Below here is some additional information that was found written about Berry Blue Kool-Aid:
Berry Blue Kool-Aid:
''This one's special. It's been a few weeks since the last Kool-Aid review, and I had the Lemonade flavor on tap, but figured it would be prudent to remind you that Kool-Aid can indeed be interesting by reviewing one of the strongest entries in my collection instead: Berry Blue. Oh God. Wonderful, lovely, happy Berry Blue.''
''See, Berry Blue is a KWC: A Kool-Aid With Controversy. Yanked from grocery stores after numerous complaints that the beverage looked too much like windshield washer fluid (thus potentially urging kids to drink that), its exit from store shelves had nothing to do with its popularity. It was quite popular, in fact, with a very strong ad campaign, several promotions and at the time of its debut the strength of being the only ''blue'' Kool-Aid on the market.''
''Of course, kids who didn't watch the news for every twenty-second culture blurb weren't privy to such facts. To us, the stuff just disappeared without reason, leaving trails of unanswered questions, unquenched thirsts, unfulfilled desires and unbelievable angst. You must remember what I've said time and time again. Today, we take ''blue food'' for granted. It's fine, it's copasetic. The '90s struck hard with the blue raspberry craze, and the residuals live on today there are plenty of blue drinks in 2005. When Berry Blue debuted in 1988, the idea was almost unheard of. We weren't even allowed to eat blue M&M's at that point imagine the thrill of drinking something blue.''
''I wasn't a kid that long ago, and I feel pretty cliche and stupid whenever I mention how different things were back then. I didn't have to walk five miles to school in the snow, no, but whether it sounds silly or not, yes, things were a lot different. Kids didn't have the web; their knowledge of wonderful things that didn't get much press otherwise were limited to television commercials, a few comic book ads and pure word of mouth. My point, loosely connected to whatever I was getting at with the preceding sentences, is that these were times when a new Kool-Aid flavor was something to talk about and revel in. I'm not saying it was the hot topic of schoolyards nationwide, but when Berry Blue came out, I'd bet my one and only unsealed packet that several thousand kids told several thousand other kids about it with stars in their eyes, love in their hearts and blue stains on their tongues. Maybe you had to be there.''
''The Care Bears comic from Marvel, christened Berry Blue as the official drink of the Wacky Warehouse, that's some seriously staunch support. When the flavor arrived, we were just months shy of Purplesaurus Rex, Sharkleberry Fin and other character based entries taking years long control of our interest. For better or for worse, this was the time's ultimate flavor: The one that people bought not just because they liked the taste, but also because it felt like something so much more than a drink. It's new really old and it's blue, and I've got it fer yew.''
''The package art was awesome like nothing else from Kool-Aid's past, then present or future. Most of the '80s packets up until the point only featured the classic pitcher seen above, but by the time Berry Blue arrived, the makers were slowly introducing new elements to make the packets ''pop'' a bit more in this case, it's one of the first appearances of the literal Kool-Aid Man right on the package art, hanging out on the upper left in a sea of lemons and berries. It added some much needed color, true, but to kids, seeing the Kool-Aid Man ditch his television duties for a spot on the package dictated that whatever this flavor was, it meant business.''
''This cotton candy blue was a first for Kool-Aid, replicated many times since but never with such strength. You mean we could really drink something that color? I know, I know, you can walk down any of today's supermarkets and see everything from Tang to Hi-C to Hawaiian Punch competing to sell the most obscenely alien blue fruit juice. In 1988, it was an unreal, unique experience. Sure, lesser brands had been doing it for years (blue ''quarter drinks'' were popular long before Berry Blue came along), but things like this never count till one of the big boys joins the game. It took serious balls for Kool-Aid to do this; flamboyant risks were so much more the territory of the #2 brand. Kool-Aid waddn't no #2.''
''The flavor itself was more just inoffensive than outright great. The lemonade and berry factions of the Great Flavor War seemed only to cancel out each other, making this Kool-Aid taste like plain old ordinary sugar water. Passable without dye, but totally welcome in blue. Whether or not Berry Blue being yanked off store shelves was an urban legend or a complete reality, the color definitely reflects windshield wiper fluid. Knowing how the world works, it's easy to see why they might've discontinued the flavor after complaints...
Mary: My kid drank windshield wiper fluid. I'm suing you.
Kool-Aid Man: How is that my fault?
Mary: Windshield wiper fluid looks just like Berry Blue Kool-Aid.
Kool-Aid Man: Where do you keep your windshield wiper fluid?
Mary: In a pitcher, next to the Kool-Aid.
''And Mary would still walk away with a 400,000 dollar settlement, because it's easier for the Kool-Aid Man to pass on his seventeenth yacht than perform taste blind color tests with suited villains in court. He's kind of a hippie like that. On a final note, though it wasn't marketed as such, Berry Blue was indeed a color changing Kool-Aid.''
Matt
