by Marshall on Tue Jul 31, 2007 7:47 pm Ken Fox wrote:In a place like Southern California, where no one but family pets drink the tap water and 5 gallon bottled water jugs are scattered throughout the house, with replacements delivered to your door every week, perhaps this makes sense. For most people living elsewhere who would need to buy bottled water at the supermarket and pay by the liter, do you think this is a very attractive option? Many people live in places where the water is soft and relatively boiler safe. Others who live in hard water areas may find that they need or want to soften the water in the entire house, in which case the household softened water can be used. In many cases, cation softened water will produce very good espresso shots; just ask the Italians for whom this is normal. And the tiny amount of sodium one would ingest in their espresso shots is not worth worrying about
I could be wrong (I often am), but I believe just about every serious coffee bar in the country uses water treatment. This is not just to minimize descaling routines, but for flavor balance. Cirqua Water Systems may be based in Southern California, but they have coffee shop customers all over the country.
Even our beloved Brooklyn friend, Fortune Elkins, who has the benefit of some of the best tap water in the U.S. uses bottled water (Volvic, I believe). I'm also pretty sure that home delivery of bottled water is available in most, if not all, metropolitan areas of the country (I've had clients in the business for years).
