HHeritage Kitchen

Drinks

Red Kool-Aid

A simple pitcher of red Kool-Aid, sweetened to taste and served over plenty of ice. Cherry or tropical punch, stirred until the sugar disappears and chilled until it's cold enough to make the glass sweat.

Jump to Recipe
Pitcher of bright red Kool-Aid with ice and a lemon slice beside two filled glasses

Prep time

5 min

Cook time

0 min

Chill time

1 hr

Total time

1 hr 5 min

Servings

8 · About 2 quarts

Origin Story

Red Kool-Aid holds a familiar place in Black American family and neighborhood food culture. It shows up at cookouts, family reunions, Sunday dinners and birthday tables, usually in a big pitcher somebody keeps refilling. The memory reaches past the pitcher, too. On hot summer days, kids lined up at the candy lady's door on the block for freeze cups — Kool-Aid poured into small disposable cups and frozen solid, sold for a quarter or whatever she was asking that summer. Kool-Aid didn't begin in Black kitchens, but what people built around it — the pitcher, the freeze cup, the porch — is its own tradition.

Ingredients

  • 1 packet (0.13 ounce) unsweetened red Kool-Aid, such as cherry or tropical punch
  • 1 cup granulated sugar, or more or less to taste
  • 2 quarts cold water
  • Plenty of ice
  • Lemon slices, optional

Instructions

  1. 1

    Empty the Kool-Aid packet and the sugar into a 2-quart pitcher.

  2. 2

    Add about 2 cups of the cold water and stir until the sugar is completely dissolved and no grit is left at the bottom.

  3. 3

    Add the remaining cold water and stir well.

  4. 4

    Taste and stir in more sugar a little at a time if you like it sweeter.

  5. 5

    Refrigerate until cold, about an hour, or pour straight over a glass packed with ice.

  6. 6

    Add lemon slices to the pitcher or to the glass if you like.

Heritage Kitchen Tips

  • Dissolve the sugar in a small amount of water first — it keeps you from finding a sweet sludge at the bottom of the last glass.
  • Start at 3/4 cup of sugar if your table likes it lighter. You can always stir in more.

Kitchen Note

Lemon slices are optional for anybody who likes a little citrus in their Kool-Aid. And red not your jam? Make it purple. Grape works exactly the same way, and there are enough flavors on the shelf to have some fun with it.

Variations

  • Freeze cups: pour the prepared Kool-Aid into small disposable cups and freeze until solid. When you're ready to eat one, let it soften a minute or two, then dig in with a spoon or peel the cup away as you go. If you grew up buying freeze cups from the candy lady on the block, you already know which method you prefer.
  • Swap in grape for purple Kool-Aid, or whatever flavor is in the cabinet.

Storage and reheating

Keep the pitcher covered in the refrigerator and drink within 3 days.

Round out the meal

Complete the meal

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