Water Tasting and Education

*new date* This event is now April 30th.

Does water have flavor? Is there a difference in flavor between tap and bottled water, or from one bottled water to another? Can water express terroir?

The answer to all these questions is YES! Come learn about- and taste- lots of water in this class by cocktail writer and educator Camper English.

First we’ll learn about tap water, including the local stuff in San Francisco and bottled tap waters like Dasani and Aquafina. We’ll briefly discuss home water filters and measure the dissolved solids in water before and after filtration to see how much it changes. We’ll taste tap and filtered water versus demineralized water to get a baseline, and learn how bottled tap water tastes the same no matter which tap they take it from.

For the majority of the class we'll talk about and taste regionally-sourced bottled waters, learning how to categorize them, how to read their labels, and which ones to seek out. We’ll learn how waters differ according to type of source, mineral makeup (sodium, magnesium, calcium, etc), total dissolved solids, pH and more. We'll look at naturally and artificially carbonated waters that can hold absurd levels of minerals in solution, and learn how to read a water quality report.

We’ll taste both bottled still waters and sparkling waters to see the great variation in brands. We’ll look at award-winning waters, waters designed for whiskey pairings, and other novelty water options. Waters we'll taste include Vichy Catalan from Spain, Borjomi from the Republic of Georgia, and Saratoga from the USA.

In all we’ll taste test 12-16 different waters and students will leave the class with an appreciation for the variety of water to drink, a way to describe how they taste, and a new thirst for this category.

Classes are limited to 12 people. Class takes place in the boardroom on the 4th floor of the Mechanics Institute Library building at Post and Market Street in the Financial District, just steps away from the Montgomery BART/MUNI station.

Your instructor is Camper English of Alcademics.com. Camper has been writing and teaching about cocktails and spirits in San Francisco for nearly 20 yeras. He is the author of Doctors and Distillers: The Remarkable Medicinal History of Beer, Wine, Spirits, and Cocktails, and The Ice Book: Cool Cubes, Clear Spheres, and Other Chill Cocktail Crafts. Camper has given dozens of talks and classes about cocktails and spirits science and history to audiences of bartenders and consumers. Camper also gives classes at the Beverage Academy at Bourbon & Branch - follow the Beverage Academy on EventBrite to see his upcoming classes. To stay informed about all of Camper's classes, please join the Alcademics Newsletter, which goes out monthly.

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

Mechanics' Institute, 57 Post Street, San Francisco, United States