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A Primer on Sparkling Water
By OnTopic | December 17, 2009
Sparkling water: it sounds like something shiny and bright and certainly too complicated to make. Sparkling water, sometimes called carbonated water, is also known as seltzer water. But it is just ordinary water to which carbon dioxide gas has been added. This is the major component of soft drinks. This process — adding carbon dioxide gas — forms carbonic acid and this is what gives all these drinks, including soft drinks, that fizzy taste.
Sparkling water is not always mineral water, but is considered by most people to be just that; but mineral water is classified as water containing more than 250 parts per million of dissolved minerals. So, some mineral water can be classified sparkling water when carbonated, but not all sparkling water can be called mineral water.
It is believed that the practice of carbonating water began sometime in the 1800’s. A brewer made the discovery that when passing water over fermenting beer a very interesting taste was made.
Today, pressurized CO2 is put into bottles, or can be made with a soda maker at home or in bars and restaurants. When the bottle is opened, pressure is released, and bubbles form. As anyone knows, if you open up a shaken bottle of sparkling water, the water will make a considerable mess as it exits the bottle. This happens with soda pop, as well.
Soda gets its famous fizz from the very same process. Recently, a discovery was made by (I would assume) some kids with nothing else to do. This inventive individual mixed Mentos breath mints with the aspartame from a diet soda. This causes the CO2 to react violently and shoot straight up rapidly out of the bottle until all the fluid is gone. This little experiment may impress the kids, but it ‘s a bit messy, so I advise against it. As an alternative, you can go to YouTube and find hundreds of videos of others doing it – often in some very creative ways.
Sparkling water was once used as a drink to cure stomach maladies. However, now most doctors recommend that people with acid reflux or other chronic stomach problems avoid sparkling water. But it can still be helpful in calming nausea.
Sparkling water can also be made at home by filling a reusable seltzer bottle with water, and then infusing it with carbon dioxide. A large assortment of calorie free flavors to flavor sparkling water to great taste is sold at allfreightfree.com.
There are sparkling waters from sources which cause natural carbonation. There is a brand of sparkling mineral water with 100% carbonic acid from the source; this means that no CO2 is added to the water. The brand comes from an area with notable volcanic activity. Due to the fact that the magma gives off carbon dioxide, the water there is rich in minerals. This combines with the water to increase the solubility of the minerals. Naturally carbonated sparkling water is the result and is considered quite delicious and is also very famous.
So now you know everything you wanted to know about sparkling water and making a refreshing calorie free beverage.
Topics: Food And Drink | No Comments »