Category: educational programs

  • Water Facts from Drinking Water Book

    I recently read the 2012 book Drinking Water: A History by James Salzman, in preparation for my forthcoming water classes I'm teaching in San Francisco.

    It is about the history of public and private drinking water and bottled water, from olden times until recent times. From researching Doctors and Distillers I already knew a lot of information in this book, but it deepened my understanding of some things. 

    Here are some facts I picked up. 

    Roman Lead Poisoning

    You know how people theorize lead poisoning might have killed off the Roman Empire? Well if so, the lead likely didn't come from the lead pipes, even though those were used to carry water- in part because they became calcified and the water wouldn't touch the lead. But they did boil fermented grape juice into a syrup called sapa for sweetening foods and beverages, since they didn't have sugar yet. The boiling was often done in lead pots, and it was this source of lead poisoning that could have led to problems.

    p. 71

     

    Montezuma's Revenge

    Traveller's belly was known by different names in different parts of the world. Montezuma's Revenge, Delhi Belly, Mummy Tummy (Egypt), and Karachi Crouch (Pakistan). It's not neccesarily that the water is so bad, it's that you're not used to it. 

    p. 76

     

    Chlorinated Water

    Chlorinated Water dates to 1902 – the first municipality to use it was Middelkerke, Belgium. In 1908 Jersey City became the first city in the US to do so for an entire city.

     

    Drinking Fountains

     Public drinking fountains were often sponsored as charity works by pro-Temperance groups, both in England in the 1800s and in the US leading up to Prohibition. They were provided as free alternate sources to beer, which was the more common form of hydration before modern sanitation. Still, many public drinking fountains had a community cup chained to them for drinking! A lot of people got sick from the cups. The modern "bubbler" with water that shoots out so that you don't need a cup was an answer to the communal cup. 

    Some early drinking fountains in the US had space to add 20 pound blocks of ice to chill the water. 

     

    Branded Water

    The first branded bottled waters were from holy wells during the era of European religious pilgrimages and visits to holy sights and relics. One could purchase flasks that were branded with the source. Later on, healing mineral waters became the branded bottled waters. 

    p 168

     

    Modern Bottled Water Brand Dates

    Poland Spring 1845

    Vittel 1855

    Perrier 1863 

    Deer Park 1873

    Arrowhead 1894

    p 171

     

    Bottled Tap Water

    For Dasani and Aquafina, "Coke and Pepsi take tap water; run it through a series of fine filters to remover minerals and bacteria, ultraviolet and ozonation treatments to kill any remaining organisms, and reverse osmosis to remove any remaining materials; and then add minerals back in because all the taste has been removed."

    p 178

     

    US FDA Regulated Terminology

    I don't think I knew that certain terms on bottled water bottles are regulated. I verified on the FDA website

    The agency classifies some bottled water by its origin. Here are four of those classifications:

    • Artesian well water. This water is collected from a well that taps an aquifer—layers of porous rock, sand, and earth that contain water—which is under pressure from surrounding upper layers of rock or clay. When tapped, the pressure in the aquifer, commonly called artesian pressure, pushes the water above the level of the aquifer, sometimes to the surface. Other means may be used to help bring the water to the surface.
    • Mineral water. This water comes from an underground source and contains at least 250 parts per million total dissolved solids. Minerals and trace elements must come from the source of the underground water. They cannot be added later.
    • Spring water. Derived from an underground formation from which water flows naturally to the surface, this water must be collected only at the spring or through a borehole that taps the underground formation feeding the spring. If some external force is used to collect the water through a borehole, the water must have the same composition and quality as the water that naturally flows to the surface.
    • Well water. This is water from a hole bored or drilled into the ground, which taps into an aquifer.

     

    Monitoring Water

    “One thing is certain: Bottled water is less stringently regulated than tap water.” Bottled water isn't necessarily more "pure" or safe than tap water. It certainly can be though. 

    p 183

     

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  • Copyright, Trademark, and Patents for Bars, Brands, and Booze Recipes

    CopyrightMy second story for the new industry-facing site Daily.SevenFifty.com is up! 

