalinomonastra96]

How about Swanson frozen dinners

[@jetsons101]

Ryan, as a kid we would buy FIZZIES DRINK TABLETS. They were made to put in a glass os walter and make a instant flavored drink, we would put the Fizzie tablet in our mouth and skip the glass of water. "Fun Times"

[@glentanner4770]

When the Only Ingredient is SUGAR, that's extremely problematic. Stay away at all costs.

[@PlatForumRadio]

I'm wondering why he didn't do like most start ups of the time and go to the World Fair to introduce the public with his products? He would have become a success jut from his first orders! He kept at though even still!!

[@redbaron977]

I think the California water supply is cool aid

[@DOCTORJAN714]

What about the "Problematic Reputation?"

[@bennetfox]

The saturation level is set way too high. Everything looks all white and washed out.

[@jamesmurray8558]

Too help muddy water taste good.

[@rastazrealities]

Lik •em Aid.

[@Davejust451]

Warning don't drink the kool-aid. Click bait.

[@lazerdave466]

You really need to work on your delivery. If you have trouble not pausing when you hit the end of a line maybe try breaking up your script differently.

[@rasterman2792]

The O.G pimp juice 🥤

[@JokersNtheOddball]

Skrill it?

[@daves2822]

Whatever dude kool aid is still awesome

[@alexrekzu4079]

oooo YEAHHH 🧱

[@gilberttello08]

👍👍

[@DaBoff858]

🤣🤣@ with 20% Juice!!!! as a selling point...

[@Wheretheportlandorarealadiesat]

Don’t drink the koolaid 😮

[@BarbaraPineda-v9p]

Jones tiwns, guyana, south americans, i not should that's words, existences, maybe and that's man on a pict i do reckonize his, faced wearing a eye -glasses, drk, shade blk, or brw, also i can't tell becuz...pict...not colored, only blk& whites,