Camper English's Blog, page 13

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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Ice Gifts - The Starter Pack

There are lots of different ice tools you could buy for yourself and others, but when someone I know moves house I tend to buy them a starter pack that takes up the least amount of space in their freezer with a lot of value in icy awesomeness. 

(A list of all my recommended ice tools is here.)

This is what I recommend: 

A copy of The Ice Book, of course!
A Dexas IceOlogy big cube tray
A wax seal stamp with their initial(s) so they can press their initial onto their clear cubes
Vegetable cutters so they can make more letters to freeze inside cubes

 

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A Quirky Bar Tour in San Francisco with Nikka Whisky

The global finals for the Nikka Perfect Serve cocktail competition were in San Francisco, so the brand asked me to lead the bartenders on a short tour. It was a Sunday and the competition was the next morning, so that was a bit limiting and I decided to make it more of a quirky tour than a "best bars" route. 

We reserved one of those hop-on hop-off busses and took it over Golden Gate Bridge, then back to the Buena Vista for an Irish Coffee. On the bus ride I took over the microphone and gave bartenders a history of San Francisco and its cocktails talk. 

We next headed to North Beach where we had burritos delivered to Spec's. We made a quick stop at the Golden Gate Fortune Cookie Factory and then had a Chinese Mai Tai at Li Po Lounge. 

A few brave souls then followed me to ABV and True Laurel after that. It was a terrific day! 

If you're coming to SF and want some version of a guided cocktail tour, hit me up for rates and info!

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January 2024 Classes by Camper English

In January I'll be teaching 7 classes!

[image error]You can always find my events on the Events Page, but here are the class descriptions: 

January 6, 2024 - 2 classes Saturday afternoon -  Nonalcoholic Spirits and Cocktails Tasting AND Water Tasting and Education at Mechanics Institute

January 10, 2024 - class - Ice Bling class at the Beverage Academy

January 16, 2024 - class - Nonalcoholic Spirits and Cocktails Tasting at Mechanics Institute

January 17, 2024 - class - Amaro class at the Beverage Academy

January 18, 2024 - class - Still or Sparkling? Water Tasting and Education at Mechanics Institute

January 24, 2024 - class - Ice Bling class at the Beverage Academy

 

Ice Bling

In the class on cutting up and blinging out clear ice we'll:

Discuss how to make clear ice with directional freezing

Try out tools including saws, knives, ice picks, pattern plates, cookie presses, and more.

Cut up "logs" of ice into big cubes

Cut cubes into giant Ice Diamonds!

Make ice Spheres

Learn to polish and clean up shapes of ice

Make patterned, blinged-out ice with several different tools

Cracking, shaving, and and other ice manipulation

Enjoy some drinks together! The class includes nonalcoholic beverages before/during cutting and a boozy one after!

 

 

Best Nonalcoholic Spirits and Cocktails Sampling Session

Sample a dozen or more of the best nonalcoholic beverages selected by cocktail journalist Camper English.

Suddenly there are tons of new nonalcoholic products on the market, but at prices near $40 per bottle it can be risky to buy before you try – especially because many of them are not as good as you’d like them to be. In this guided tasting class, cocktails and spirits journalist Camper English will share his favorite selections from among the 100+ nonalcoholic spirits, canned cocktails, and other non-alcoholic products he has tried over the years.

The product emphasis for this tasting is on ready-to-drink cocktails and nonalcoholic “spirits” that have an obvious utility (such as mixing with soda water or ginger ale), rather than needing to make a full cocktail with them. We’ll also not include very much non-alcoholic beer and wine – though you’re likely to find a few of those in the tasting.

 

Still or Sparkling? Water Tasting and Education

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

Then we’ll talk about bottled water – the basic difference between bottled tap and specially-bottled water- and taste some brands to see how they differ. We’ll learn how to categorize water according to type of source, mineral makeup (sodium, magnesium, calcium, etc), total dissolved solids, pH and more. Then we’ll move on to sparkling waters to see how they can be even more special and reflective of (dare I say it?) terroir than still water.

We’ll taste both bottled still waters and also naturally and artificially-carbonated 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. This class is open to everyone and a perfect way to stay hydrated during Dry January.

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.

