What exactly is pink lemonade?

What exactly is pink lemonade?

HomeCooking Tips, RecipesWhat exactly is pink lemonade?

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What is Pink Lemonade? – Sip Science

Pink lemonade is a classic drink for both summer and childhood and there are many people in this world who would choose it over regular lemonade if given the chance. But if you were to put a glass of pink lemonade and a glass of yellow lemonade in front of a blindfolded person and let them taste both chances are they wouldn’t be able to tell the difference. That’s because pink lemonade is basically just regular lemonade with a little added food coloring.

The actual ingredient used to change the color of lemonade from yellow to pink varies depending on whether it's commercially made or locally produced but it can be anything from grenadine to beetroot juice. While pink lemonades do exist many major brands make their pink lemonades using concentrated grape juice; for example if you look at the ingredient lists for Minute Maid's regular and pink lemonades the only difference is that the pink lemonade has 1% more juice which can almost certainly be attributed to the added ingredient of grape juice concentrate that is specifically stated as "for color." Technically any lemonade that is pink can be labeled as "pink lemonade" so products like strawberry lemonade would also fit the description; but overall pink lemonade is exactly what it sounds like – lemonade that has gone pink. And in terms of taste pink lemonade tastes the same as regular lemonade.

The earliest account of how pink lemonade came to be is told in the 1921 book "The Ways of the Circus: Being the Memories and Adventures of George Conklin Tamer of Lions" written by Conklin himself and Harvey W. Root. They both wrote that in 1857 George's brother Pete had to invent a new drink after the lemonade ran out. Out of water he used dirty water from a sink that had been stained pink by a performer's recently worn pink tights. Conklin called the resulting drink "strawberry lemonade" and the vendor's sales reportedly skyrocketed. Pete did have some competition for the honor though as author Josh Chetwynd explains in his book "How the Hot Dog Got Its Bun: Accidental Discoveries And Unexpected Inspirations That Shape What We Eat And Drink" that an obituary from a 1912 New York Times issue credits another circus employee Henry E. Allot as the drink's inadvertent inventor. One day Allot simply threw some red cinnamon candy into some regular lemonade and sold the new unintentionally pink drink as is.