Club Soda

**WheeledGoat** · 10-17-2008, 02:29 PM

I'm wondering about making club soda - on the side of the bottles my wife buys & drinks, it just says "carbonated water" (+ some salts for preserving & pH...) but SWMBO insists club soda is more than just carbonated water.

is she thinking 'tonic water' ? i found this thread on that...

anybody with some ideas or thoughts for me?

Timekiller · 10-17-2008, 02:57 PM

Wiki - Carbonated Water

Quote:

In the past, soda water, also known as club soda, was produced in the home by "charging" a refillable seltzer bottle by filling it with water and then adding carbon dioxide. Club soda may be identical to plain carbonated water or it may contain a small amount of table salt, sodium citrate, sodium bicarbonate, potassium bicarbonate, potassium sulfate, or disodium phosphate, depending on the bottler. These additives are included to emulate the slightly salty taste of homemade soda water. The process can also occur naturally to produce carbonated mineral water, such as in Mihalkovo in the Bulgarian Rhodopes.

Yup, sounds like carb-ed water to me!

and,

Tonic Water

Quote:

Tonic water (or Indian tonic water) is a carbonated soft drink flavored with quinine, which gives it a distinctively bitter taste.

**WheeledGoat** · 10-17-2008, 06:35 PM

thanks for doing the wiki searching, TimeKiller! I thought maybe there was some insider-knowledge so far as home-"brewing" club soda / tonic water.

if they're the same, (and I don't doubt you or wiki, necessarily), but if they're the same, why can you find bottles from the same distributer side by side on the shelf, one labelled "club soda" and the other labelled "tonic water" ?? it's probably a marketing thing....

hmmmm!

**Revvy** · 10-17-2008, 06:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by WheeledGoat

thanks for doing the wiki searching, TimeKiller! I thought maybe there was some insider-knowledge so far as home-"brewing" club soda / tonic water.

if they're the same, (and I don't doubt you or wiki, necessarily), but if they're the same, why can you find bottles from the same distributer side by side on the shelf, one labelled "club soda" and the other labelled "tonic water" ?? it's probably a marketing thing....

hmmmm!

You're miss reading what he wrote..they are NOT the same thing. Tonic water has quinine in it, and has a bitter taste, as opposed to clubsoda, which may be salty or not, but is fizzy, and NOT bitter.

Quote:

Tonic Water is a carbonated soft drink flavored with quinine, which gives it a distinctively bitter taste.

The drink has garnered its name from the medicinal effects of this bitter flavoring. The quinine was added to the drink as a prophylactic against malaria, since it was originally intended for consumption in tropical areas of South Asia and Africa where that disease is endemic. The mixed drink gin and tonic originated in British colonial India when the British population would mix their medicinal quinine tonic with gin to make it more palatable.

Medicinal tonic water originally contained only carbonated water and a large amount of quinine. However, most tonic water today contains a medically insignificant amount of quinine, and is thus used for its flavor only. It is consequently less bitter, and is also usually sweetened. Some manufacturers also produce diet tonic water. In the United States, the Food and Drug Administration limits the quinine content in tonic water to 83 ppm (83 mg per liter if calculated by mass), which is 0.25% to 0.50% of the concentration used in therapeutic tonic.

Tonic water is often used as a drink mixer for cocktails, especially those made with gin (for example, a gin and tonic). Tonic water with lemon or lime flavor added is known as bitter lemon or bitter lime, respectively. Such soft drinks are more popular in Europe than in the United States.

Tonic water will fluoresce under ultraviolet light, due to the presence of quinine. In fact, the sensitivity of quinine to ultraviolet light (UV) is such that it will fluoresce in direct sunlight.

Sprinkling a pinch of salt into a glass of tonic water will mask the bitterness of tonic water.

**WheeledGoat** · 10-17-2008, 07:24 PM

durrrr... thanks, Revvy. maybe i should stop reading the forums at work inbetween stuff...

Timekiller · 10-17-2008, 08:34 PM

Hey, no problem! I should have made my post a bit clearer, I guess I was still a bit asleep this morning. Thanks for clearing that up Revvy

**david_42** · 10-18-2008, 02:27 PM

I keep a keg of carbonated water on tap. My tap water has very few minerals in it and due to my blood pressure, I don't add any salt. I buy soda concentrates from sodaclub, but most of the time, I just drink the fizzy water.