Oct 25, 2019 Drinks
Tess Nichol gets back into an old childhood favourite.
There’s a man in a black and white tuxedo, and his head is out of frame. On the TV screen he’s pouring a drink into a higball glass and the ice cubes rattle and the liquid fizzes audibly and it all looks so refreshing and then the guy (presumably it’s the guy, the voice comes from off screen) says either “water with a touch of class” or something very similar to that.
This is my memory of the early 2000s TV ad for Schweppes soda water with a twist of lemon, and it’s vivid. Did I confuse it with an ad for something else? Quite possibly. Did I make it up entirely, an amalgamation of a million other ads I passively consumed as a child which have warped and combined in my memory into one Frankenstein super-ad? Also possible. But so-called facts aside, the point I’m trying to make is this fizzy water makes you feel classy as hell when you have a little sip on it.
When I was younger my mum was very preoccupied with our dental health, which meant we hardly ever had Coke or sweets at home but we did consume an extraordinary amount of Extra Gum for Kids and fizzy water (would like to take this moment to thank my mum for my extremely strong and healthy adult teeth).
Schweppes with a twist of lemon is kiiiind of like a soft drink, and I used to guzzle it whenever we had a bottle at home. As an adult, I can’t get enough of that fizzy water and would drink it exclusively over tap water if I could (I’m still guts there doesn’t seem to be a BDS-friendly alternative to SodaStream, please DM if you know of any, and please do not DM about any other part of what’s in these parentheses), but I had completely forgotten about the existence of the lemon twist until about a week ago when a friend brought it round to drink with dinner.
I’ve gotta say, it still hits the spot: tart as you sip then a little sweet on the aftertaste, it really adds that special something to a nice glass of fizz. It’s not gauche like the sweet syrup of a soft drink, it’s still water so it’s healthy. It’s a pale yellow colour which is a little disconcerting but hey, you can’t have everything. As the motto may or may not have ever gone: it’s water with a touch of class.
I also love LaCroix Pamplemousse, but who needs another online piece about that.
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