Champagne and Swizzle Sticks

While watching the final presentation on Ridley and thinking about how the carbonation in the champagne would be impacted by being poured from a tap into a large pitcher, I was reminded of something funny I learned about bubbly a while back. In the late 19th century, glass stir sticks were made for the purpose of removing the carbonation from sparkling wines, because the natural effervescence caused "indigestion" for some people, and burping was considered even more impolite back then than it is today.

These "swizzle sticks" were swirled around in the glass to get the carbonation out. The sticks had small perforations on them to create nucleation sites, which assist the physical separation of solid, liquid, and gas. (nucleation sites are also the science behind how the exploding mentos and coca-cola trick works). 

Swizzle sticks became more popular after the Queen Victoria and other fancy women of her era used the sticks to stir the bubbles out of their Champagne, thus preventing what was considered to be quite unladylike emissions of air later on. Eventually, though, the bubbles in champagne came to be viewed as something fun and special, to the point that today champagne bubbles are one of the main symbols of celebrations around the world! I know that I for one hate drinking flat champagne so I was very surprised to hear that this used to be the trendy, refined court lady thing to do. It goes to show you how much our drinking habits are dictated by what is considered cool or appropriate, even if it's at the expense of a superior drinking experience.