Berkeley Springs International Water Tasting Is an Art Form

Tin You lot Taste The Difference Between Waters?

At the Berkeley Springs International H2o Tasting Festival, the life-sustaining substance is put to the test.

By Bailey Brammer

Water: tasteless beverage or full of flavor? Art by Kati Kirsch — H2o: tasteless beverage or full of flavor? *Art by* *Kati Kirsch*

Mayhap yous've never thought about information technology — or perhaps you lot've idea nearly information technology a lot — but where you get your water and who you purchase it from can drastically bear on its gustatory modality and season. It's the reason why some people are staunch Fiji drinkers, while others swear past Smart Water.

Taste, of course, is subjective and highly specific to the individual consuming the item. But that hasn't stopped one community in W Virginia from hosting an annual water testing festival each winter.

Each February, hundreds of people flock to Berkeley Springs — a small town with a population just over 600 — to participate in the Berkeley Springs International H2o Tasting.

A panel of judges tests the dozens of waters submitted each year, which totaled more than 100 at 2019's festival, with entrants hailing from all over the world. Participants can enter several categories, including bottled not-carbonated waters, purified drinking waters, and sparkling waters, and the judges taste and score them based on various criteria.

"In that location's a lot to information technology," Jill Klein Rone, ane of the upshot coordinators, told OK Whatever.

"At that place's the odour check, there's the sipping and the actual tasting, there's the swishing information technology around in your mouth and seeing how it feels. There are all of these things to consider when you taste water. It takes a trivial bit of thought."

Five judges from a past Berkeley Springs Water Tasting Festival. Photo: Berkeley Springs — Five judges from a by Berkeley Springs Water Tasting Festival. *Photo:* *Berkeley Springs*

The Berkeley Springs Water Tasting festival began in 1991 equally a way to increase tourism in the area during the wintertime. It has since grown into an impactful effect for the water community, with many companies vying for a win that they tin can so brag about on their labels.

"There are bottles of water all over the world that have Berkeley Springs gold medals, argent medals, and bronze medals on their labels," Rone said. "Sometimes the merely English language on the label is 'Berkeley Springs International H2o Tasting.'"

Typically, the people selected as judges have trivial to no background in the ways of water, which is seen as a forcefulness and not a weakness because they won't come with preconceived notions about specific brands or bottling sources.

Rossilynne Skena Culgan, one of the 10 judges from this year's water tasting festival, told OK Whatever that they get trained by Arthur von Wiesenberger, likewise known as the H2o Main, before the initial tasting. The tastings are open to the public, and Culgan said at that place were a lot of rules she had to adhere to as a judge.

"We were told to avoid spicy foods, coffee, alcohol, and chewing gum," Culgan said. "[Nosotros were told] not to wear perfume or cologne considering the smells could interfere with the tasting, and you're seated pretty close to the other judges, and so we were told non to make any verbal reactions … because nosotros didn't desire to impact each other'south ratings."

Culgan also said the judges took breaks between the tastings and ate crackers to help cleanse their palettes. As far as differentiating betwixt the various types of h2o, Culgan said the Water Main taught them a specific process to stick to.

Judges were instructed to brainstorm by holding up the glass to appraise whether the water is colorless, cloudy, or had suspended particles. Culgan said the best way to do this was to hold the glass of water upwardly to a light and then identify a sail of white paper behind the glass. While most waters scored perfectly in this category, Culgan said there were a few entrants that did indeed have visible floating specks.

"You're kind of trying to utilize all of your senses. You start with sight, and then move to smell," Culgan said.

"It's a little unlike than wine tasting. You're asked to do three short sniffs. I didn't expect at that place to be any smells, but I actually ended upward finding a lot. You find waters that olfactory property like chemicals, some olfactory property similar mildew, like chlorine, things like that."

You'll never look at tap the water same after being a judge at the Berkeley Springs Water Tasting Festival. — You'll never expect at tap the water same later beingness a judge at the Berkeley Springs Water Tasting Festival.

When information technology'south finally time to taste the samples, judges at the water tasting festival must determine whether the water has a clean, fresh quality to it, or whether it tastes musty, salty, or just non fresh in general. After the initial taste, judges are asked to "mouth experience" the water, which Culgan said is common in beer tastings, and refers to whether the water feels lighter or heavier on the tongue.

"I thought that would be really difficult," Culgan said, "just one time you starting time tasting them, you can really feel the divergence."

There is also an palatableness component to the scoring, where judges are asked to identify whether the h2o quenched their thirst and if whatever rest was left on their tongues. All of the scoring is done past assigning numbers to each brand of h2o, and the tastes are all blind tests.

"I was quite nervous to do the tasting because I'd never tasted water in this way. There is quite a science behind it, and once we started, it was really evident to come across the difference in different waters."

Afterward judging the water tasting festival, Culgan said her perception of what type of water she's drinking has inverse, specifically when information technology comes from a tap.

"I do call back I'1000 more aware of the components of tap h2o, particularly the odour and how it feels on your palette," she said. "I feel more than attuned to that when I'm at a restaurant or when I'one thousand at someone's house that lives in a different area than I do."

As for bottled water, Culgan said she has become more observant of packaging after her stint as a h2o connoisseur, because ane of the categories in the competition focuses on presentation rather than taste.

"They have different waters there that people can adore the bottling [of]," she said. "At that place were some that were exquisite. A lot of the places where we got to look at their water, they were using really interesting cans or different kinds of bottles. I think we're then used to the Dasani or Aquafina bottle, but this has really opened my eyes."

As for people who take never participated in a water tasting, Culgan said anyone could larn these principles and apply them to their own h2o. Withal, she said it might be hard to discern a difference if you're simply drinking one blazon of water at a fourth dimension considering at that place's no sense of comparison.

This yr's winners were from Canada, New Zealand and Norway, with Canada continuously taking the top spots in about categories of the contest. Brands from Arkansas and Colorado ended up taking third or fourth in a few categories.

Brands from the United States, like this one, typically do not take home awards at the Berkeley Springs Water Tasting Festival.

While Culgan said she didn't know which waters were her favorites considering of the blind tastes, Rone, who helps run the festival, said her water of choice comes from Bosnia.

"Dorsum in the '90s, a friend of ours was working in the Red Cross in Bosnia," she said. "He was in this niggling town that had a castle…and information technology had really nifty water. He helped go their sparkling water sent to our contest, and information technology won."

To Rone, the most important part of the water tasting festival is the seminar which happens earlier the competition, because it brings attending to bug the water community is facing.

But there's another part of the water tasting festival that she also enjoys: collecting the bottles. Whether they're used as absurd decor or a refreshing beverage, she'south found they brand for corking gifts.