What It's Like to Taste With America's Only Water Sommelier
Martin Riese is used to skeptics.
As the "water sommelier" for Los Angeles's Patina Restaurant Group, he's in the business of convincing customers that they should pay a premium for a beverage that most people think should taste like nothing.
Riese says he can convert anyone into believing that we should all be drinking mineral water-each type of which has its own distinct flavor profile.
To demonstrate, Riese recently took me through a tasting of four different waters, set up from mild to robust, like a wine tasting. Riese gives me the breakdown on "the three biggest letters in my life:" TDS, which stands for Total Dissolved Solids. These dissolved minerals and salts give the water its terroir, so to speak (the type of solids depends on where the water is from) and the more there are, the stronger the taste of the water.
Taste Test: Fiji
We start with supermarket staple Fiji (a brand that Riese represents). I take a sip and he asks me what I think. What I'm thinking to myself is well …. it's watery, and don't say much. He jumps in to help me out, asking if it's salty or smooth, bitter or fruity. I tell him it's smooth and definitely not bitter, but I can't detect any fruit notes.
"I think the cool thing about Fiji water is it has texture in my mouth," Riese says, comparing it to the silky mouth feel of olive oil or whole milk. That comes from the high silica content in the water, which give it a particular mouth feel. He says it pairs well with spicy food because it suppresses some of the heat while letting flavor shine through.
Fiji has a TDS level of 222. Riese compares that to the TDS of purified water, which hovers around 20 to 30. He thinks companies that sell purified water, which is tap water that's filtered and then has some electrolytes added for taste, is "the biggest scam on planet Earth," a sort of processed food equivalent of water that strips out beneficial nutrients and minerals that add character.
Taste Test: Iskilde
We move next to Iskilde, a water from a spring in Denmark, which has a TDS of 400, but is notable for its high oxygen content. When Riese shakes the bottle, it takes on a milky appearance from bubbles. There aren't any health benefits, because humans can't absorb the oxygen, but Riese says the bubbles scrub the palate between bites much like a carbonated water would do, in a still form. He thinks the water has an earthy, mushroomy taste and would go well with a truffle dish or a cheese pizza with mushrooms. Riese, who was trained in wine in his native Germany, thinks it would also pair nicely with a Burgundy wine, which would have a similar "earthiness."
Riese started making these sort of recommendations back in Berlin in 2005, when a customer told him he didn't like the way water tasted. It reminded Riese of when he was a child and he used to compare all the tap water from cities he would visit. He created a water list for his restaurant in Berlin, which was met with a sort of "Oh geez, only in Berlin" attitude, but people were fascinated. In 2008, he wrote a book on water, and in 2011, he was certified as a water expert by the German Mineral Water Association. He obtained a 0-1 Visa to the United States, based on his unique knowledge and expertise of water. He remains the only certified water expert in the United States, but says hundreds in Germany and Asia are now going through the process.
Taste Test: Vichy Catalan
We move on to Vichy Catalan, a top-selling brand of bottled mineral water in Spain. It's very bubbly, and very salty, and Riese says when he brought the water on Conan, Conan O'Brien spit it out.
"It's quite something," Riese said, and added that if I kept in mind the richness of Spanish sausages and paella, the water would stand up to it.
Taste Test: ROI
Our final water is one that you can't even buy in the United States and which Riese gets from Slovenia for tastings. ROI, which at a whopping 7,400 TDS, is no longer considered a "hydration product" but a medication, has a strong metallic smell and tastes of magnesium. Riese shies away from making any outright health claims, but says he drinks it after a night out to prevent hangovers, calling it Mother Nature's Red Bull. I can't imagine anyone swigging down this water for fun.
While I could certainly tell the difference between those four waters, even if I wasn't picking up on any fruit notes, it's pretty easy to be swayed by the gregarious Riese, who is so enthusiastic about getting Americans to expand their water palate that you want to become a believer.
And while water lists have existed at a few restaurants around the globe for several years without catching on, it's worth noting that most people have a favorite brand of water. Mark Dubois, a natural resource manager for Poland Spring, tells me that people's preferred "taste" for water usually depends on where they grew up or what their parents bought, which can determine if you, say, love or hate Evian or Zephyrhills. Poland Spring employs several water tasters, who make sure the taste of their spring water remains consistent and up to snuff.
Riese just wants to take that experience to the next level, and hopes by drawing attention to the world of high-end waters he can help boost respect for the natural resource.
"Every single person in America should have access to clean and safe drinking water," he says (T&C cover star Matt Damon, a co-founder of Water.org, agrees). "When we understand water as taste it will help everybody. We're living on the same planet and we all have to save water. It's extremely important."
For more of T&C's tasting with Riese, watch our live video:
