Sparkling water

[hotwine]

I was at a loss to know where to put this.

In the last couple of years, I've really developed a taste, almost a need, for sparkling water. It was common in Europe years ago to see the locals drink the stuff with their meals, but I never thought that I would do the same. Yet now nothing else seems quite so refreshing, especially in the depths of summer, as an ice-cold bottle of European sparkling water. It's wonderful as a palate-cleanser, as an energy booster, as an all-around gulper when the mercury has roared past 100 enroute to hell. I favor the German water Gerolsteiner, but frequently order the Italian Pelligrino in a restarant, due to its wider availability.

Don't know how many of you have found that tonic for yourselves, but if you haven't, I sure heartily recommend it.

[Innkeeper]

When we were over in Croatia and Medjugorje in June we found all the sparkling water to be too salty. So, everytime we ordered water, we had had to insist "no fizz."

[hotwine]

I just checked the label on Gerolsteiner and it has 30 mg sodium per 240 ml (8 fl oz). Debra says it tastes salty to her, so she doesn't care for it; but she doesn't sweat like a flogged mule, like I do. It's probably the sodium that my bod is saying it needs in this stuff. I'm drinking about a liter a day, and buying it by the 12 liter case at $0.99/liter btl.

[Thomas]

I have loved thirst-quenching sparkling water since childhood. Today I get my sparkling water from the tap. I bought me a seltzer bottle, keep a supply of CO2 cartridges on hand, and make it up each day from filtered water.

I am in fact sipping a sparkling water right now, but this time it has a slice of lime and a large dash of Campari in it...talk about beating the heat.

[mrdutton]

Beside the Gin and Tonic, the Compari and Soda is my second favorite all-around summertime thirst quencher.

Have you ever had a Negroni?

[This message has been edited by mrdutton (edited 08-11-2001).]

[Thomas]

Yes, I have--nice.

[Bucko]

Gil, the closest that I get to sparkling water is that stuff that has hops in it..... [img]http://www.wines.com/ubb2/biggrin.gif[/img]

Bucko

[winecollector]

Same here Bucko

[hotwine]

When was the last time you guys drank a Chateau Budweiser AND a bottle of wine during the same meal? I can enjoy both the sparkler and the wine at dinner, without being booked into AA.

The last time I drank beer for refreshment while working outside, I was building a cedar rail fence along the front of a new property I had recently bought. With each 10-foot section, I had another beer. By the time I reached the far corner 130 feet away, that was the damnedest-lookin' fenceline you ever saw! One end was off-line from the other by a good six feet, with lots of zigs and zags along the way. The fellow who bought the tract got such a kick out of that fence, he kept it, and it's still there some 15 years later. I have to look at it whenever I drive by that way. That was in the mid-80's, and I learned from that to stick with water while working outside.

[Thomas]

...sparkling water, I hope, for such a sparkling good story.

Don't let Bucko get to you. He likes to pound his chest every so often--proves all the alcohol hasn't diminished his testosterone level. or so he thinks...

[Bucko]

I like to mix the Bud WITH the wine. Nothing better than a Cab shooter...... [img]http://www.wines.com/ubb2/biggrin.gif[/img] Pay no attention to Foodie. The heat wave has him addled. <smooch>

BuckBooze

[Innkeeper]

Would think that after one dehydrated oneself with some consumption of beer and wine, the last thing one would want to do is add salt to one's water.

[hotwine]

I'm still embarrassed by that fence.

[wondersofwine]

I don't care for sparkling water or mineral water so have to specify my preference in some restaurants. And woe is me if I forget to ask for "unsweetened tea" in North Carolina. I gag on the sweet tea! Someone said they can't believe I've lived here for seven years and still don't drink sweet tea. Well, it could be forty years and I would still want it unsweetened.

[Thomas]

Biggest shock I ever got in my life is the way they serve tea in England. I always thought it was veddy, veddy Briddish to drink one's tea BLACK and DRY. Oh my, was I wrong. The stuff they consume is white with milk and thick with sugar, and I could spend the rest of my life there but would never warm to that custom. Yet, I like the fizzy water in Italy--if you try drinking the stuff that comes from the tap, you would also grow to like the fizzy water in Italy.

[hotwine]

That's a good point, Foodie. Reminds me of the W.C. Fields line, "Do you know what fish do in that stuff?"

[winoweenie]

Sparkling WATER? Oh Yeah, I bemember! Thats what you wash your new vehicles wif' WW

[Botafogo]

We feel so strongly about this that we are now distributors for Lurisia sparkling water from Piemonte.....

But I LOVE Gerolsteiner, Roberto

PS: My girlfriend calls me "senhor agua com gas" (pronounced gaayyyssshhh em Portugues)

[This message has been edited by Botafogo (edited 08-18-2001).]