Gazzosa history

Gazzosa is a sweetened, flavoured and slightly carbonated water, whose name comes from its own feature, the gas. In the past - as fizzy, flavoured and consumed on special occasions - it was called "The poor man's Champagne", bacause of the bubbles, reminiscent of Champagne.

From the evidence collected, since the nineteenth century until the last decades of the twentieth there has been a special way to prepare gazzosa in Tessin, now abandoned: to obtain gas through the natural fermentation of a sweetened liquid, a syrup made of lemon, various flavours and water (the similar process used with grape must or apple must). That was the way to get a homemade gazzosa, or "The poor man's Champagne", due to the natural fermentation.