Saturday, July 12, 2003


water water everywhere

still struggling with question of the best water for carlos expobar.

i understand that for perfect tasting espresso -- all other factors being equal -- we need water with 90-100 parts per million (ppm). 90-100ppm of what minerals exactly?

the problem it seems as if most of the common bottled water web sites tell ya what's in the water, but not in a useful way! for example, poland spring.

that's what's in it! what's it all mean??? nothing about ppm or ph or whether it's "soft."

so i rush over to cirqua -- the espresso water specialists -- to see what's up, and i can't find much useful there.

it seems to imply that any calcium is all bad. but then other people say you need some for the water to taste good and the autofill needs it.

water -- so confusing!! so i go here for the ppm & ph info.

now i know poland spring is ph 6.4 and has a ppm i guess of 44, making it all bad for the expobar and espresso. . . or am i confused?

for data about nyc water, i find this a large and totally bewildering mineral report (adobe acrobat required).

but what the heck does it mean? it seems as if on the ph level, new york city tap water is fine for the machine, maybe better than the poland spring. that's a shocker! but i don't see a ppm anywhere. . .did i miss it?

and i'm still trying to get decent foam from my new guy carlito! all new machines have a learning curve from which almost no one is exempt. . .

maybe i shouldn't make fun of that guy who calls himself the water sommelier at the ritz hotel after all!

posted by fortune | 8:06 PM | top | link to this | email this: | | | 0 comments