Lu Yu On Water

Water from the mountains is the best, then river water, and finally well water...Water from slow-running streams, lakes with stony beds, or milk-white springs is the best mountain water."
(Lu Yu - referenced in Tea, by Lydia Gautier)

tea, green tea, food, food and drink

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Interview - Michael Mascha of FineWaters

For most of us, bottled water is just water and that's the end of it. But for Michael Mascha, publisher of the FineWaters site and author of the new book, Fine Waters: A Connoisseur’s Guide to the World’s Most Distinctive Bottled Waters, it's not that simple.

If Mascha has his way, bottled water will be taken seriously one day, rather than being viewed as just a convenient way to drink while you're on the run.

We reviewed Fine Waters here a few weeks ago. Michael Mascha was kind enough to take a few moments out of his day recently to talk to us about water.

In his book, Mascha estimates that there are about 3,000 varieties of bottled water worldwide. He guesses that he's tasted between 300 and 350 of those. Asked whether he could pick a favorite, Mascha is quick to respond, "No, and I'm glad I don't have to."

Mascha does mention a few types of bottled water he's fond of, including soft (low in mineral content) rainwaters, high TDS (total dissolved solids) waters, naturally carbonated waters, and carbonated waters with smaller bubbles. He says he likes the latter because the tiny bubbles "don't disturb the food so much."

As for bottle designs, Mascha says he enjoys bottles that have some kind of connection to the area they come from. He names Antipodes (New Zealand) and L'Aubade (South Africa) as examples.

One of the most unusual bottled waters Mascha's run across is not one that's meant for internal consumption. It's Dead Sea water with a very high mineral content and it's made for external use. Though he can't help but wonder if the sports cap sends a mixed message.

Mascha says that bottled water doesn't get better with age, but by the same token, it pretty much has an infinite shelf life. He stresses that the waters themselves may vary widely in age, depending on their source.

As the conversation turns to water and tea, Mascha says that an inexpensive home filtration device should produce water that's on about the same level as a low-end bottled water.

Though he hasn't done a lot of experimenting with water and tea, he uses soft water to brew rooibos herbal tea and feels that rainwater, with its very low mineral content, would be a good choice in general. As for a specific brand that might be readily available and good for tea drinking, Mascha say that Fuji is "a good thing to start with."

Thanks to Michael Mascha for taking the time to speak with us. Read our review of Fine Waters here.

tea, green tea, food, food and drink, bottled water

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The Perfect Water

Water. It's a topic of no small importance to tea drinkers and one that that's come up several times before here at TGS. Back in September I wrote about water harvested from icebergs, bottled and sold by Canada's Original Iceberg Water Corporation, who also make vodka using iceberg water. Then there was this overview type piece on bottled water and mineral water from October. And most recently a piece on H2Om Water, "the world's first vibrationally charged, interactive, bottled water".

So as we bubble on along here I thought it was as good a time as any to make mention of Cirqua Customized Water. Cirqua is a company that apparently makes filtration systems for coffee and tea houses. They also offer The Formula, a brand of bottled water that's supposed to be formulated to make a better cup of coffee or tea. Whether or not it's really the perfect water, well, I'll leave that to you to decide. Here's their site.

Photo: Cirqua

tea, food, food and drink, water, bottled water

Shiny Happy Water

Perhaps I'm straying off-topic a bit with this one. After all, this is not Water Guy Speaks. Then again, try imagining what your tea would taste like without water. A bit dusty, I should think.

So the next time you brew up a cup you might want to try making it with H2Om Water. It's "the world's first vibrationally charged, interactive, bottled water" and it comes to us from none other than the great state of California. At this point, I'll pause while you emit an appropriate wisecrack.

Here are a few highlights from a recent press release issued by H2Om LLC:

"H2Om is a crystal clear natural spring water infused with the power of intention. It resonates with the highest vibratory signatures available."

"When I awoke I thought, wouldn't it be wonderful to create a bottled water that could inspire people to think positive, live healthy, experience gratitude, and absorb all the positive energy that the water itself could hold?" After two years years of research and development, the first ever H2Om infusion process was created...As you imagine pure love or perfect health energy being absorbed by your body, you've created an energetic interaction with the very element that sustains your life."

To enjoy the press release in it's entirety, check it out here.

Visit H20m's site here.

tea, food, food and drink, bottled water

The Wet Stuff

What's tea without water? Well, it's still tea but it sure doesn't go down as well.

My point being that a good cup of tea really only has two ingredients - unless you like to desecrate yours with milk, sugar and whatnot. That said, it's in your best interest to make sure that you're using good water to brew your tea.

Tea Guy swears by a Brita pitcher for all water drinking and tea making needs, but if you're one of those bottled water types here are some resources you might find useful.

The Bottled Water Store - Features a Water of the Month Club and waters from about sixty different manufacturers.

Mineral Waters of the World - A site maintained by a Swiss gent with no apparent connection to the bottled water industry. He says, "My aim is to create the largest database of bottled waters in the world and a valuable resource in finding your favourite water."

Fine Waters - This one is described as "a site designed to be the definitive voice for water connoisseurs and their accompanying lifestyle."

And a few industry sites:

BottledWaterWeb
International Bottled Water Association
Canadian Bottled Water Assocation
The Australasian Bottled Water Institute Inc.

Iceberg Water

Though I don't drink alcohol anymore, I've taken to regularly watching The Thirsty Traveler, which airs on the Fine Living Network. Each episode finds host Kevin Brauch traveling to a new locale to bring viewers the lowdown on a different type of alcoholic beverage.

An episode I saw not so long ago covered Iceberg Vodka. Now, there's more to this one than just a clever name, as the vodka is actually made from genuine iceberg water. Which got me to thinking that it might be interesting to brew up a fine cup of tea using the same.

As it turns out, Canada's Original Iceberg Water Corporation, in St. Johns, Newfoundland, the company that makes Iceberg Vodka, also offers the water in 500 ml and one liter sizes. According to their Web site, which features some very cooling graphics, they are currently out of iceberg water. No, this is not a global warming thing, but apparently a demand outstripping production thing and they hope to have the H2O back in stock by October.

So unless I go harvest some iceberg water on my own or happen to find a bottle of it elsewhere in the meantime, my experiment is going to have to wait.

If you're up around Newfoundland any time soon and you want to try some tea (or coffee) brewed with iceberg water, you might want to make a visit to Butler's By the Sea. The bed and breakfast claims to offer "coffee and tea made out of iceberg water (when in season)." Iceberg harvesting season, according to the Iceberg Water site, is May through July.

While we're on the subject of water and tea, this is as good a time as any to make mention of From Bud to Brew: Water's Role in the Growth of Tea, an excellent article by Monique Balas, as featured in the August issue of Fresh Cup Magazine. For whatever reason, I don't seem to be able to get a functional link directly to the article, so just go to the magazine's site and look around. It's there.