FOOD NEWS
Why You Should Serve Espresso With Sparkling Water Like Italians Do
BY Zoë Lourey-Christianson
If you've ever ordered a shot of espresso from an Italian-style café, you might have been surprised to receive a small glass of sparkling water alongside it.
The sparkling water serves several purposes. The first is that it is a palate cleanser that can prepare your taste buds to detect all the nuanced espresso flavors.
Second, espresso can be dehydrating, so having something like a glass of ice-cold sparkling or still mineral water with it can help counteract that effect.
The history of the custom is difficult to pinpoint, but it seems to be attributed most to Italian coffee culture, where espresso was invented by a man named Luigi Bezzerra.