For the love of bubbles

It’s no coincidence that the popping of champagne corks is synonymous with having fun, because our bodies are hardwired to love bubbles. The News spoke to experts to find out some things we didn’t know about bubbles.

Seven things you didn’t know about bubbles:

• The British developed a taste for French bubbly wine and established a market for the sparkling version of Champagne.

• The British fascination with effervescent drinks also led to the breakthrough that would become the basis for most of today’s soft drinks.

• Contrary to what many people assume, it was an Englishman and not an American, who first discovered how to infuse water with carbon dioxide to make carbonated water.

• Over 100 years before Coca Cola came on the scene, Joseph Priestly suspended a bowl of water over a beer vat. He found that the carbonated or soda water had a pleasant taste and gave it to his friends for refreshment.

• Johann Jacob Schweppe started the Scheweppes Company after experimenting with different ways to make carbonated water. His drinks gained popularity among the bubble-obsessed Brits and he soon became the official supplier to the royal family.

• The SodaStream company was formed in 1903, and sold the apparatus for aerating liquids to royalty and upper-class families, thus allowing butlers to make soda water for their employers and visitors.

• Later on, the company developed flavour concentrates and gained a royal warrant to supply syrups for the Royal Yacht, Britannia.

So why do we love bubbles?

Ultimately, it’s the contention that bubbles are better which spans cultures and has endured for decades.Why? After nearly 250 years, it can’t just be the novelty of fizz. Part of the reason is that the bubbles bring the flavour and aroma of the drink to the surface, but scientists now think there’s another reason why bubbles equal pleasure.

They have found an enzyme on the sour receptors of our tongues called Carbonic Anhydrase 4 that is stimulated by the bubbles.The somatosensory system is also stimulated by bubbles and the dual activation on the buds and the nerves creates a pleasurable sensation.

Even though Dom Perignon may have disagreed, the fact is that for most people, bubbles are just better.

Do you perhaps have more information pertaining to this story? Email us at krugersdorpnews@caxton.co.za or phone us on 011 955 1130.

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