It turns out I make really shit coffee. 

It’s been 2 months of lockdown here in New Zealand and amongst the many things I have learnt about myself, is that I have no future as a barista.

Luckily due to New Zealand’s response, we are now in our second week of level 3 and this means that I can now go out and get my regular flat white from my local which means that I don’t have to rely on the tar I have called coffee up until now.

Not only is this great for me and my caffeine addiction but it is fantastic for all the local businesses here that are just trying to survive. But the reality is this new level 3 economy is a little different. Most of the places that relied on the noise of laughter filling their premises now have to rely on only selling their wares using tables situated at their entrance to maintain social distancing with no ambience at all.

Basically, now every shop or cafe is a “walk-through” with people waiting around on the pavement for their orders. So, there I was sitting waiting for a flat white when my mind drifted to a time where selling stuff on a table outside your home was a right of passage for every young kid. It was either that or washing cars to make some extra cash to buy that skateboard or BMX you had your eye on.

And in places like America, you cannot get more American than the right of passage of selling lemonade from your lemonade stand on your local street corner.

Fast forward to 2020, now local businesses have to create their very own makeshift “lemonade stands” to keep their businesses going but not so long ago in America, the lemonade stand that was the foundation for budding entrepreneurs countrywide were being shut down one by one.

In 2017 the police in America were cracking down on those filthy lemonade stands, mostly run by 6-year-old wannabe world-dominating entrepreneurs, and shutting them down. Why? Well, they didn’t follow the rules, they didn’t have the necessary permits to trade and to make matters worse they didn’t pay the local councils the exorbitant fees they required to get those said permits.

How dare the money-grabbing six-year-olds for skirting around the law to make an extra buck here and there to buy bikes and skateboards. 

Who do they think they are?

So there they were, daily the kids were fighting for survival to make a living and with their stands being shut down one by one and it seemed as though there was no hope left for them. The future lemonade kingpins were about to concede defeat when out of nowhere a knight in shining amour appeared.

Ok, not a real knight in armour, but rather a group of pinstripe suited lawyers carrying tanned leather briefcases dressed to the nines. This eloquence of lawyers walked through neighbourhoods fighting for what makes America, America. Lemonade and Justice.

They didn’t just appear out of nowhere as this was the brainchild of a brand called Country Time, which is America’s leading lemonade brand and when they saw the fabric of American society being threatened they decided they needed to do something about it.

Introducing, Legal-ade by Country Time.

An idea that sits right at the heart of what the brand believed in, lemonade and the freedom to sell lemonade. Country Time saw what was happening and as the lemonade godfather, they decided to do something about it. And just like anything in America when you have a problem, you lawyer up. They took it upon themselves to defend lemonade rights and the kids selling them. They would do whatever was needed to keep the lemonade economy flowing.

They created a TV campaign to introduce the Legal-ade team and vowed to right this injustice that was happening on the streets of America. They created stickers for the kids to place onto their stands to show police officers they were protected and had the might of the law defending their rights to trade there. They took councils to court, they paid the fines and even applied for permits so the kids would be able to trade.

As you can imagine this was picked up by pretty much every news channel and quickly became a popular discussion on every street corner across America. Even the likes of Chelsea Clinton and Anderson Cooper jumped onto the discussion defending the rights of lemonade stands for all and championing a change to the law.

And it worked as they even managed to help change the law in certain states. The state of Colorado declared that all lemonade stands had the right to sell their tasty lemonade without a license and should continue to do so without the fear of persecution followed by New York and Texas.

Not only was this a great campaign but it was a campaign that helped shine a light on a ridiculous rule in which it eventually it helped change.

And with thanks to Country time, justice has been served and it has never tasted this sweet.

I Wish I Had Done That

Gary