The Sweet And Tangy Southern Delicacy That Combines Pickles With A Popular Drink Mix

Kool-Aid fans can rejoice because Kool-Aid pickles are real. Koolickles — a portmanteau of Kool-Aid and pickles — are made by adding your favorite flavor of this sugary drink mix into a jar of store-bought dill pickles. 

In terms of taste, Koolickles are on par with eating bread and butter pickles, a type of sweet pickle. They're sugary and tangy, and once you try one, you may find it difficult to stop eating. If you live or travel within certain regions, you can purchase them at gas stations. They call the Mississippi Delta their point of origin (and their home), though the exact location and individual who concocted this colorful creation is unknown. They're also becoming popular in the American South in general. 

But if you can't buy them, you can at least make them at home. And this Southern favorite is definitely worth adding to your bucket list.

Making Kool-Aid pickles starts with a 32-ounce jar of your favorite brand of dill pickles, an unsweetened packet of the flavored Kool-Aid of your choice, and some sugar. You can use spears, chips, or whole pickles, but the unsweetened Kool-Aid varieties work best. When choosing your Kool-Aid flavor, flavors with colors in the red spectrum tend to be popular as much for their striking appearance as their bold flavor. Cherry and tropical punch are go-tos, but grape, lime, blue raspberry, and orange produce striking colors as well. 

But don't get too excited yet. This delicacy requires patience. The pickles must soak for three to five days to fully absorb the flavor and color. It's best to shake the jar every other day to ensure the Kool-Aid and sugar dissolve in the pickle juice and the pickles absorb all that goodness. They're ready to eat when their color becomes vibrant and a little surreal.

When your Koolickles are ready to eat, be prepared for a mouth-puckering event. The tart and sweet flavors hit the mouth in a powerful way. This is a fun way to upgrade those store-bought pickles and give them new life, though you can use homemade pickles too. When they're done, you can nosh on them as a snack, chop them up for a colorful addition to tuna salad, or make a rainbow relish. Kool-Aid pickles last up to two months when stored in the fridge — provided you don't eat them all first.