Los Angeles has a water sommelier, and now Dublin has a café with a water tasting menu. The beverage offering was recently added to the menu at the popular coffee house 3FE, where investment banker turned roaster Colin Harmon is slinging four shots of different waters for €3.50 or $3.70. Though it’s not exactly clear how many people Harmon expects to order the item, he says its purpose is to get his customers to think about how their coffee’s flavor is affected by the quality and content of the water used to brew it. It also sounds like he’s just tired of customers who buy his beans and blame him for a bad cup at home when really, he says, it’s crappy water at work.
There is still free water available for those who’d rather design their own water experience, but predictably not all customers have responded positively to the idea of charging $4 for the basic resource. Harmon tells The Independent that the response has been “the least fun experience” he’s had since opening the shop, and he’ll be donating all proceeds to the Irish charity Zoe, which helps people in Africa get access to clean water. It’s high time that people began taking Jeffrey Steingarten to task for starting this madness.
