A Fitzroy café has quietly removed still and sparkling water from its drinks menu in favour of a single $7 prebiotic soda, leaving customers who simply wanted a glass of tap water to navigate what staff describe as "a slightly awkward conversation, several times a day."
The soda, a locally made, lightly carbonated drink containing chicory root fibre and a strain of bacteria the label describes as "gut-loving," was introduced three months ago as a specialty item alongside the café's coffee menu. Tap water, formerly available on request at no charge, is now provided only if a customer asks twice.
"We had someone order 'just water' on day one and the barista sort of froze," the café's owner said. "It's not that we don't have water. We have taps. It's more that we've positioned the soda as the better choice, and most people, once it's explained to them, agree."
The explanation, delivered by staff to hesitant customers, centres on the soda's fibre content and its stated benefits for digestion and bloating, a pitch the owner says has an unusually high success rate. "Once you say the word bloating, people generally stop asking for the free option," he said.
One regular, ordering a flat white, described being gently talked out of a glass of water during her first visit after the change. "She asked if I wanted the gut soda instead, and I said I was just thirsty, and she said this would help with that too, and also bloating, which I hadn't mentioned," she said. "I ended up getting the soda. I don't think I was bloated. I don't think I thought about bloating before I walked in."
The café's till data, reviewed by the owner with what he called "mild surprise," shows tap water requests have fallen by roughly sixty percent since the change, while soda sales now account for close to one in four drink orders.
"People do still ask for water," he said. "We give it to them. We just don't put it on the board anymore, because genuinely, why would we."
The soda's label lists its ingredients as filtered water, carbonation, chicory root fibre, and live cultures, the same filtered water, unflavoured and uncultured, that remains freely available from the café's kitchen tap to anyone who asks a second time.