 

Amaro: Uncover The Bitter Sweetness

Bittersweet liqueurs like Campari, Fernet-Branca, Cynar, Averna, and Amaro Nonino are flavored with a wide range of botanicals, but nearly all of them have a backbone built from wormwood, quinine, gentian, and/or rhubarb root. In this class we’ll taste these four individual bitter components of amaros plus EIGHT different and delicious examples of the category to train our palates to recognize them.

This tasting class for the bitter-curious will combine history and botany (all of these plants were used as medicine at one point) with some physiology of taste to explain why we don’t all experience bitterness to the same levels. We’ll also cover the way bitter and bittersweet liqueurs and fortified wines can be classified, including the categories of americanos, aperitif liqueurs, vermouths, rabarbaros, quinquinas, fernets, and more!

Students will leave with a cheat sheet of class information so that they can focus on tasting rather than taking notes.

Your professor is Camper English of Alcademics.com. Camper is the author of Doctors and Distillers: The Remarkable Medicinal History of Beer, Wine, Spirits, and Cocktails, in which he traced the historic use of bitter botanicals in spirits. Doctors and Distillers has been described as “every bit as entertaining as it is educational” (Scientific American), “best savored, not shot-gunned, with a drink in hand” (Science), and “a tirelessly researched book on the centuries-long relationship between medicine and booze” (New York Times). Copies of the book are available as an add-on to the class.

Camper has been studying the craft cocktail renaissance in San Francisco and around the world for over fifteen years and has contributed to publications including the San Francisco Chronicle, Popular Science, Saveur, Whisky Advocate, and The Oxford Companion to Spirits & Cocktails. He is a dynamic speaker and educator who teaches cocktail history and hands-on classes like this one. His most recent work is The Ice Book: Cool Cubes, Clear Spheres, and Other Chill Cocktail Crafts, and be sure to look for Beverage Academy classes focusing on ice!

 

 

Join me for a talk with Drunken Botanist author Amy Stewart

On Dec 13th at 11AM California time I'll be chatting live with Amy Stewart to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the publication of her amazing book The Drunken Botanist. 

There's a new 10th anniversary edition out by the way. 

Here are the details:

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Designer Ice in the News

I was interviewed for this short segment on CBS news, which went out to their various affiliate stations. The first person who told me they saw it was actually in Hawaii. 

 

 

Ice Gifts - Super DIY Edition

Want to give yourself (or, I suppose, somebody else) some clear ice tools for the most hands-on experience? Skip the commercial trays that make good finished ice and pick up this stuff instead. 

A list of all my recommended ice tools is here. 

Small cooler to make the ice
Cut-resistant gloves (you can also use polishing cloths)
Watermelon knife to cut the ice slabs, along with a wooden mallet
Three-pronged ice pick for fine-tuning
Meat tenderizer to bling out the ice
Ice ball molds to use in the cooler or an insulated container 
And, of course, a copy of The Ice Book to learn how to use them! 

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Ice Gifts - Splurge Edition

I have a page dedicated to the ice tools that I use and recommend, but this post is centered on splurge ice gifts. 

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Clear Ice Makers

Assuming you're not gifting someone a refrigerator with built-in clear ice maker (those exist now), here are some ice makers. 

The Ghost Ice Compact system is super sturdy and I use mine all the time. 

I have not used one of the Wintersmiths ice makers but have heard good things about them. 

There's a newish device for making clear ice called the Klaris. 

 

Ice Chisel for Carving Ice Diamonds

I use this one. 

 

Ice Ball Press

I use this one from Cocktail Kingdom. They also have a larger one on their website. 

 

Ice Designer

Once you've got clear ice, press patterns on it with the Ice Designer. 

 

The Ice Book

Hey, I wrote it! Learn more about all the wild and wonderful things you can do with ice.

 

 

 

New Booze: Early November Edition

New booze arrivals at the Alcademics office. These are pulled from my Instagram account, where I often show more information about them. 

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Camper English's Classes at the Beverage Academy at Bourbon & Branch

[image error]I have partnered with the Beverage Academy at Bourbon & Branch in San Francisco to lead classes beginning November 2023. 

For my Ice Bling classes, the venue allows for legal alcohol service, plus they can make the starter ice for us in their commissary. I can also store my many, many tools there so I hope to do nearly all future ice classes there. 

