Choosing from an expansive wine list can be a challenge, and as a result, many restaurants provide the services of a sommelier to help patrons choose. At Ray’s and Stark Bar, a restaurant at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, you can also enjoy the services of the country’s only water sommelier, Martin Riese. Martin compiled a 44-page menu of waters for diners to choose from and he happily provides pairing suggestions for his customers. If you are in the Los Angeles area, you can even attend a water tasting class with Martin. Listen to the interview with Taylor below.
After speaking with Martin about the complexities of water, we wanted to try a water tasting of our own. Martin provided a list of three waters he recommended for an at home tasting. We were unable to find Gerolsteiner--Trader Joe's in Nashua was sold out--so we supplemented with a couple of other choices that were readily available. Listen to our tasting session below.
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Maureen chose Voss, but she mentioned that it was mostly because of the nice glass bottle. We really couldn't taste a difference between the still waters.
We supplemented Martin's list and added a few more waters for our in studio tasting.
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Logan chose Hawaiian because she swears it was a better taste than the other still choices, but Taylor and Maureen weren't buying her story.
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S. Pellegrino was the clear favorite for sparkling mineral waters, and Taylor chose it as his top sparkling water, but his pick for still water is good old fashioned tap water.
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Blú Italy can also be purchased at Trader Joe's and was the substitute for the sold out Gerolsteiner. According to the label it had a smaller TDS (total dissolved solids) number than S. Pellegrino, and it seemed considerably more fizzy.
Martin was on Conan last year and did a late night water tasting.