Bottled Water Tasting Workshop

We’ll taste test up to 20 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.

Does water have flavor? Is there a difference 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. We'll keep your whistle wet in this nonalcoholic tasting class.

Tasting Tap

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 (TDS) in water with a TDS meter.

Is Bottled Water Better?

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 where to look for highly-rated brands. We’ll learn how waters differ according to type of source, mineral makeup, TDS, pH and more.

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. We'll taste some brands you've heard of, and several you probably haven't.

Read a review of the class by former SF Chronicle Food Critic Soleil Ho.

Location and Instructor

Classes are limited to 8 people. Class takes place in an office on the 6th 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 years, and has taught classes on water to more than 200 bartenders and consumers.

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. To stay informed about all of Camper's classes, please join the Alcademics Newsletter, which goes out monthly.

Want to book a private class? Reach out any time!

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