Germany has hundreds of mineral water brands. Sommelier Andre Uhlig explains how to tell them apart and discover their flavor profiles.
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00:00Forget wine or gin tasting, I'm going to participate in a water tasting today. Cheers!
00:06Hold up. Water tasting? Yes, that's right.
00:10There are 812 officially recognized mineral waters in Germany alone.
00:15So there must be differences, right?
00:19What exactly happens at a water tasting? And what can we learn about the liquid?
00:24First thoughts?
00:29Very sweet.
00:30Yes.
00:31I'm good.
00:32And with diminishing groundwater levels worldwide, should we be thinking of water as an indulgence?
00:38To get answers to these questions, I'm meeting up with André Uhlig, a water sommelier from Dresden, in his Aquatique today.
00:46A learned hotelier, Uhlig observed that the children in his daycare reacted differently to food and drink than adults.
00:52This prompted him to learn more about water.
00:56He wants to use the tastings to highlight the value of water.
01:06Sustainability is of utmost importance. In his Aquatique, he serves mineral water exclusively from Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
01:13We differentiate waters by analyzing the four central flavors. Salty, sour, sweet and bitter.
01:23So we can orient ourselves. And of course the flavors won't be like fireworks, but very gentle.
01:28We start with a blind tasting. Cheers to a good tasting.
01:40Sour, sweet, salty, bitter.
01:43So my first impression is sour.
01:45Right. I deliberately chose that because of the slight perlage, or carbonation. The carbonic acid gives a slight acidity.
01:55So my first impression is sour.
02:00On to water number two.
02:04First impressions.
02:05Sweet.
02:06Yes.
02:08I am good.
02:10Using tea bags, Andre demonstrates how waters differ in their ability to absorb substances, like green tea in this case.
02:18It's easy to identify by the flavor intensity of the drink.
02:24Waters also vary in pH.
02:26They can be acidic, alkaline or neutral, as a sommelier demonstrates.
02:30After the tasting, Henrietta goes round Dresden to ask, what do you look for in water?
02:39I also feel like sparkling water for me is like, it comes closer to like an energy drink or like something fizzy.
02:46I like more a little bit sparkling.
02:48What water do I drink? Just from the tap.
02:51Tap water in Germany is strictly controlled and can generally be drunk anywhere.
02:55Even though tap water in Germany is of such high quality, many Germans still prefer to drink mineral water.
03:05After coffee, mineral water is the Germans' favorite drink and there's even a mineral water day in Germany.
03:13An absolute trendsetter in Germany for a long time, sparkling water.
03:17For some, however, plain old water is not enough.
03:25The trending TikTok hashtag, WaterTalk, has over 100,000 posts showing users turn their once boring water into colorful drinks with syrups and glittering powders.
03:36Their water of the day.
03:37But increasingly, the world has a water problem, largely due to climate change.
03:46The hotter it gets, the more water evaporates away from where it's needed.
03:51This is also a noticeable trend in Germany.
03:54The UN predicts that by 2050 more than half of humanity will not have enough drinking water.
04:00Gerhard Rappold is an expert in international development.
04:08Water, he says, needs more attention.
04:11Unlike with climate change, water campaigns have failed to become a global movement.
04:18And that's a shame.
04:22If you look at the UN, there's no major organization for water.
04:27There's targeted aid from UN water, where organizations coordinate on individual aspects.
04:35But there isn't a focus on water in general.
04:39So should we really be treating water as a luxury?
04:43And his water sommelier André Ullig focusing on the wrong aspects entirely.
04:49Over two billion people have no access to clean drinking water.
04:53Do you think water tastings are a bit too decadent?
04:57I think having appreciation for this natural resource makes us responsible.
05:03Makes us think about NGOs or private initiatives in these countries to change the fact.
05:07And there are initiatives by mineral water companies, too, that have taken up the cause of supporting social projects around the world.
05:18However inconspicuous at first glance, water is extremely multifaceted.
05:24And the foundation of life itself.