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Aqueous Gastronomy was a Free University course taught during the winter studies Winter Study terms of the 2022-2023 and 2024-2025 academic years by Locke Meyer '25 and Felix King '25. Tasting, analyzing, and discussing sparkling water was the basis of the course, but class sessions involved forays into many different seemingly disciplines unrelated disciplines to sparkling water including literature, philosophy, music, manufacturing/engineering, history, anthropology, and chemistry/alchemy.  [[File:Aqueous gastronomy waters.jpg|thumb|the final day of Aqueous Gastronomy]]

===History===The first version of the course iteration Aqueous Gastronomy ran for four weeks during January of 2023 and met once per week in Hollander room 241. Origin stories often begin with Professors King and Meyer tasting LaCroix's limoncello flavored water. As the story goes, after searching online and finding a now-defunct website dedicated to sparkling water reviews (the Bubbleverse), they decided to "take the plunge" and develop the curriculum for Aqueous Gastronomy.  ===Concept Album===Meyer, a music and computer science double major, composed and recorded 10 songs inspired by components of the course.The full track list is: *The Carbonated Sea*Brownrigg's Jig*Mint Cucumber*Hiss Pop*Ascent / Tangerine*Shaking the Can*Dry Ice*Rot*Big Idea*We Have a Package That Arrived for You That Is Leaking and Has an Odor Meyer uploaded the album to Spotify upon its completion on January 6, 2023, but removed it from the platform a few months later due to the hosting fee charged by Distrokid. The album in its entirety can still be found on Meyer's personal Youtube channel. The title of the last track on the album is taken directly from the body of an email sent to King by Mail Operations Coordinator Debby Kopala after 36 cans of Something and Nothing arrived in the mailroom. ===Corporate Sponsorships===The class was sponsored by three sparkling water companies, DRAM Apothecary, Aura Bora, and Something and Nothing. Each company sent King and Meyer cans of their water free of charge. {| class="wikitable"|-! Company !! Number of Cans|-| DRAM Apothecary || 48 cans|-| Something and Nothing || 36 cans|-| Aura Bora || 12 cans|} ===Reception===Aqueous Gastronomy was described in a Williams Record article as, "by far the best class I’ve ever taken at Williams bar none, and probably the best class I ever will take,"By Satya Benson '26. <ref>https://williamsrecord.com/462785/features/the-best-class-ive-ever-taken-at-williams-students-explore-new-hobbies-through-free-university/</ref> ==Extraterrestrial Gastronomy (2024)==King and Meyer endeavored to create a new course which would encompass the goals and values of Aqueous Gastronomy while incorporating their new research area, the food and drink of outer space. This new class had a syllabus and a course packet printed by the print office, containing several readings relevant to the nascent field. The course packet held several rare primary sources, most notably, an eyewitness account from Laurence Darryl Darrel Kingschuck and the writings of Dr. Prokopius J Blarney, who predicted the existence of Transverse Chiron Waves and designed a device which could emit and receive them. He coined this device the Transverse Chiron Kymatological Emitter/Receiver, or TraCKER for short. ==Second Iteration (2025)==