Sparkling water

Sparkling water is the umbrella term for water made effervescent by carbon dioxide, whether the gas comes naturally from a mineral spring or is added under pressure. It spans the elegant, minerally bottled waters of European spa towns — Perrier, San Pellegrino, Gerolsteiner — as well as plain manufactured seltzer and everything in between. Clear, lively and faintly tart, it carries no sugar and, in its pure form, virtually no calories; its appeal is the clean prickle of the bubbles and, in genuine mineral waters, a subtle character drawn from the dissolved calcium, magnesium and bicarbonate of the rock it flowed through.