Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff. From How Stuff Works, Hey, brain Stuff,
Speaker 1: Lauren vogelbamb Here, water, sugar and lemon juice. The recipe
Speaker 1: for lemonade hasn't changed much in more than a thousand years.
Speaker 1: Tart or sweet, pink or yellow, clear, cloudy or carbonated.
Speaker 1: For as long as life has been handing out lemons,
Speaker 1: people the world over, from ancient Egyptians to Beyonce have
Speaker 1: been making lemonade. The exact origin of the lemon itself
Speaker 1: has not been easy to ascertain, but new research has
Speaker 1: clarified its lineage as a sour, orange and citron hybrid.
Speaker 1: A February study in the science journal Nature reveals the
Speaker 1: discovery of fossilized leaves and the un non province of
Speaker 1: China proves citrus has been around since the late Miocene epoch,
Speaker 1: some eight million years ago. The earliest record of the
Speaker 1: precursor to lemonade hails from the Mediterranean coast of medieval Egypt.
Speaker 1: Cush cub was made from fermented barley combined with mint, rue,
Speaker 1: black pepper, and citron leaf, and the medieval Jewish community
Speaker 1: in Cairo consumed, traded, and exported bottles of a sugary
Speaker 1: lemon juice concoction called guitarmazat through the thirteenth century. While
Speaker 1: the citron, which is like a lemon but larger with
Speaker 1: a super thick rind and not much pulper juice, was
Speaker 1: likely known by the ancient Jews and throughout the Mediterranean
Speaker 1: before the Common Era, there's no proof that lemons were
Speaker 1: around in pre Islamic times. The mosaics of Rome and
Speaker 1: frescoes of Pompeii depict images of citrus fruits resembling lemons
Speaker 1: and oranges, but there's no paleobotanical or written evidence that
Speaker 1: they existed there. The earliest written reference to the lemon
Speaker 1: tree is in a tenth century Arabic book on farming,
Speaker 1: and in the late twelfth century, the personal physician to
Speaker 1: the Muslim leader Saladin wrote a treatise on the lemon,
Speaker 1: bringing it to the attention of a wider Mediterranean audience.
Speaker 1: Flash forward to seventeenth century Europe. Lemonade debuted in Paris
Speaker 1: on August six thirty Made of sparkling water, lemon juice,
Speaker 1: and honey, menders sold it from tanks up to their backs.
Speaker 1: While popular across Europe, lemonade became so fashionable in Paris
Speaker 1: than sixteen seventy six, the vendors incorporated and formed a
Speaker 1: union called the Company the Lemonadiers. The lemonade craze even
Speaker 1: helped Paris fend off the plague, as we talked about
Speaker 1: in a former episode. Britain's contribution to lemonade craze came
Speaker 1: by way of chemist Joseph Priestley, who invented an apparatus
Speaker 1: for making carbonated water. By the seventeen eighties, Johann Schwepp,
Speaker 1: a German Swiss jeweler, had developed a new method of carbonation,
Speaker 1: using a compression pump that made mass production more efficient.
Speaker 1: By the eighteen thirties, schwepps fuzzy lemonade was readily available
Speaker 1: around Europe. By the eighteenth century, lemonade had made its
Speaker 1: way to America along with waves of European immigrants. During
Speaker 1: the Victorian era, the women's temperance movement pushed lemonade as
Speaker 1: an alternative to alcohol. One sun kissed slogan of the
Speaker 1: day read Goodbye to liquor, Here's to lemonade. From eighteen
Speaker 1: seventy seven to eighteen eighty one, the White House banned
Speaker 1: alcohol from all state dinners and other functions. Although President
Speaker 1: Rutherford Behayes made the decision himself as a way to
Speaker 1: court the Prohibition Party. Critics of the band dubbed his
Speaker 1: wife Lucy, a renowned teetotaler. Lemonade Lucy and the Moniker
Speaker 1: Stuck and the circus has a starring role in lemonades
Speaker 1: long history. By the nineteenth century, both ice and the
Speaker 1: traveling circus had hit the scene, and both were taking off.
Speaker 1: The first known mention linking pink lemonade to the circus
Speaker 1: comes from West Virginia's Wheeling Register in eighteen seventy nine.
Speaker 1: Circus lore has many tales of how it's lemonade turned pink,
Speaker 1: but historians find two of them the most viable. In one,
Speaker 1: a concession worker invents pink lemonade when he accidentally drops
Speaker 1: red colored cinnamon candies into a vat of regular lemonade.
Speaker 1: In proverbial the show must go on style, he serves
Speaker 1: lemonade anyway and the people lap it up. In the
Speaker 1: other story, a harried concession worker in need of water
Speaker 1: to make a fresh batch of lemonade for an impatient
Speaker 1: line of thirsty customers, grabs the first liquid he sees
Speaker 1: and it turns out to be a tub of wash
Speaker 1: water in which a performer has just wrung out her
Speaker 1: dirty pink tights. He uses it to make his new
Speaker 1: and improved strawberry lemonade, and the crowd goes wild. Story
Speaker 1: has it that from then on sales doubled, and henceforth
Speaker 1: no top notch circus was ever without pink lemonade. Meanwhile,
Speaker 1: the ubiquitous advice to make a lemonade out of adversity
Speaker 1: probably became famous thanks to a phrase borrowed by Albert
Speaker 1: Hubbard in nineteen fifteen for the obituary of an actor, writer,
Speaker 1: and humorist Marshall Pickney Wilder. Wilder, known for his brilliant
Speaker 1: stand up routines, was a world famous, much beloved household
Speaker 1: name during a time when jobs for people like him
Speaker 1: could only be found in circus side shows. Standing three
Speaker 1: ft five inches tall that's a little over in meter.
Speaker 1: With a severe spinal deformity, he refused to stigmatize others
Speaker 1: or be stigmatized. Fate handed me a lemon he said,
Speaker 1: but I have made lemonade of it. Today's episode was
Speaker 1: written by Carrie Tato and produced by Tyler Clang. I'm
Speaker 1: supposed to remind you to contain yourself in brain Stuff
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