BACK TO SOAP Royal Champagne Looked Flat

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30764, 31 May 1965, Page 2

BACK TO SOAP Royal Champagne Looked Flat

A drop or two of detergent in the washingup water is unsurpassed for getting a stack of greasy dishes, pots and pans really clean with a non-smear shine.

But is it as effective in removing the dull stain in tea and coffee cups? Several Christchurch housewives say: No. It does not keep the cups as white inside as soapsuds do.

These women say they have gone back to the soap-shaker or a handful of flakes for a small wash-up of cups, saucers and non-greasy plates. Some of them said they prefer hot soapy water for glasses as well. They have an ally in the Queen Mother, who has now banned detergent for washing ail her glasses. The Queen Mother, who likes to serve champagne as an aperitif to guests before a luncheon or dinner party, recently noticed that some of the glasses did not have the usual line of froth round the upper edge of the wine, says a London correspondent. All the glasses used had been polished, but on investigation she found that the glasses which had no froth had been washed in detergent. The others had been washed with soap. Royal Tests The Queen Mother made her own tests in the kitchen at Clarence House. She found that glasses washed with any of the detergents on the market all refused to “show” the champagne, no matter how carefully they were dried and polished. The glasses washed in soapy water had no effect on the champagne’s performance. The Queen Mother gave orders that ail her glasses must be washed with soap—-

liquid, powder or solid—lest detergents should have some unseen effect on other wines besides champagne. After the Queen Mothers ruling became known a London wine connoisseur said that neither sparkling wines nor beer would froth properly if the glasses were washed in detergents. But the head barman of a Christchurch hotel does not agree.

Detergent must be used, by regulation, for washing glasses in New Zealand hotels, he said. Used In moderation in a special washer, which rinses and spin-dries, it had never affected the sparkle in champagne or the froth in beer he had served, he said. “But I always polish glasses well with a linen doth after they have been dried,” he said. Clean And Cold Most beer drinkers questioned had no comment to make. They had never thought about how their glasses were washed. All that mattered to them was that the glasses were dean and cold. One supported the Queen Mother’s theory. He gave complicated, scientific reasons why detergent-water could affect the frothy rim in champagne, or beer.

"But what does it matter if the froth is knocked back?” he asked. “I, for one, hate a collar on my beer.”