Avital Ungar, the founder and owner of Avital Tours – which offers award-winning culinary experiences – hosts water tastings to taste water like it’s wine.
Water, like wine, has terroir, and the composition of minerals in the water are correlated to where the water comes from, which impact the water’s taste.
Prior to Avital Tours' live water tasting, a box of five curated 750-ml bottles of fine waters (three still, two sparkling) arrive at the guests’ home along with three food tastings to pair with the waters, and a tap water test strip. Then guests log on to the virtual water tasting to interact with their emcee host and Certified Water Sommelier, who guides them through the tasting.
During the experience, guests learn how to taste water, where the flavor comes from, descriptive words used for water tastings, taste and compare the different waters, and learn to pair waters with foods.
“Our virtual water tasting can be used by restaurants and bars to train their staff on how to taste water, how to describe water, and how to help their guests choose a water to taste,” noted Ungar.
Profit Margin for Offering Premium Waters
Ungar said many 750 ml bottles of water can sell for $8 to $15 per bottle on a water menu at a bar or restaurant, and operators can see a 3x to 4x markup at their venue. “There are also a few ultra premium waters that sell for $100 to $150 retail on water menus [Svalbardi, Apsu]. The most important thing to realize is that this is an untapped – pun intended – revenue stream that is in addition to a beer/wine/cocktail program,” she said. Ungar noted that some bars and restaurants may just want to hire a water sommelier to just curate the menu and consult, while other venues may want a water sommelier on staff to host tastings, similar to having a wine sommelier on staff.
Along with Martin Riese, Michael Mascha, author of Fine Waters: A Connoisseur's Guide to the World's Most Distinctive Bottled Waters, started the Fine Water Academy in 2018 to train and certify water sommeliers worldwide. They say that it takes around six to 10 weeks to get certified as a water sommelier, depending on how many hours per week is dedicated to the content.
According to Mascha, water deserves a place on the table next to food and wine, but it's not easy to change perceptions and habits. “While consumers demand better choices of natural water and order from portfolio distributors for home use, restaurants and the hospitality industry in general still resists change to a very large extent,” he said. “It would be nice to believe the restaurants care about our dining experience to guide and curate some special moments far beyond just feeding us. The problem is that when I ask a restaurant with hundreds of wines on the menu and the name of the farm where the duck is coming from on the menu, ‘What waters do you have?’ the uninspiring answer is ‘Still or sparkling.’”
Mascha said he talks to many water brands through the Fine Water Society, and they tell him the same story. The restaurant buys the cheapest water possible, usually San Pellegrino and Acqua Panna, from a large distributor. They insist that they cannot afford 25 cents more for a bottle of fine water from a smaller, more exciting brand. The restaurant usually puts a factor of 6x to 10x on the sale of water, but it’s still too cheap to give consumers a choice and not bore them with the same waters the can buy at a gas station for a fraction of the cost.
Taking Water Seriously
Depending on style and scope, a water menu should be curated and reflect the restaurant's style, food and scope, consisting of five to 20 waters. “By curated, we mean not just buying the 10 waters that are the cheapest and easiest to get,” said Mascha. “One needs to look at the menu and, together with the chef, create an offering of waters that accompanies the restaurant dishes perfectly. The water menu should have suggestions and options for celebrating with water or enjoying a meal without alcohol. There should be attention paid to the bottled water etiquette, stemware, serving temperature, and education of the wait staff to inform and guide the guest's choices.”
Mascha said consumers should demand a choice of water when they’re in a fine dining situation and they should tell the staff that they can buy San Pellegrino, Panna or Evian at the gas station for $1, and that they deserve a better choice and attention paid to the water service.
“The current still or sparkling is not a choice for water if you have 100 wines on your wine menu,” said Mascha. “We need six to 10 waters with different characteristics matched to the food that the chef is preparing and curated by a water sommelier. Changing the water you drink with different courses is as natural as changing wine from with different dishes.”
A simple rule for matching water with food is to consider what wine you would drink with the dish. “Super low and low TDS waters are akin to white wines, from crisp green to more substantial whites,” shared Mascha. “Medium to high minerality waters start to mirror light to medium reds, and the very high minerality waters feel like big, bold red wines.”
Restaurants would be wise to offer a selection of water, revealed Mascha. “The guest has a better experience, and the water service can be a revenue center, as Martin Riese has shown with his water menus," he said. "The revenue for water sales increased by 400 percent. In addition, as a water menu is something new, there is a lot of social media visibility for a restaurant with a water menu.”
To learn more about Avital Tours and its water tastings, visit AvitalTours.com. To learn more about becoming a Certified Water Sommelier, visit FineWaterAcademy.com.
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