While we like to talk about coffee here I find a lot of cross over in other fields like wine tasting and fine dining, being able to taste sweetness, complexity, acidity, tannins adds so much to the experience of drinking and tasting coffee. The best thing about tasting coffee is that it doesn't just stop at coffee, developing your pallet and sense of taste will allow you to explore so much more of the world around you.
This year at the Australian coffee competitions I caught up with my good friend Darren Meecham who kindly shared 2 bottles of King Island Cloud Juice. One bottle was carbonated and the other still.
King Island Cloud Juice is wrapped in a beautiful glass bottle and labeled to look like a fine wine, far from the bottled water we are used to seeing on supermarket shelves.
Just like an expensive wine this water is meant to be tasted, not for when you are thirsty and what lays in this bottle is much more than just water. Like the upside down umbrella logo suggests this water is actually made from rain, harvested in from King Island, Tasmania.
It all began with Duncan's realisation that numerous friends would visit his residence to collect rainwater from his tank due to the unpleasant taste of the town's water. In 1997, Duncan embarked on his journey with Cloud Juice, and it was in 1999 that he experienced a major breakthrough when the renowned Colette Water Bar in Paris chose to include his water in their inventory. The news rapidly circulated, propelling Cloud Juice to secure a coveted spot on the menu at the legendary El Bulli Restaurant, an establishment acclaimed as The World's Best Restaurant, having earned that title an impressive five times.
So if you have made it this far reading my article I want you to think of water differently, as I am sure most people at some stage 'just drank coffee' not thinking past the energy and buzz that came from it. Everyone drinks water and when it comes down to it being able to think of water more as an experience rather than hydration you can taste so much more.
While this soft rain water wont come across as a crazy heavy mineral water, the mineral composition and terroir will effect the taste and be a much different experience from your tap water.
Water has taste.
Water Analysis (mg/l):
TDS: 45 (Very Low)
Ca: 0.51
Cl: 19
Fe: 0.05
Mg: <0.05
NO3: 0.45
K: 0.92
Na: 9.37
SO4: <2.00
PH 6.81