Subscribe to this blog's feedNow here’s a sign of the (madness of our) times. Top London eatery Claridge’s has a water list that stretches to no fewer than 30 choices. Other top nosheries have similarly extensive offerings.
And these options don’t come cheap. You really can pay the equivalent of an arm and a leg for bottled water these days. So-called 420 Volcanic (which hails from New Zealand) sets you back £21 for a 420ml bottle at Claridge’s, which makes it over fifty quid a litre (and don’t even think about the air miles).
The bottled water of choice, apparently, among the cinema folk of Hollywood is Bling H20. It sells at around £33 for a 750ml bottle. The bottle comes decorated with Swarowski crystals.
The $64,000 question, of course, is whether these bottles of the wet stuff taste any better than what is available from the tap courtesy of your friendly local water company.
At a recent blind tasting of 22 commercially available bottled waters from around the world, plus one straight from the tap (from Thames Water) and one filtered tap water, a team of professional guzzlers put the humble tap water right up there with its expensive bottled counterparts.
According to a feature in February’s Decanter.com, these were the top three according to a group of discerning palates. Number one was Waiwera (from New Zealand), which sets you back £9 a litre at Claridge’s. One taster described it thus: “Palate is fat and richly textured. This is ripe and refreshing with a slightly salty tang.”
Second was a bottle of Vittel (59p for 1.5 litres from Tesco). This was hailed as “very attractive with a clean, soft palate that has plenty of fresh purity and neutrality”.
However, third (and trashing any amount of bottled stuff from Japan, Canada, Wales, France, Italy, Denmark, Norway, California and other sources in New Zealand) was eau de tap de Thames. It costs around 0.6p per litre. It was described thus: “Clear pure appearance and similarly pure nose. Clean taste and soft texture. Attractive.”
For the record, the Bling H20 came in a disappointing 22nd (“heavy, oily and short length. Unpleasant”), while the filtered tap water came in 24th (“Rather dull and short. Okay for refreshment, but that’s it. Totally lacks character”). Oops.
