Whether it’s good music, good food or good people, there are some things in life we want to enjoy right now and today I craved lemonade.

I was so thirsty this afternoon in Cleveland, Tennessee, where temps hit around 80 degrees Fahrenheit, I thought about Chick-fil-A lemonade and suddenly I just had to go buy a cup full of refreshment. I rarely drink lemonade, but Chick-fil-A lemonade is a treat to try if you want to, especially in summertime.

As lemonade goes, this was perfect lemonade. Just the right amounts of lemon juice, water, sugar and crushed ice to make your heart glad while you sit in a hot car or even a cool car or at a library or wherever you want to just relax a little. The young lady who waited on me at the fast-food restaurant drive-through was one of the sweetest and she wished me a good day and I wished her one back while we took part in a little lemonade ritual.

The refreshment sat in the cup holder just waitin’ for me to take a sip. I tore the paper off the straw and what can I say? The icy sip of tart sweet drink just made my day. I drank it all down to the last cold wonderful drop.

Chick-fil-A goes to lots of trouble to keep its customers happy and the lemonade is an example. According to the restaurant’s website, it takes four pints of freshly-squeezed lemon juice to make one urn full of Chick-fil-A lemonade.

If you want to learn more about lemonade in general, go to Clifford A. Wright’s website, a “premier source” of food facts. At the site, I learned the first uses of lemons were as ornamental plants in early Islamic gardens. The earliest written evidence of lemonade comes from Egypt. There are records of medieval Jewish communities where lemonade was enjoyed and exported.

Lemonade was brought to America by European settlers and markets expanded for cold drinks when the ice trade started in the mid-19th century, according to www.foodtimeline.org. Lemonade was a special treat in America during the Temperance movement that outlawed alcohol.

The food timeline goes on to quote from The Grocer‘s Companion and Merchants Handbook New England Grocery Boston 1883: “Lemonade is a beverage made for the purpose of allaying thirst.”

That’s an understatement if I ever heard one, because today’s lemonade not only quenched my thirst, but blessed my soul. I hope you can enjoy a nice cold glass of lemonade soon, with plenty of ice and maybe an elegant slice of bright lemon. Ahhh…nothin’ quite like it on a balmy day.