Got to thinking about this on the “Asinine laws” thread. On TV, whenever the grizzled cop (who most of the recovering alcoholics are) go into a bar, they order club soda. They never order Coke, or ginger ale, or juice, or virgin daiquiris, or any of the things I order when I am the designated driver.
I have been to bars with people in AA, and they order soft drinks, or plain water, (and one very large guy I know orders “Shirley Temple-- make it a double”) never club soda. I know there was a water snob thing in the 80s and early 90s, and people ordered stuff like brand name mineral waters; even drinkers sometimes ordered them between drinks.
At first I thought it was to avoid using a brand name, like Coke, but ginger ale and orange juice aren’t brand names.
Personally, I think club soda tastes nasty, and I would order plain water before I would order it. Is it some trop, or is it some AA thing from earlier generations where people ordered it to signal to the bartender not to serve them alcohol later if they asked for it?
I think it’s a holdover from when soda was a popular mixer. Watch old movies and lots of people order scotch & soda or something similar. Most houses even had one of these. Remember all the fun the Three Stooges had with those?
I’m guessing if you’re used to whiskey & soda and you’re cutting out the whiskey you can at least have the soda.
In any case, it was something that a bar would have that looks like an alcoholic drink (add a lime and it looks just like a gin and tonic). People would see it and not ask why you weren’t drinking.
RealityChuck: this is why Ginger Ale was often used as a part drink for non-drinkers: it looks like a cocktail of some sort.
Me, I’m fond of a “Virgin Mary.” Really delicious, even vaguely healthy, with no alcohol. The bartender is delighted, because he can charge full price, but leave out the most expensive ingredient.
My sister is a recovering alcoholic who drinks club soda or tonic water. She isn’t a fan of sweet drinks or diet soda. Why would you order a coke or a ginger ale if you don’t like coke or ginger ale.?
I like tonic water with a twist and no gin - if its good tonic. Not a fan of club soda myself, but as someone said, its just selzer.
The question is why recovering alcoholics order club soda on TV, I think because it’s become short hand for recovering alcoholic. You see them order it and say to yourself, oh that’s right, he doesn’t drink.
I’m an alcoholic, dry since 1986, and I order club soda or seltzer. I like the taste. Sweetened carbonated beverages are way too sugary to drink much of!
BTW there is a wide variety in terminology and products. What I like to drink is water with carbon dioxide dissolved in it and nothing else. I think the most accurate term for this is “carbonated water” but not that many people use it. I think that the people who manufacture and distribute beverages on a national scale use the term “club soda” to describe water with carbon dioxide and a variety of salts described in it, and the “soda” is a reference to sodium salts included in the mix. “Seltzer” can refer to water and carbon dioxide, and the “seltzer bottle” of clown fame is a pressure vessel into which you put a little disposable carbon dioxide tank and whatever liquid you like, but typically tap water. Sadly, the terms and products get used in all sorts of combination. Hell, in parts of the United States, the meaning of “coke” can include ginger ale.
Not an alcoholic, but when I was pregnant, sparkling water was my go-to at social events.
Why? Mostly because I enjoy it. I find it crisp and refreshing. The other reason is its easy to drink a lot of. More than one glass of soda or juice on a short time gets cloying and heavy (not to mention calorific and/or caffeinated). I’m not going to want to go to a wedding and choke down five glasses of OJ over the course of the night. With sparkling water, I can “keep up” and keep a fresh drink in hand without any problems. There is no downside to it.
It’s also nice that bartenders don’t usually charge for it.
I think on tv and in movies it’s a quick shorthand to let the viewer know something important about the character without a lot of dialog. You see someone order club soda, poof you know they’re supposed to be in recovery. If they order a coke or ginger ale it doesn’t send the same message to the audience.
One thing I’ve been told is club soda, because of the taste, is easier to sip at rather than drink down. It more simulates how (in the sense of time and behavior) a person would hold and treat an actual mixed drink. No cite - just IMHO.
This. There may be any number of reasons why a real person would order something like a club soda - it’s a good deflection of alcoholic drinks, it’s neutral (not sweet) and in may bars, it’s likely to be free.
But the trope of the alky-on-the-edge, or the pointedly “recovering alcoholic, never forget that” character ordering it on TV is just that - as much a statement as all the various telegraphy of how cigarettes are handled. It’s fairly bland and forgivable, but it is a trope and I do appreciate it when skilled scriptwriting finds another way to send that message to the audience. Especially when the character isn’t used to beat the point to death by having to argue to get their plain soda.
(Plain and flavored seltzer drinker myself… I like the stuff.)
It’s a trope that’s crept into the real world. I also hang out with people in AA, and some will order a club soda precisely because it’s so heavily identified with the label of “recovering alcoholic.” It’s just them being out and proud.
My most recent sighting of this was in a recent episode of The Flash. Barry Allen has discovered that his hyped-up metabolism means he metabolizes alcohol before it has any effect on him. So toward the end of the episode he walked into the bar and ordered a club soda.
Some of us actually like carbonated water. My Father is a recovering alcoholic. I take him out for dinner every Wednesday and we usually both ask for soda and lime.
I find coke quite tasty with a lot of ice, but lets face the facts: 12 oz of coke or other pop is 140 empty calories. I will easily drink 3 glasses at a meal so that is 420 calories that I would much rather spend on steak. Diet soda tastes like chemical horror to me (and many others). It is utterly wretched, awful, way to sweet. Water is fine, but fizzy water is better. San Pellegino, Perrier or othe sparkling waters are great but fountain soda is good too.
At home I have a Sodastream and drink carbonated water whenever I am thirsty. It is fizzy, refreshing and quenching. Love the stuff. I know other people find it ‘bitter’.
Bottled ‘Club Soda’ often has added sodium so is not really the same thing as carbonated or sparkling water. The stuff in the bar will just be carbonated water out of the fountain.
