Rant #3,169: Tiny Bubbles

During this rough patch in my life, and with the weather seemingly in the 90s each and every day, sometimes I go a little overboard in what I am drinking, but I do try to keep it on some level of sanity by imbibing as much water as I can.

Some days, I admittedly drown myself in soda, preferably Coca-Cola.

I love the drink, and since the pandemic and since I supposedly had COVID, I have found that my appreciation for the beverage is even greater, because I can actually taste what I am pouring down my throat as good as, or better, than ever.

I cannot explain it, but over the past many months since I supposedly had the ailment—for less than a day, maybe 12 hours, and yes, I think I was misdiagnosed—I have a keener set of taste buds when it comes to certain foods and drinks, and I can actually taste Coca-Cola at a higher level.

Some people lost their sense of taste when they contracted the coronavirus … me, if I even had it, it made my sense of taste even keener.

Go figure …

But back to water …

I actually hate to drink water, unless it is frozen or as cold as it can possibly be.

Otherwise, it does absolutely nothing for me, other than properly hydrate my body.

If I am going to drink water, I prefer seltzer, which is basically carbonated water.

I have always enjoyed seltzer.

As a kid, we used to have the REAL seltzer delivered—the one in those old fashioned thick bottles where you had to posh a metal plunger to get the seltzer out of the bottle—and that product was just so good to my taste buds as the bubbles hit my tongue.

Although a couple of companies still produce that type of seltzer, they are few and far between, and the delivery is very expensive.

(And yes, they use those old fashioned thick glass bottles, too.)

So instead of the REAL thing, I drink the much more accessible and admittedly cheaper and not as good Poland Spring seltzer.

It is an OK substitute for the REAL thing.

Poland Spring water is the best available anyway, so using that water and having it carbonated is a plus.

The carbonation doesn’t last as long as the REAL thing, and it doesn’t hit your taste buds with the same thump as that type of seltzer does each and every time.

You probably can’t make a real egg cream—I hope you know what that is—with the Poland Primo seltzer.

Those negatives aside, it is better than any other seltzer on the market right now in my opinion, so that is my water/seltzer of choice.

And I do not like the flavored seltzers at all.

The flavor tastes totally artificial, and there is a bad after taste with those flavored seltzers, so I just stick with the unflavored one—

And I notice that many other people seem to feel the same way I do, as each and every time I go to the supermarket to buy more Poland Spring seltzer, the flavored seltzers are plentiful and just sitting there ready to be taken, but you have to really search for the unflavored variety, which probably sells at a faster rate than its flavored counterparts.

I mean, if you want orange or grape-flavored seltzer, you might as well buy orange and grape-favored soda, because I think you are defeating the purpose of buying a water drink if it is flavored, kind of kidding yourself into thinking that you are helping yourself when you really aren’t.

I will always prefer soda as a beverage—and Coca-Cola specifically—in particular during the summer.

But I know that you do not hydrate yourself when you drink soda, and I have had a couple of incidents in my life where I wasn’t hydrated and the after effects were not good.

Just this past Friday into Saturday, I had too much soda in my seystem, and until I fully hydrated myself with water, I felt a step behind myself.

Once I was hydrated, I was fine,and later in the day, I could even have some soda mixed in.

So if I have to drink water, it has to be seltzer, period.

(I just love those tiny bubbles!)