Not all bubbles are equal? Ultimately it is a matter of choice and preference.
In the battle of bubbles series, I want to compare the incomparable by some objective factors. Consumers face choices all the time. While the battlefield is limited to one factor at a time, at least we learn some new facts that may influence our decision-making, even though preference is still the key.
I chose to start with calories-count as the objective factor for the first round, since some of my friends and I are followers of the "liquid diet" (drinking instead of eating for a meal) to maintain our figures.
Of course we know that this is not a healthy wholesome habit, but honestly, we enjoy ourselves better with drinks. It is a trade-off we make, and choosing drinks with lesser calories helps to lessen our guilt.
During our recent night out, we had both sparkling sake and champagne. So factually speaking, we did not even make any choice, and doubly guilty as charged.
Anyway, I did some brief searches online on the nutritional values of various types of bubblies. Calories-info.com seems to provide quite a range of detailed information. A standard serving (120ml) of champagne has about 98 calories, equivalent to 1.5 apples or a slice of cheese etc. But what surprised me is that its calories is somehow equal to a glass (220ml) of coca cola! How could dry acidic champagne have almost double the amount of calories of a sweet soft drink? So I googled the calories of coca cola again, and it turns out that it is true, a 350ml can of coca cola has 140 calories. So, taking a 120ml glass of coca cola has only 48 calories!
After I digested the shock slowly, I checked on sparkling sake. Since it's quite a novelty, I didn't find the information on the same website and got results from others including Mio, and it is between 250-260 calories per small standard bottle (180ml), so that makes a 120ml serving of sparkling sake around 170 calories, almost double that of champagne.
At least that makes sense when contrasting the sweetness of the sake with the dryness of the champagne.
For completeness, I've also looked up the calories-count of other common alcoholic drinks such as wines, beer, gin, whiskey and rum on calories-info.com. As expected, wines are slight higher (100-120 calories per 120ml, with white being lower than red). 120ml of beer has around 70 calories (lower than champagne), but people seldom drink beer from a dainty champagne glass. 120ml of gin/whiskey/rum (equal to about 3.4 standard shots) has around 280 calories, although if you have just one to two shots in a highball or gin tonic, the calories may be reduced accordingly.
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