I had the honor of being a member of the jury when one of the semi-finals in Svenskt Vatten's competition "Sweden's best tap water" was to be chosen. It was a nice event at Vakin, the municipality's water and waste company, here in Umeå. The jury tried six different tap water from Robertsfors, Umeå, Vindeln, Örnsköldsvik, Nordmaling and Skellefteå.
The jury included Dave Orman, beer sommelier from TC Mat & Bar, Gunilla Hultgren Karell, sommelier and wine writer (and chairman of the jury), Pär Strömberg, wine writer and then me. Luckily I just got my sommelier diploma for this was difficult and I benefited greatly from my education and having tasted many different types of drinks. But it was the first time I tried several waters against each other so now I can too. Wondered if the jury could get wine to rinse their mouth with between the water glasses but got no to that suggestion.
The jury members put individual points on all waters and the points were then added up. Our descriptions of the wines, no sorry, the waters, were surprisingly similar both in terms of aroma and taste, however, we had slightly different views on what was best and what you want out of a water. Should a water taste something or should it be completely neutral and just quench your thirst? My two favorites were completely different from each other, one had a tone of minerals and weak saltiness. I would like to drink that with a meal. The other water was completely neutral, it would be best to quench your thirst after training or a hot summer day. But I probably would not have felt these faint tones if I had not compared to something else at the same time.
Two finalists were finally selected, Vindeln and Örnsköldsvik. What my favorites were, I let it be a secret* but regardless, all the water was very high quality. We have very good water in Sweden, something we should be both proud of and humble about, considering that we wash the car, water the garden, shower and consume our fine drinking water for lots of different things besides just drinking it. At the same time we buy lots of bottled water in the store. Now we end it, I think.
https://vakin.se/
https://www.svensktvatten.se/medlemsservice/kampanjer/kranvattentavlingen/
* can be bad mood 🙂
