My Note: More importantly hard water is what is given to us by nature. That's what man has been drinking since millennia. Hard water is 'paleo'.
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Martin Riese, whose website describes him as “the world’s foremost expert on water”, directs his disdain at Glacéau Smartwater: “Sorry, Smartwater, but you are not a premium product,” he told me in his thick German accent. “You are a highly processed product and your water belongs in the trash can, nowhere else!” For Riese, a purist, “bottled water has to come from nature”. Any kind of processing is, he believes, “the biggest scam on planet Earth!”
Riese really, really loves water. “It started for me as a very small child,” he told me. “I was four years old, on vacation with my parents, and I was blown away by the fact that the tap water in the city tasted differently.” After school, he started working in restaurants in Germany, put together what was possibly the world’s first water menu in 2005 for a Berlin bistro, and wrote a book: Die Welt des Wassers (The World of Waters). “It’s a German book, so you’ll have to learn to read German to read it.”
Over the years, Riese has become part of water history. After receiving his certificate as a mineral water sommelier from the German Mineral Water Trade Association, he moved to America in 2010 and became that country’s first water sommelier. In 2013, he launched the longest water menu in Los Angeles at Ray’s and Stark Bar, and cofounded his own brand of mineral water: Beverly Hills 90H20.
This self-proclaimed “champagne of waters” quickly won FoodBev Media’s Beverage Innovation award for the “World’s Best Still or Sparkling Water”. A case of 24 500ml bottles is $72, while a bottle from the “Luxury Collection, Diamond Edition” will cost you $100,000. It has a white gold cap set with more than 850 white and black diamonds and holds the profoundly questionable honour of being the world’s most expensive bottle of water. If you buy it, Riese will present the bottle to you in person at a private water tasting anywhere in the world.
At present, Riese sommeliers at Patina, a restaurant in the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles. There, he guides the diners through his water menu, helping them to select the ideal water to accompany their meal.
Riese talked me through his technique.
First: “Do you prefer sparkling or flat?”
Then: “Do you prefer your bubbles a little bit more progressive, like very intense, or do you like your bubbles a little bit on the smaller side, like champagne bubbles, very tiny?”
Finally: “Do you prefer something on the high mineral end, on the salty and bitter side, or do you prefer something on the smoother side, with a lower mineral composition, like maybe a little bit on the fruitier side?”
“People will tell you right away, then, what they want,” said Riese. Perhaps the clientele at the Patina restaurant are better versed in the mineral composition and fruity or salty aspects of water than the rest of us. At a basic level, the taste of water varies according to the total dissolved solids (TDS) it contains. These solids can be any substance, but the key elements are sodium, magnesium and calcium. Any filtered or chemically treated tap water will usually contain fewer solids than a bottled water that still carries the minerals from the water’s source, be it glacial, maple sap or spring.
Fiji water, for example, contains 210mg TDS, including 18mg sodium, 13mg magnesium and 18mg calcium. (Fiji appears to have pulled off some fairly heavy-duty trademarking, including “Untouched by man™” and “Earth’s finest water™”.) Compare those numbers to San Pellegrino, which contains quadruple the TDS, at 925mg, including 33.6mg sodium, 53.8mg magnesium and 178mg calcium. Fiji, with far fewer solids, tastes smoother, while the San Pellegrino is bolder, saltier and naturally fizzy.
Nothing, however, compares to Riese’s favourite water, the Slovenian spring water Roi. “I’m always calling it the Big Boy,” said Riese. Roi has a TDS of 7,400mg, including more than 1,000mg of magnesium. For Riese, the experience of drinking this water is extraordinary, and emotional. He sits with a glass on its own – no mixer, no food, no distraction – as if he’s drinking a rare cognac. “This is something very, very special.”
Riese knows how his obsession with water might be perceived. “Some people think I’m the biggest scam artist,” he told me. He believes that he is simply applying the principle of wine to water – terroir. The taste of natural water, just like wine, is affected by geography, earth, the rock it passes through. And Roi is the ultimate example: “It has way more electrolytes than Gatorade,” Riese said, his voice climbing in ecstasy. “Think about it! Way more electrolytes than Gatorade! But it’s from Mother Nature!”
