AQUIEM: Coffee Brewed Right

We love coffee as much as the next person, and enjoy every sip of our morning cup of joe. For years, we have been using Nespresso coffee and their machines and love the simplicity of getting a great cup with little effort. Nespresso's coffee beans are great quality so when we recently discovered AQUIEM we were interested in testing it out with our machine.

AQUIEM sells boxed water to use when making coffee. Their water is purified specifically to include the minerals that enhance flavor and exclude all the bad stuff - like chlorine, zinc, copper, and acids you find in regular tap water. This water is meant to enhance coffee's taste and aroma. Hmmm... It sounded sort of ridiculous when we first read about it, how different can your coffee taste just by changing what water you use to brew it?! 

After testing AQUIEM though, we changed our minds. We decided to test it with both a drip coffee method and our Nespresso machine to see how different they tasted. We felt like we were back in high school working on our science project!

 Hypothesis: There would be no taste difference.

Method: Follow every instruction given to us by AQUIEM, while also measuring and cleaning everything precisely. Like many science projects our hypothesis was proven wrong.

Conclusion: We did taste a difference, enough to say the coffee tasted better with the AQUIEM water than when brewed with the tap water. The AQUIEM water made the coffee have less of a mineral taste and created a smoother finish.

We would definitely recommend this product to coffee connoisseurs or anyone who enjoys a perfect cup of coffee!

Happy Brewing!

xxx Ivy & Eve

Thank you AQUIEM for providing the products for this post.

The Mighty Cherry Margarita

In the spirit of Cinco de Mayo, we wanted to share one of our favorite margarita recipes! These cherry margaritas combine Ivy's need for sweetness and Eve's preference for fresh flavors. We like to make these when cherries are in season, and we can buy them at our local farmers market, but we have also used thawed frozen cherries with equally tasty results. These margs are perfect for warm summer days by the pool or at your next backyard bbq. ¡Salud!

xxx Ivy & Eve

Makes one cocktail.

Ingredients

• 12 fresh sweet cherries, pitted

• 1/4 cup tequila

• 2 tbsp. fresh lime juice

• 2 tbsp. blue agave syrup

• 1 tbsp. Triple Sec

• Sparkling water (optional)

• 1 lime slice, for garnish

Directions

1. Place cherries in a cocktail shaker (or whatever you have on hand) and muddle them with a muddler or a wooden spoon until they are mashed and juicy. 

2. Add tequila, Triple Sec, lime juice, agave syrup, and ice.

3. Cover cocktail shaker tightly and shake well. 

4. Pour and filter into a glass of ice. 

5. ¡Salud!

TIP: If you would like to add a bit of bubble to your marg (or you like a more mellow cocktail), add a splash or two of sparkling water (or bubbly, we won't tell!)