Watering Down: Difference between revisions

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{{quote|''In ten years in this dump, I've come to accept a very low standard of life. But even at the bottom of this fish tank, a man must have standards. The pathetic trou du cul down at Worley Winery has started putting water to his terrible wine... water!!!''|Pierre Gobbi, ''[[~~Bio Shock~~]]''}}

{{quote|''In ten years in this dump, I've come to accept a very low standard of life. But even at the bottom of this fish tank, a man must have standards. The pathetic trou du cul down at Worley Winery has started putting water to his terrible wine... water!!!''|Pierre Gobbi, ''[[Bioshock]]''}}

Diluting an alcoholic beverage (or some other drug), usually with water for alcohol, but sometimes [[Squick|other substances]], is fairly common in both the real world and fiction. Street drugs are also almost always cut with other stuff. It is usually done so as to get more product from smaller amounts of genuine ingredients, yet sometimes used for other purposes.

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** But a suggestion that a landlord has been watering down the [[Gargle Blaster|scumble]] is quickly discarded, because everyone knows [[Noodle Incident|"what happens if you lets a drop of water touch scumble"]].

* The book ''[[Myth Adventures|M.Y.T.H. Inc. In Action]]'' features Mob enforcer Guido discussing this phenomena, noting it's a way for the bar owner to make more money off less product, and his customers don't mind because less alcohol per glass makes the drink "healthier".

* One of the minor characters in the [[Philip K Dick]] novel ''Eye in the Sky'' is a hostess at a club who waters down her own alcoholic drinks (as a large amount of her job is drinking with customers) so as to not get drunk herself.

* One of the minor characters in the [[Philip K. Dick]] novel ''Eye in the Sky'' is a hostess at a club who waters down her own alcoholic drinks (as a large amount of her job is drinking with customers) so as to not get drunk herself.

* Lana Lee, the business-minded owner of the Night of Joy bar in ''[[A Confederacy of Dunces]]'' also waters down the drinks of her "hostess" Darlene...but she also waters down ''all the other drinks'' as a cost-cutting measure. [[Jive Turkey|Burma Jones]] frequently comments on it.

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== Video Games ==

* In ''[[~~Bio Shock~~]]'', minor character Pierre Gobbi has an audio diary complaining about the hellhole Rapture is turning out to be; but there is ''one'' thing he cannot stand: Worley Winery, producers of the fine wine Arcadia Merlot, watering down their wine. They then claim that at least they are using distilled water, and not seawater.

* In ''[[Bioshock]]'', minor character Pierre Gobbi has an audio diary complaining about the hellhole Rapture is turning out to be; but there is ''one'' thing he cannot stand: Worley Winery, producers of the fine wine Arcadia Merlot, watering down their wine. They then claim that at least they are using distilled water, and not seawater.

== Western Animation ==

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* This was done with milk and even bread depressingly often. (Milk would be mixed with water, bread with chalk, plaster, grit and worse...) There's an incredible amount of legislation on this in older legal systems, often putting it on the same severity scale as theft and murder. Because, well, it kind of ''is'' murder to sell someone "food" with the nutritional value of cardboard.

** The [[wikipedia:Nestl%C3%A9 boycott#The baby milk issue|Nestle]] boycott of the 1970's was partially related to the risks of watering down powdered infant formula.

* Apparently, according to the [[~~Talmud~~ ~~(Literature)~~|Talmud]], in ancient Israel and Babylonia, wine was made so strong that it was actually undrinkable unless mixed with water in a ratio of about 2 parts water to 1 part wine.

* Apparently, according to the [[The Talmud|Talmud]], in ancient Israel and Babylonia, wine was made so strong that it was actually undrinkable unless mixed with water in a ratio of about 2 parts water to 1 part wine.

** In much of the ancient Mediterranean wine was fermented to a very high alcohol level and then watered down later, either soon before sale or by the customer. It was considered very unhealthy to regularly imbibe un-watered-down wine.

* And as for good old fashioned watering down beer? The trick isn't to water it down with water. That gets spotted. Instead, you water down expensive beers with cheap beer.

* Watering wine was a very important skill for bartenders in ancient Greece and Rome - you started strong and then began diluting as the customers got drunker and less able to notice. There's a famous bit of graffiti in Pompeii that assaults a ''caupon'' for watering his drinks too much.

** This is actually in [[~~The Bible (Literature)|~~The Bible]] even; when Jesus performed his first miracle, he didn't turn water into any old wine, he turned it into ''the very best'' wine, and one of the guests passes comment about it to the host, since the usual practice was to not just water it down but trot out a cheaper wine overall.

** This is actually in [[The Bible]] even; when Jesus performed his first miracle, he didn't turn water into any old wine, he turned it into ''the very best'' wine, and one of the guests passes comment about it to the host, since the usual practice was to not just water it down but trot out a cheaper wine overall.

* Averted with Janis Joplin. Apparently, she was just one of several people killed by a dealer who failed to cut his batch of heroin enough to make it "safe".

** This is a very common reason for a drug-related deaths actually. As established dealers try to capitalize on their status, they tend to progressively dilute their ware with various adulterants, forcing their clients to buy a larger and larger amounts of drug for the same kick. And when a new dealer moves in and tries to compete by selling a stronger, more pure stuff, the users very often use the dosage they got used to with the old, diluted drug for the new, more pure one, leading to overdose.