Category: water
-
Bottled Water Went Viral 125 Years Ago
My latest piece for Food & Wine is "How a Bottled Water Goes Social Media Viral and the Real Differences Between Them" Read it here.
-
Aspirational Water – A Story in The Guardian that Cites The Ice Book
The reporter for this story in The Guardian and I talked a long time about clear ice, iceberg water, and bottled water. Not much made it into the final story from me (so it goes) but I did get mentioned in the lead paragraphs! Towards the end of 2009, Camper English achieved a…
-
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…
-
When Mineral Water Was Medicinal Water
I provided some context for a story about carbonated water for Wine Enthusiast. “Naturally carbonated mineral spring water was thought to be extra healthy compared with regular mineral water, and far healthier than surface water from rivers and streams,” English notes. “European and American mineral springs rich in iron or other mineral salts were…
-
Using Untreated Water to Proof Whiskey
Many distilleries brag about their pure water supply, but typically that water is only used for fermentation, and then reverse osmosis filtered or distilled tap water is used to dilute spirits down to bottle proof. So the quantity of that special water left in the bottle is small – in the case of vodka it's…
-
Designing A Club Soda From Scratch
I was recently in touch with Top Note Tonic founders founders Mary Pellettieri and Noah Swanson about their new Club Soda that was created specifically for making highballs with whiskey. They went into the process with specific goals in mind to pair it with whiskey, researched styles of water and other brands' mineral content, then…
-
Dilution and Additives in Cognac (Hine Series Part 6)
In this post, I’ll talk about diluting and additives used in cognac. There is a lot that happens in between taking cognac out of a barrel and being sealed up in a bottle.
-
Water Chemistry at Deanston, Bunnahabhain, and Toberymory Distilleries
Several years ago I visited the Deanston and Bunnahabhain scotch whisky distilleries. Click on those words to read about the visits. At the time I was there I was really obsessed with the effects of water in distilled spirits (not that I'm over it), so I followed up with some super specific questions about the pH…
-
Bottled Waters Most Resembling Waters of Scotland
In this post we'll look at commercial brands of bottled water that resemble water from the Speyside, Highlands, and Islay regions of Scotland. We saw before that different waters bring out different properties in scotch whisky. We can then look at properties of bottled water from Scotland. Thanks to UisgeSource, we can look at the…