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naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   3319 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for March 26, 2023

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A few months ago I mentioned at work that I drink a lot of grape juice with seltzer (carbonated) water as a kind of ersatz grape soda, and my coworkers gave me weird looks. Is this a strange use for seltzer water? My mother got me into the habit many years ago.

Now that I think of it, I have no idea what any other uses of seltzer water could be in the first place. It obviously doesn't taste particularly good if drunk straight. Wikipedia and Google seem to suggest that its primary use is for mixing alcoholic drinks (as seen in at least one Three Stooges film), with some alternative applications to cooking and cleaning, but that all seems too niche for Costco to be selling gigantic cases of it. What do you use seltzer water for?

Funny, I just recently got myself a carbonating machine as a reward for myself for my new postdoc position. Where I'm from, it's normal to drink essentially nothing but carbonated water; Before I had the machine, buying & transporting the bottles was a huge pain. I wouldn't drink uncarbonated water, it tastes terrible to me (on top of the fact that local water here is very hard & carbonation cancels that out to some degree).

Europeans seem to drink a lot of carbonated water, given as in almost every restaurant there if I order water I get asked if I want still or carbonated. So maybe in the US people of the same descent do the same? I used to drink a lot of carbonated water when we had our own carbonating machine, but that broke long ago and I'm lazier now, so I just prefer tea. But when I did, I didn't find the taste too off-putting.

I drink it strait, German-style. I also mix it with fruit juices, again, German-style, although these days it's mostly lime or lemon to cut down on carbs. It's strange that German-Americans didn't import this practice into the US.

It's strange that German-Americans didn't import this practice into the US.

What makes you think they didn't? It's pretty common in the midwest in some communities for example. I think it's relative lack of notoriety is more a case of its competitors (ie, Coke, Pepsi) having enormous marketing budgets and the younger generations not having any attachment to it beyond seeing their parents drink it.

La croix and other flavored seltzers are hugely popular among yuppies.

If only they could say "croix" correctly.

Sounds like "croy"?

kwuh

I used to drink a lot of carbonated water before I got on the Cococola Zero train. Now I just stick to Coke Zero. Honestly can't tell the difference between real coke and zero, and if I drank as much of the real stuff, I would be obese by now.

You can also use carbonated water for a crispier batter for deep frying.

Drinking seltzer water straight is pretty common in Europe and Latin America, but I suppose some Americans are only familiar with it as an ingredient in mixed alcoholic drinks. Making your own soda, shrubs, or something like a sekahnjebin are all perfectly fine uses, whether you have some oversweetened juice that needs to be diluted, some overripe fruit that needs to be used up, or just want a refreshing drink.

I don't drink it personally, but my girlfriend uses it the same way you do: make fizzy juice. And mixed drinks sometimes, but usually juice.

I don’t personally drink seltzer water straight, being the backwards redneck that I am, but I see hipsters drinking it straight all the time. Well, either that or filling the bottle up with something else.

Currants, especially black, are one thing I really miss from childhood and they're stupidly rare in the US

If I remember correctly, currants a host to some disease or pest that is really devastating to native American flora, so all currant products are imported.

IIRC some of the CO2 dissolves into acid giving it a slight sour taste.

Conversely, I find seltzer on its own terrible. Tastes like chalk to me.

Huh, one of the reasons to drink carbonated as opposed to uncarbonated water is that it makes hard water taste less chalk-y.

When I huff straight nitrogen I get dizzy

I mix those little squeeze bottles of drink flavorings with mineral water for my ersatz sodas. I also drink it by itself.

I mix it with shrubs as an alternative to sodas.

I think it tastes great by itself.

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