Getting the bubbles on top

[Hector]

One of my friends who is a bartender had his birthday the other day,

and he served us some nice coctails and longdrinks.

I possible cannot tell what was in them.

But in one longdrink, he used something carbonated, soft drink or soda water or something.. and somehow he made the drink in such a way so that the bubbles of the carbonated liquid never got mixed up with the other liquid, they stay on top of the liquid like small floating stones.

It was very neat. When I asked my friend how to do that, he answered simply that "it was one of those holy secrets of the bartender guild that never should be revealed to outsiders"

Now I'm asking the insiders here for help! really want to know how he made this.

Do you know how he made the bubbles stay on top?

Edited April 22, 2005 by Hector (log)

[WHT]

One of my friends who is a bartender had his birthday the other day,

and he served us some nice coctails and longdrinks.

I possible cannot tell what was in them.

But in one longdrink, he used something carbonated, soft drink or soda water or something.. and somehow he made the drink in such a way so that the bubbles of the carbonated liquid never got mixed up with the other liquid, they stay on top of the liquid like small floating stones.

It was very neat. When I asked my friend how to do that, he answered simply that "it was one of those holy secrets of the bartender guild that never should be revealed to outsiders"

Now I'm asking the insiders here for help! really want to know how he made this.

Do you know how he made the bubbles stay on top?

←

Think of oil and water and you have the answer. Thick booze and thin soda.

[evilhomer]

i find this confusing - doesn't the carbonation give it some kind of negative buoyancy like in a black and tan

[slkinsey]

Hector, how do you mean that "the bubbles of the carbonated liquid never got mixed up with the other liquid." Do you mean that there were no bubbles forming in the body of the drink? Or that a persistent foam formed on the surface of the drink?

If you mean that there was only a small layer on the top of the drink that was actively bubbling, and that there were no bubbles forming in the lower part of the drink, then WHT has the right idea. As long as the liquor of the drink had a specific gravity higher than the specific gravity of the fizz water, it should be possible to carefully layer the fizz water on to the top of the drink without having it mix in.

If the drink was not actively bubbling but had a persistent foam on the top, it was probably shaken with raw egg white.