Lemons probably first grew in northeast India and southern China, then spread west along trade routes. By around 1000 AD, people in Egypt were making a sweetened lemon drink called qatarmizat, which was sold in glass bottles and sometimes mixed with sugar from cane fields along the Nile.
The drink slowly travelled north into Europe. By the 1670s, Paris had an entire guild of “limonadiers” - street vendors who walked around with metal tanks of lemonade strapped to their backs, dispensing cups to thirsty Parisians. The vendors became so popular that some historians credit them with helping fight off a plague outbreak, because the citric acid killed germs in cups and on hands.
Lemonade reached America with European settlers and became a summertime tradition. The classic kid-run lemonade stand became a symbol of American summer, although a fancier carbonated “lemon soda” eventually became more popular. Today the drink ranges from cloudy homemade versions to bright pink supermarket fizzes - all from the same sour yellow fruit.