I'm also adding an Amaro class, based on some previous classes I've given to bartenders at Tales of the Cocktail and other industry conferences. In the amaro class, we taste individual extracts made from wormwood, gentian, rhubarb root, and cinchona bark, and then two amaros in which each of those botanicals shines, for a total of eight amaros to drink and analyze. 

The first Ice Bling class is on Wednesday November 15th, and the first Amaro class is on the 29th. Follow those links for tickets. Both events begin at 7pm. 

We've not put classes on the calendar for December as they'd like to reserve it for potential holiday parties, which brings me to another announcement:

I'm able to give either class as a private event for a corporate event, teambuilding exercise, or holiday party- either on Wednesday evening or pretty much any other time. 

The Ice class can be offered alcohol-free to ensure corporate compliance, or perhaps a Dry January activation? 

Below are the full class descriptions:

 

Ice Bling: Learn to Make Clear Ice and Cut Ice Diamonds, Spheres, and More!

[image error]In the class on cutting up and blinging out clear ice we'll:

Discuss how to make clear ice with directional freezing
Try out tools including saws, knives, ice picks, pattern plates, cookie presses, and more.
Cut up "logs" of ice into big cubes
Cut cubes into giant Ice Diamonds!
Make ice Spheres
Learn to polish and clean up shapes of ice
Make patterned, blinged-out ice with several different tools
Cracking, shaving, and and other ice manipulation
Enjoy some drinks together! The class includes nonalcoholic beverages before/during cutting and a boozy one after!

Your Instructor:

Camper English is the author of The Ice Book (an Amazon Top 50 best-seller) and the pioneer of "directional freezing," the simple technique for making clear ice at home. The Ice Book has been featured in the New York Times, Vanity Fair, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Sunset, Salon, Wine Enthusiast, and many other publications.

Camper has been studying the craft cocktail renaissance in San Francisco and around the world for over fifteen years and has contributed to publications including the San Francisco Chronicle, Popular Science, Saveur, Whisky Advocate, and The Oxford Companion to Spirits & Cocktails. He is a dynamic speaker and educator who teaches cocktail history and hands-on classes like this one. His previous book is Doctors and Distillers: The Remarkable Medicinal History of Beer, Wine, Spirits, and Cocktails, and be sure to look for Beverage Academy classes focusing on bittersweet amaros!

 

Amaro: Uncover The Bitter Sweetness

Bittersweet liqueurs like Campari, Fernet-Branca, Cynar, Averna, and Amaro Nonino are flavored with a wide range of botanicals, but nearly all of them have a backbone built from wormwood, quinine, gentian, and/or rhubarb root. In this class we’ll taste these four individual bitter components of amaros plus EIGHT different and delicious examples of the category to train our palates to recognize them.

This tasting class for the bitter-curious will combine history and botany (all of these plants were used as medicine at one point) with some physiology of taste to explain why we don’t all experience bitterness to the same levels. We’ll also cover the way bitter and bittersweet liqueurs and fortified wines can be classified, including the categories of americanos, aperitif liqueurs, vermouths, rabarbaros, quinquinas, fernets, and more!

Students will leave with a cheat sheet of class information so that they can focus on tasting rather than taking notes.

Your professor is Camper English of Alcademics.com. Camper is the author of Doctors and Distillers: The Remarkable Medicinal History of Beer, Wine, Spirits, and Cocktails, in which he traced the historic use of bitter botanicals in spirits. Doctors and Distillers has been described as “every bit as entertaining as it is educational” (Scientific American), “best savored, not shot-gunned, with a drink in hand” (Science), and “a tirelessly researched book on the centuries-long relationship between medicine and booze” (New York Times). Copies of the book are available as an add-on to the class.

Camper has been studying the craft cocktail renaissance in San Francisco and around the world for over fifteen years and has contributed to publications including the San Francisco Chronicle, Popular Science, Saveur, Whisky Advocate, and The Oxford Companion to Spirits & Cocktails. He is a dynamic speaker and educator who teaches cocktail history and hands-on classes like this one. His most recent work is The Ice Book: Cool Cubes, Clear Spheres, and Other Chill Cocktail Crafts, and be sure to look for Beverage Academy classes focusing on ice!