    For this one, I covered a Tales of the Cocktail seminar called Intellectual Property Law Issues in Cocktail Land. It was lead by Trademark Attorney and Hemingway enthusiast Philip Greene, along with John Mason, a lawyer with Copyright Counselors,  Steffin Oghene of Absolut Elyx, and Andrew Friedman of Liberty in Seattle. 

    It clarified the basic definitions of copyright, trademark, and patents, and there were tons of interesting examples – including the Curious Case of the Copper Pineapple!

     

    Check it out here

     

    The seminar description was:

    If I make a Dark ‘n’ Stormy, do I have to use Gosling’s Black Seal Rum? What about the Painkiller, will Pusser’s Rum sue me if I use another brand? What about those iconic (and sometimes poorly made) New Orleans classics, the Sazerac, Hurricane and the Hand Grenade, will I get a cease and desist letter from anyone if I make them at my bar claiming trademark infringement? I keep hearing about Havana Club becoming available again from Cuba, but didn’t I also hear that Bacardi is planning to market their own Havana Club? What’s up with that? And speaking of Bacardi, didn’t they sue bars and restaurants back in the 1930s because those establishments failed to use Bacardi Rum in the drink? Is that true, and how did that turn out? Did I hear correctly that Peychaud's Bitters was the center of a trademark dispute way back in the 1890s, with the same family that founded Commander's Palace? And if I create a great drink and give it an awesome name, can I patent or copyright the recipe, and trademark the name? What if I get hired by a bar or restaurant to develop their beverage program, will they own the rights to the drinks that I invented or can I retain ownership rights in the recipes and names? Join the one veteran Tales presenter who is uniquely qualified to moderate this topic, Philip Greene, intellectual property and Internet attorney by day Trademark Counsel for the U.S. Marine Corps) and cocktail historian on the side (co-founder of the Museum of the American Cocktail and author of two cocktail books, To Have and Have Another: A Hemingway Cocktail Companion and The Manhattan: The Story of the First Modern Cocktail, in an in-depth, informative and fun seminar, and learn how to make (and enjoy samples of) some of these contentious classics while discussing this highly intellectual topic!

     

     

  • Passing the B.A.R.

    This past fall I took the B.A.R., Beverage Alcohol Resource, five-day course in New York. The course has two levels- "Ready" and "Certified", with the only difference in the number of drinks one has to make within a certain time on the practical bartending exam. The course ran for about 12 hours each day for the first four days, with nearly a full day of testing on the last day. It was a real butt-kicker.

    People seemed to come away with different impressions of the course, but what stuck out most to me was what you need to know not just to pass the class, but to say that you're at an expert level in the industry. It's a lot. You need to know:

    1. The science and history of fermentation and distillation from the dawn of time
    2. The history, ingredients, geography, and practical and legal production rules for every major category of spirits
    3. The entire history of bartending and individual history and timelines of dozens of important cocktails
    4. How to blind taste and identify spirits, quality of distillation, barrel type and age, and other production parameters, down to individual brands and bottlings
    5. How to balance drinks, mix drinks, make them fast and of the highest quality possible while providing top quality customer service
    6. How to create new drinks and tweak existing ones based on different mixological strategies
    7. How to blind taste and critique cocktails

    I took 76 pages of notes in those four days, after having read and studied the textbook, attended dozens on lectures by the instructors, read zillions of books, and passed the BAR Smarts course before the course. We sampled a few hundred spirits blind, I practiced bartending until my shoulder ached from shaking, and still tried to find time to study each night before passing out.

    I decided to attempt the BAR Ready certification, thinking that I knew so much about the history and production rules of spirits that I wouldn't have to even study for that part of the test. (Boy was I wrong about that.) Luckily if you don't make all your drinks in time to be BAR Ready you can still pass BAR Certified. And I did, which is awesome.

    My takeaway from the course is not just the new information and skill set gained during the week, but knowing what it takes to stay on top of things going forward: A great and constant amount of work tasting, testing, practicing, learning, and reviewing what you think you already know.