A United Kingdom restaurant makes history with its first water letter. Free tap water also serves

If we look for the definition of a sommelier, the RAE It presents us with the following: “Wine expert and liquors who, in large hotels, restaurants, etc., suggests customers the appropriate drink for the occasion.” Do not go to the SAR: Wikipedia It says the same. We understand by sommelier, or Sommelier, an expert in pairing who knows which wine fits better with different dishes. Amazon even has a ‘telesumillers’ servicebut there may soon be a new meaning for Sommelier: Water expert.

In 2011 the Water sommelier uniona professional and international association that was born in Germany and that appeared with a single purpose: to promote the professional, training and economic interests of water sommeliers to defend the culture of mineral water.

It is not the only one that exists, since there is also the Doemens Academy In Germany or the Fine Water Academy In the United States, as well as some associations in countries such as Italy or China. And, in the same way that there is a wine letter in some restaurants, the objective of these water experts is that there are unique premises for a very specific reason.

A select water letter.

Wine letter … and waters

Doemens is very clear that “Not all waters are the same”And, apart from giving training in German, English and Mandarin, in 2024 they began to form Sumillers in Spanish. Describe The task of the sommelier of water such as “disseminating and providing knowledge about the quality, characteristics, variety of brands and the value of excellent mineral waters.”

Although it is a minority, in the international panorama, profiles such as Martin Riese, the first ‘Sommelier’ Certificate of the United States, but also the British Doran Binder begin to flour.

Binder, with a very active profile in Instagramwhere he has more than 55,000 followers, he is a sommelier who supplied the water of his brand -crag spring water- to the British restaurant The Popote. It is a French -style restaurant that is in the Micheli GuideNY in which they have a letter with about 140 varieties of wine.

At some point a few years ago, and as they expose in CNNBinder approached the owners of the Popote to propose something: a menu of water. At first, they thought “It was a ridiculous idea”but they changed their minds when they attended a water tasting. Of that “ridiculous idea”, the owners went to “the water is not just water.”

The tasting was similar to what is done with beer or wine. First, they tested about six varieties, but then made a second tasting with the same waters, but accompanied by food such as Manchego cheese, comte, chocolate, olives or parma ham. That’s when they realized that the taste “changed” and that they appreciated that certain waters married better with certain foods.

Convinced, they let Binder devise the menu, becoming the first in the United Kingdom to have a Water letter which offers its product (five pounds per bottle) up to 19 pounds, about 25 euros, for The Palace of Lifego, a gas with gas from Portugal. There are also Spanish, Italian and French waters.

Ok, very good, but … what are you selling me? According to Binder, the water key is TDS, or dissolved total solitos. In the statements to CNN, “the measure of minerals is what determines the flavor and taste. The destined water has a zero TDS.”It is fantastic for cleaning windows and for the carbut lousy for humans, ”he said.

The range it offers in the restaurant goes from the 14 TDS of the mineral water with Lauretana gas to the 3,300 of Vichy Celastins. The Vichy Catalan, which is another product that is usually seen in waters, It has about 2,900 TDS. At the opposite, sea would be between 30,000 and 40,000 TDS.

And it is, as with wine, to extol the taste of everything. If the French water they serve is “quite salty, you have to combine it with something that is saved, like a parma ham, and both are balanced. So, the water no longer knows salty and what remains is a more durable flavor of the ham in the mouth,” says Joseph Rawlins, owner of the Popote.

Eye, they also have tap water as courtesy. I imagine that it will be equivalent to Ask for a torrefact in a specialty cafeteria.

Apart from this, in a context in which Alcohol consumption is decreasinghaving “gurmet” options of without alcohol is something that makes all the meaning.

How to serve the water

In the end, it is what is sought when you seek to exalize flavors mixing elements that seem not to stick, such as salt chocolate, for example. If we want to do this at home, there are tricks.

Joanna Vallejo It is a wine sommelier that has also specialized in the water and has offered some tips To enjoy at home a better experience when enjoying water and rest of food:

• Read the label to find the origin.
• If you drink wine, accompany the glass of a glass of quality with gas, since that acidity point will make the flavors of the wine are enhanced.
• Use correct water. For example, for spicy or acids, use gas with gas. For softer foods such as salads or fish, waters with less minerals. And for more forceful meat or food, water with a higher mineral profile.
• Do not put ice in the glass because what you will do will be the same thing that happens with coffee: to await and mix a high profile water with another that is from the tap (no matter how good some are).

And the most important thing about this (because, like me, you have raised an eyebrow thinking that now you will have to wear a monocle every time you are hot and drink a glass of water): Joanna herself comments that It is interesting to have two waters at home: the one that serves to hydrate and the one you want to enjoy (you will have to start to Understand water labelsOh).

It may seem a pilgrim, but I recently fond of water with gas and I took it as I before drinking a beer: little by little while cooking or ceno. And I would never think I would consider something like a water base in a kind of “experience.”

Images | The Popote

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