Ice In Soda

Whether you call it soda, pop, or have conversations that flow like this:
"You want a coke?"
"Yup."
"What kind?"
"Dr. Pepper."
Then you know what I'm talking about. Carbonated beverages. Many of us drink them with practically every meal when eating out, and they go hand in hand with the ice within them. Now, when you think about the ice in your soda, you usually think it is there to keep the drink cold or possibly make it ever colder while simultaneously watering it down. In fact, when the soda fountains are self-serve, I occasionally got no ice at all since the drinks were refrigerated in the machine and I drink it too fast for it to get cold.

You see, I drink a lot of fluids. For some reason, my body processes fluids incredibly fast and so I get dehydrated very quickly. I can knock back a gallon of water of day. For the sake of comparison with two of the most recommended amounts of water one should drink, that's 16 glasses compared to 8, or at least 33% more than half my weight in ounces.

Anyway, I discovered that the ice in soda has another purpose.

The fountain machine we have at work has a bit of a problem. It overcarbonates creating massive heads on the soda it puts into your cup. Without ice, I stand there and either stir it or just wait for it to fizz down to put more in. It can take awhile. Now, you may know that interacting with the bubbles makes the head of the soda go down faster. Some people put a finger in there or blow on it to drive the bubbles down and such, and it turns out ice does the same thing.

The existence of ice in the drink helps to drive the head of the drink down much like stirring it or otherwise interacting with the bubbles. I found that interesting.