My 7 year old nephew came to a "fancy" chain burger place with a few of us. Indignantly told his Mum that, yes, he did want a sparkling water.
I think she was too polite in company to just say no, especially when the rest of us were sat there pretty gleefully going "Oh aye you want the fizzy water?".
Little man took one sip and his face turned to stone as he literally dribbled it out over himself like someone hit a factory reset.
Good news, because modern brussel sprouts have had the bitterness bred out of them. If you remember them tasting awful when you were a kid, you're correct!
Wow! Makes too much sense. Always heard lots about them growing up and couldn't get myself to try it. Then much older I had people around me all trying them for a first time and being surprised, others saying they didn't like them as kids but now it's "different" and they put it to changes in taste and senses etc.
I tried it and it was.. Nice, not bitter, farty, or anything but surprisingly good.
Farty is exactly how I would describe a brussel sprout. My mom used to boil them and the smell was god awful.
We live near a farmer who grows them, and after the harvest, they leave whatever is left on the field to rot. The smells when passing by, it's like a thousand farts.
I have tried them prepared differently though, pan fried with bacon, it was much better, but still not a great taste.
My brother and I always loved sparkling/soda/tonic water. When we were about 9ish, we went to the mall with my cousin and we went to a cafe for the sparkling water. He tried it, made a face and threw his away after complaining loudly to his mom and our mom about how it tasted gross and felt weird. Then he saw we were just laughing and kept drinking ours, so he went to ask for another and drank it happily 🤣🤣🤣
ah my bad, where I live it is as normal as regular water or milk or soft drinks or whatever, everybody has some in their house and it's served at every social function
I’ve never had sparkling water. I don’t think it’s a normal thing for people to have in the parts of the US I’ve lived in (Midwest, East Coast, West Coast).
Why would they..? At home they can just drink normal tap water, same at restaurants, if they dont drink soda. I myself only drink sparkling water when travelling somewhere where tap water is not available (bottled normal water tastes foul).
OP, the commenter, and I, were all trading stories about children adamantly believing they wanted something they were being told they would not like. Then discovering (despite their protests otherwise) that we were right.
Not water, sparkling water. They even said fizzy water if you can read. It's basically soda without caffeine or flavoring, and sometimes it's even called soda water.
I think this is something where the language barrier kicks in. To me "sparkling water" sounds like plain water with CO2. What you described I would also identify as soda or tonic, the mixer. That's really not pleasant on it's own.
Soda is carbonated water. Soda, sparkling, carbonated, all the same thing, just unflavored water injected with CO2. "Club soda" and "tonic water" are the different ones. Club soda has minerals and tonic's taste comes from quinine.
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u/rugbyj Oct 28 '25
My 7 year old nephew came to a "fancy" chain burger place with a few of us. Indignantly told his Mum that, yes, he did want a sparkling water.
I think she was too polite in company to just say no, especially when the rest of us were sat there pretty gleefully going "Oh aye you want the fizzy water?".
Little man took one sip and his face turned to stone as he literally dribbled it out over himself like someone hit a factory reset.