There is no need to talk about how adults and children love carbonated drinks: perhaps each of us has lemonade, kvass or ordinary mineral water among our gastronomic preferences. But the fact that she has been quenching her thirst for almost four hundred years is known to few. As well as the fact that at first only the powerful of this world could afford it.
The history of sweet mineral water originates in the French expanses, and not only the reliable context of the appearance of this drink has come down to us, but also a funny legend. It sounds like this: once King Louis XIV wanted to drink wine. When the order was passed to the cupbearer, he accidentally poured juice instead of wine. Noticing a mistake, in order to somehow correct the situation, he diluted the juice with mineral water. In the end, everything ended well: although the king did not get exactly what he wanted, he liked the drink served.
In reality, everything was not so spontaneous: initially lemonade was called a mixture of lemon juice itself and mineral water, which, of course, was not carbonated in the 17th century. The first information about this drink appeared in France, and it was quite expensive and was considered a whim of aristocrats. Something similar happened in Italy, but there lemonade was additionally infused with herbs.
The first carbonated drinks appeared only in the 19th century. Although the first apparatus for saturating water with carbon dioxide was invented a little earlier - in 1767. It was called a saturator, and was invented by the British scientist Joseph Priestley.
During the 19th century, carbonated drinks gradually gained popularity among consumers, and the first officially patented lemonade appeared in the United States under the name: "High-quality lemon carbonated ginger ale."
Interesting fact: it was this drink that was the favorite of Lolita, the protagonist of Nabokov's novel of the same name.
Emperor Peter I, along with many other European novelties, brought lemonade to Russia. He also became the popularizer of this drink. For example, the emperor ordered "to drink lemonade at assemblies." Love for unusual drinking spread instantly: they began to prepare it in noble and merchant houses, despite the fact that this process was frankly "costing a pretty penny", and besides, the drink was stored for only a week.
Although for a long time lemonade in the Russian Empire was non-carbonated, it quickly became a favorite drink not only among the powerful, but even among literary characters. It seemed like a new fashion among poets and writers - to appropriate their characters a love of lemon drink. For example, such were Herman in "The Queen of Spades" and Samson Vyrin in "The Station Keeper" by Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin, Arbenin in "Masquerade" by Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov and a number of others.
Meanwhile, the history of lemonade in Russia was developing. Moreover, along a rather peculiar path, and all thanks to the imagination of the Tiflis pharmacist Mitrofan Lagidze, who in 1887 decided to mix carbonated water not with the usual lemon juice, but with herbal tincture, more precisely, the extract of Caucasian tarragon, which is known as "tarragon". The drink was so liked by consumers that it won several international exhibitions and made its author worthy of the position of a supplier to the Imperial Court and even an Iranian Shah.
When the October Revolution took place in 1917, cardinal changes in the state affected many things, but not the “Lagidze water”, which continued to be popular in the Soviet period. These drinks, which by that time were produced by the Tbilisi plant, were at a high price from the party elite of the USSR - regularly, twice a week, lots of lemonade were sent to Moscow by special trains. Even the preferences of some top officials are known: Mikhail Kalinin preferred orange, Anastas Mikoyan preferred pear and lemon, Nikita Khrushchev preferred pear and orange, and Leonid Brezhnev preferred pear and tarragon.
Amazingly, Soviet-made lemonades managed to leave a mark even in the geopolitical events of those years. For example, the products of the Tbilisi plant were on the table during the Yalta conference, and a large batch of Cream Soda went to America with Franklin Roosevelt. The latter even mentioned Soviet lemonade in his memoirs.
The legendary soda machine became the real popularizer of lemonade among the citizens of the USSR. The first such unit was installed in the Smolny dining room in April 1937. The drink from the vending machine gained such popularity that the number of vending machines began to grow throughout the Soviet Union simply exponentially.
Soon every inhabitant of even a small town could, in hot weather, go to the machine and choose - regular soda for one penny or sweet with syrup - for three. And then enjoy a drink from a glass reusable glass, for which the corresponding function was incorporated in the mechanism of the device.
Interesting fact: but Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev's relationship with foreign lemonade somehow did not work out. During a visit to the United States, the secretary general decided to hit with an unusual soda machine, which poured a certain syrup according to gender - men got an orange one, and women poured a cherry one. The device was selected using a built-in photocell. But the automatic machine stubbornly gave out cherry syrup to Nikita Sergeyevich.
The reason for such an awkward mistake was found out pretty quickly: the fact is that the photocell in the machine was guided by the amount of light, and women in skirts blocked it more. It was then that comrade Khrushchev let down his love for wide trousers - they became the reason that the apparatus reacted to the general secretary "like a woman."
Today, of course, lemonade is no longer what it was two hundred, and a hundred, and even thirty years ago. Today's consumers associate carbonated sugary drinks with harm rather than benefit. But, when you really want a tasty and healthy lemonade, you can make it yourself at home from natural ingredients. The main thing is not to forget that it will be stored for only a week.
In addition to the topic: The Lost Taste of Childhood: 10 Soviet Foods That Have Irretrievably Changed