I’m an ice snob so I can’t throw too many cubes at the news that Los Angeles now has an official water sommelier. Jenn Harris, of the Los Angeles Times food blog The Daily Dish, reports Martin Riese completed a weeklong course in Germany to become the water sommelier for the Patina Group. Riese’s 20-bottle list ranges in price from $8 to $20 and includes waters from around the world such as Fiji, Voss, and Badoit alongside a limited edition bottle he created: Beverly Hills 90H20 ($12) which is made by blending Sierra Nevada springs water with several minerals. In Harris’ post Riese says:
“The hardest thing is to get the different waters into the country,” said Riese. “For instance, I’m a huge fan of Tasmania rainwater, it’s completely cool, but I can’t get it here in the United States. So I had to find like waters that I can actually access.”
That is such an easy target but I’m going to let it go. Diners in New York pay $2.50 for a glass of Manhattan filtered tap water at Molecule, a water café in the East Village. Many Dallas restaurants have expensive filtering systems and produce their own drinking water which comes in handy in August when Dallas tap water carries high notes of fertilizer. But $20 for a bottle of water?
