Cocktails with Soda water
Soda water is water made effervescent by dissolving carbon dioxide gas into it under pressure.
Taste profile
Clean and neutral, with a faint carbonic prickle from the dissolved gas and no sweetness or flavour of its own.
How it's used
Lengthening and lifting a build, it is poured to top a drink and add effervescence, its bubbles carrying a light texture without altering flavour; added last so the carbonation is not lost.
Substitutes for Soda water
Any neutral carbonated water works — the effervescence is non-negotiable, so the substitute must be fizzy and unsweetened; still water fails for lack of bubbles, and a sweetened or flavoured sparkling drink fails by adding taste soda water deliberately lacks.
Often confused with
Natural sparkling mineral water
Soda water is plain water carbonated artificially (and, as club soda, dosed with mineral salts); natural sparkling mineral water is drawn from a spring or well, with its mineral content and sometimes its effervescence occurring naturally at source.
Tonic water is carbonated water flavoured with quinine and sweetened with sugar, whereas soda water is unsweetened and unflavoured apart from any mineral salts.
