Making lemonade is quite easy.
Ingredients:
1 cup sugar
1 cup water
4~6 lemons
3~4 cup cold water (to dilute)
Firstly, dissolve the sugar in 1 cup of water to make syrup. If the sugar does not fully dissolve, warm the water a little.
While the sugar dissolves, juice the lemons until about 1 cup of lemon juice is collected.
Mix the lemon juice with the sugar syrup, then add an appropriate amount of water. The key point is to get the ratio just right to balance the sweetness and sourness.
Then, pour the mixture into a pitcher and put it in the refrigerator. Cool for 30~40 minutes. A cool summer drink can be made this easily.
In Western countries such as the USA, it is quite common to see children selling lemonade in a cup at a stand on the streets. It is quite popular as the children get to pretend running a large business while earning some pocket money.
How much profit will a business that sells a cup of lemonade at 10~50 cents (USD) make? (for convenience’s sake, NZD will be used with New Zealand prices in 2010)
If the above ingredients makes 2L of lemonade, and the cost of cups are included:
Ingredients: ($0.85 x 6) + ($1.49 x 0.5) + ($1.69 x 2) = $9.23 (lemon, sugar, cups)
One cup holds about 100ml, so 2L makes about 20 cups of lemonade. This means the cost of producing one cup of lemonade is: $9.23/20 = $0.46
Therefore, if a child wants to make any profit, he/she needs to sell the lemonade at least 50c a cup (about 38c USD). This makes a profit of 4 cents per cup, and the child earns less than $1 per pitcher of lemonade sold.