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/oct/06/liquid-assets-how--business-bottled-water-went-mad?curator=alphaideas&utm_source=alphaideas
***
Martin Riese, whose website describes him as “the world’s foremost expert on water”, directs his disdain at Glacéau Smartwater: “Sorry, Smartwater, but you are not a premium product,” he told me in his thick German accent. “You are a highly processed product and your water belongs in the trash can, nowhere else!” For Riese, a purist, “bottled water has to come from nature”. Any kind of processing is, he believes, “the biggest scam on planet Earth!”
Riese really, really loves water. “It started for me as a very small child,” he told me. “I was four years old, on vacation with my parents, and I was blown away by the fact that the tap water in the city tasted differently.” After school, he started working in restaurants in Germany, put together what was possibly the world’s first water menu in 2005 for a Berlin bistro, and wrote a book: Die Welt des Wassers (The World of Waters). “It’s a German book, so you’ll have to learn to read German to read it.”
Over the years, Riese has become part of water history. After receiving his certificate as a mineral water sommelier from the German Mineral Water Trade Association, he moved to America in 2010 and became that country’s first water sommelier. In 2013, he launched the longest water menu in Los Angeles at Ray’s and Stark Bar, and cofounded his own brand of mineral water: Beverly Hills 90H20.
This self-proclaimed “champagne of waters” quickly won FoodBev Media’s Beverage Innovation award for the “World’s Best Still or Sparkling Water”. A case of 24 500ml bottles is $72, while a bottle from the “Luxury Collection, Diamond Edition” will cost you $100,000. It has a white gold cap set with more than 850 white and black diamonds and holds the profoundly questionable honour of being the world’s most expensive bottle of water. If you buy it, Riese will present the bottle to you in person at a private water tasting anywhere in the world.
At present, Riese sommeliers at Patina, a restaurant in the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles. There, he guides the diners through his water menu, helping them to select the ideal water to accompany their meal.
Riese talked me through his technique.
First: “Do you prefer sparkling or flat?”
Then: “Do you prefer your bubbles a little bit more progressive, like very intense, or do you like your bubbles a little bit on the smaller side, like champagne bubbles, very tiny?”
Finally: “Do you prefer something on the high mineral end, on the salty and bitter side, or do you prefer something on the smoother side, with a lower mineral composition, like maybe a little bit on the fruitier side?”
“People will tell you right away, then, what they want,” said Riese. Perhaps the clientele at the Patina restaurant are better versed in the mineral composition and fruity or salty aspects of water than the rest of us. At a basic level, the taste of water varies according to the total dissolved solids (TDS) it contains. These solids can be any substance, but the key elements are sodium, magnesium and calcium. Any filtered or chemically treated tap water will usually contain fewer solids than a bottled water that still carries the minerals from the water’s source, be it glacial, maple sap or spring.
Fiji water, for example, contains 210mg TDS, including 18mg sodium, 13mg magnesium and 18mg calcium. (Fiji appears to have pulled off some fairly heavy-duty trademarking, including “Untouched by man™” and “Earth’s finest water™”.) Compare those numbers to San Pellegrino, which contains quadruple the TDS, at 925mg, including 33.6mg sodium, 53.8mg magnesium and 178mg calcium. Fiji, with far fewer solids, tastes smoother, while the San Pellegrino is bolder, saltier and naturally fizzy.
Nothing, however, compares to Riese’s favourite water, the Slovenian spring water Roi. “I’m always calling it the Big Boy,” said Riese. Roi has a TDS of 7,400mg, including more than 1,000mg of magnesium. For Riese, the experience of drinking this water is extraordinary, and emotional. He sits with a glass on its own – no mixer, no food, no distraction – as if he’s drinking a rare cognac. “This is something very, very special.”
Riese knows how his obsession with water might be perceived. “Some people think I’m the biggest scam artist,” he told me. He believes that he is simply applying the principle of wine to water – terroir. The taste of natural water, just like wine, is affected by geography, earth, the rock it passes through. And Roi is the ultimate example: “It has way more electrolytes than Gatorade,” Riese said, his voice climbing in ecstasy. “Think about it! Way more electrolytes than Gatorade! But it’s from Mother Nature!”
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/oct/06/liquid-assets-how--business-bottled-water-went-mad?curator=alphaideas&utm_source=alphaideas
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