Taking the hiss?

When growing up, my brothers and I would often walk to my nan’s house. On arrival Nan would offer us a drink of ‘fizzy pop’; this was a generic term Nan used for any form of fizzy drink. It may not have grabbed the headlines in the same way the horsemeat scandal has, but there is no question in my mind the offer she made was just as misleading – there were serious question marks of the fizziness of the fizzy pop.

Suspicion was always aroused if when the bottle was opened there wasn’t the hissing sound one would expect, and the lack of bubbles rushing towards the surface was another sign to look out for. It would always fall upon one brother, typically me as I was the youngest, to test the offering. A small sip would be taken and then a discrete signal given to the siblings as to whether the liquid was safe or undrinkable poison! If we refused to drink it we were told off for being spoilt, but now it seems we weren’t that far off the mark when we complained it wasn’t good for us. Recently ‘pop’ (fizzy or not) came into the headlines because although it may be good to drink it can cause damage to one’s health.