There is so much to get irritated about that it’s a wonder I have time for anything else. The latest annoyance is the repackaging of tonic water and soda water into similar looking black cans. Inadvertently pouring a gin and soda is jolly cross-making, although disaster can be averted by lacing it with lime cordial.
Why can’t they leave well alone; yellow for tonic and silver for soda? Schweppes should know better – they boast that they have been in business since 1783. Johann Jacob Schweppe was a watchmaker, jeweller and amateur scientist in Geneva. In 1770 English all-rounder Joseph Priestley published a paper on carbonating water. He thought the process would protect sailors from scurvy. In this he was wrong. Schweppe put the process into production in Geneva before transferring operations to England and going broke in 1795; another Freddie Laker story of an early-adopter not making money out of a sound idea. However, Schweppe did not give up and resurrected his company in Switzerland in the 19th century and it never looked back. Well, it may have had a blip when a friend of mine was an employee some years ago.
From Indian tonic water to an Indian Summer in London this week, with temperatures over 30 C. When I was in Kyrgistan there was a similarly warm spell – they call it a Grandma’s Summer. Whatever it’s called it’s a welcome opportunity to sit outside in the garden for a bit longer.
Grandma’s summer in Kyrgistan? Well, maybe. But if they told you the Russian exlression, so it is not a grandma. It is a woman. Rather a peasant woman, a simple woman, slightly rude word for woman. The idea is that all harvest works are finished, and peasant women may take some rest, whilst the weather is warm and nice again.
Dr JJ Schweppe’s successors set up the first commercial bottling plant of Malvern Water in 1850. Malvern Water was the preferred travelling companion of our queens Elizabeth 1 and Victoria and is of Elizabeth 11. Far from being packed full of goodness, it is very akin to distilled water. Schweppes was bought by Coca Cola whose accountants calculated that the drink of queens was not providing the requisite profit margin and closed the plant. Fortunately a rather eccentric ex Publican bought the Holywell facility and are again in production. Sophie and I visited this among other wells for the Malvern Well Dressing Festival. Held in Spring it is well (!) worth the drive, even without your dowsing rods.