Tuesday, March 21, 2006

I Have Gas...Finally!

No, it's not what you think. What I'm actually talking about is the gas that's in a bottle of San Pellegrino water. Has anybody else noticed lately that the San Pellegrino has been a bit...flat? I sure have.
Yes, San Pellegrino is my water of choice at dinner. I like it cold with a slice of lemon. But most of all - I like it REALLY FIZZY ! Mrs. TBF, on the other hand, usually drinks still water (Volvic) with dinner (although she also likes S.P.) - also with a slice of lemon, but at room temperature. Hmm...I guess opposites really do attract.
During the day, I usually drink water either from the tap (Hell...at the gym I drink it from the hose that the cleaning lady uses to spray down the shower area!) or from a pitcher with a Brita filter (A lot of the bottled water sold in stores is just filtered tap water anyway.). I read an article recently that all the bottled water we're drinking is causing huge amounts of garbage, so I try to be a good citizen of the environment by only drinking bottled water with dinner. Plus, I always recycle the plastic bottles at the grocery store. Gee...aren't I swell? Actually, I don't really give a shit about plastic bottles piling up in landfills. That's your great-grandkid's problem. Gee...aren't I a prick? Yup...I think so too!
By the way, I just want to go on record as saying that I don't believe all that marketing tripe about it being important to drink mineral water in order to get all the minerals our bodies need. The purpose of drinking water is hydration...PERIOD! If you wan't to make sure you're getting all your supposedly essential trace minerals, take a friggin' multi-vitamin.
So gettin' back to the San Pellegrino...
About two or three months ago, I noticed that S.P.'s bottles suddenly had labels that showed we were now drinking the "Winter Edition" - whatever that means. Around the same time, I noticed that the water was suddenly very flat. And, if the S.P.'s not fizzy, WTF is the point?
At first, I thought that maybe we just had a faulty bottle or two. Mrs. TBF thought that we should buy smaller bottles (HOORAY, MORE GARBAGE!!! SCREW THE FUTURE GENERATIONS!!). I bought the 1 liter bottles instead of the 1.5 liter bottles, but the water was still kind of flat. Then, I even tried a couple of 1/2 liter bottles. Yup, you guessed it...still flat. This problem went on and on until this past weekend. I bought 1.5 liter bottles for our dinner party, and I noticed that the water was once again super fizzy. I happened to look at the label this evening, and I noticed that we are no longer being blessed with the "Winter Edition". Coincidence? Maybe...maybe not. Perhaps the carbonation is reduced for the "Winter Edition". Why our Italian friends at S.P. would think we would want this done is beyond me, and probably not the case.
A more likely reason, in my opinion, is that the temperature has suddenly risen in the past week or so and the S.P. is not freezing up in the back of the delivery trucks. Could freezing and thawing of my acqua minerale naturale frizzante be to blame? I'm not a chemist, so I don't know and I don't care. All I know is that I once again have fizzy water, and I'm happy about it.
Got gas? Si!

9 comments:

Ms Mac said...

I am Mrs TBF on the rm temp fizzy stuff. I love fizzy water and drink it all day long but infinitely prefer it unrefrigerated!

Once I opened a botlle of water, didn't notice the lack of "Fssss" when I cracked it but when I tasted it I thought it was revolting. Couldn't work out what had happened until I saw my oldest sniggering in the corner. He'd only gone and refilled a water bottle with tap water and stuck it with the rest. Blechhh! I must have bubbles!

christina said...

I'm not a scientist, nor do I play one on TV, but a few weeks ago during all the birthday fun, we had a case of mixed soft drinks sitting out in the freezing cold on the terrace and they all went flat *really* fast. You may be on to something there.

And you're right, it really is crap about needing to drink mineral water. Water is water, some tastes better than others, but it's all the same thing. I've taken to drinking tap water because my husband works for the hydro company and they say the water is purer than the bottled stuff. We do buy a lot of carbonated mineral water though, and if it's not bubbly enough, it's awful.

Unknown said...

Every time I'd refrig the fizzy water, it would go flat very fast. So yes the cold could have been a factor, at least I'd like to think that also...

By the way, my fav is SP but it's so pricey here and hard to find, so I stick to brita or some fake replica of SP. cold warm, don't care...just like the fizz.

Bobby The C said...

We watch this kid's program here in the states with this english dude who tries to uncover myths. He did chemical testing with bottled water against plain old tap water. Guess what? The bottled water had infinitely more germs/contaminates etc... than plain old tap. However, the tap water tastes more like chlorine. I truly prefer tap water but drink bottled if offered. While traveling for work in EU this past year, I was continually asked , "Sir, would you prefer your water with or without gas?", I enjoyed answering "I think I'll fart after I drink it." I did like the "with gas" water though. Damn good.

CanadianSwiss said...

San P seems to be everybody's favorite. As a matter of fact, I love all kinds of fizzy stuff: water, champagne, beer (especially in summer).

Anonymous said...

At first reading I thought you meant a different sort of gas entirely!

Michael Lehet said...

Isn't SP naturally fizzy (meaning they don't add co2 to it)?

I wonder if it temp/season has something to do with the amount that is naturally occurring so that's why they have the "winter version"

The DP said...

my husband is all about the lime flavored perrier. me, i don't know about the tap water in basel, but what we had in Zurich was darn tasty, and what we have in Pully I could put in a bottle and sell it. So I just do like all my fellow stupid americans and throw my tap water in a sigg bottle. yum yum. I am on vacation right now and I MISS my tap water in Pully.

Anonymous said...

Well I might be too frenchy but
San pelegrino is my last resource...I prefer Lime perrier because SP leave a salty aftertaste and it get worse with a plastic bottle sold at Migros....
Some of you might say 'But is it normal that SP is salty' my answer: NO it contains far too much sodium. I alsways like physi water but Perrier is definitely the one with no aftertaste and refreshing...Sorry
Sam