Besides teaching kids how to mispell the word “cool”, Kool-Aid is known for its gigantically rotund pitcher-with-a-face that roams around busting out of brick walls in commercials and yelling “Oh yeah!!” The other day I got a free package of grape Kool-Aid in the mail from a friend and so I decided to mix it up and see if it was just like when I was a kid.

Not much has changed in the way of product; take some artificial coloring, add dry artificial flavoring, put it in a pouch, and sell it as a drink. Although, nowadays they have those Kool-Aid “Jammers” which are pre-mixed drink boxes. You’re mostly paying for the box, the water, and the convenience there. You could just as well pre-mix some and bottle it for your picnic.

So I went ahead and followed the directions on making up a batch of it. Or rather, I ALMOST followed the directions which start off with “Take a cup of sugar and …”. A CUP! If you haven’t made any baked goods in awhile you will be shocked to find out exactly how much a cup of sugar is. Even if it’s meant to go with 2 quarts of water, it’s unbelievable. I measured off a cup of sugar and looked at it for awhile before decided that the cup of sugar is meant for the KIDS version. You know how little kids will bounce up and down for hours on end like jack in the boxes? This is the reason why.

I ended up mixing up the Kool-Aid with 1/3 cup of sugar and about 1 1/2 quarts of water. This actually made it quite tart, which was excellent since I like drinks a lot more sour than most people. I might even be tempted to go with 1/4 cup of sugar or less. The taste was not bad, I mean what can you expect from artificial flavors plus water and sugar. It was a bit metallic tasting which was my only complaint.

One note is that the mix concentrate has a habit of staining anything it touches. While I was ripping open the mix pouch I accidentally got some of the powder on my hands. Wow, it looked just like a changed the oil on my car! Gulping down a glass of the mix, I felt the artificial dyes slowly coating my throat. It also does quite a number on your tongue, turning it nice and deep purple. This is what you get when you mix “Red 40″ and “Blue 1″. No worse than any number of candies on the market though.

On the whole, I think the drink mix is pretty good because it makes such a large quantity. The only bummer for me is that as the package states it is caffeine free… I actually would like some added caffeine in there to go along with the pretty purple colors. I didn’t buy the pouch so I don’t know how much it is, but I imagine it should be pretty cheap if you buy it in a bulk cannister. And on the bright side according to the package it is “Not a significant source of Fat Cal, Sat Fat, Trans Fat, Cholesterol, Fiber, Sugars, Vitamin A, Calcium, and Iron.”

Cheap Eats Score: 7/10