Haven't blogged for a while; its easy to get out of sync with all of that.. anyway just back from a lovely weekend trip to Berkley Springs, WV, where I was one of 11 judges in the 19th annual International Water Tasting festival ... waters from all over the world, in 4 categories, including municipal water... very interesting, and the packages some of the water came in was interesting also... CNN carried footage from the event, which draws entries from Canada, Japan, Bosnia, etc.
Several Virginia bottlers are represented and in fact the best non-carbonated bottle water came from outside of Martinsville - for the second year in a row. Who knew?
The free hotel (2 nights) and free meals didn't hurt either. The people were interesting - one fellow judge had small roles on Third Rock from the Sun and the Young and Restless when he was an actor. Now he writes about water for a website that's all about water. And the Water Master for the event - Arthur von Weisenberger - travels around the world investigating - water. Again, who knew?
By the end of the night I had sampled about 100 different water samples for clarity, odor, taste, refreshment, aftertaste. I've sworn off water for a while. I could hear it sloshing around in my stomach when I was walking around at one point.
Interesting too was the 'water rush" at the end, when spectators - yes, there were spectators, plenty of 'em, water geeks and bottlers looking for a marketing boost that comes from winning a bronze, silver or gold, were allowed to grab bottles from an elaborate display set up from all of the entries. Bottles with an unusual shape - like one shaped like a flask - were the first target. One women got knocked over by folks who came prepared, with garbage bags to scoop up multiple bottles. No one got hurt though.
Check out Berkley Springs sometime; about 220 miles from Roanoke. George Washington owned several lots in the town there and bathed on the mineral springs that bubble up from the ground. The water in Berkley Springs itself one a bronze for best bottled water.
An international festival all about water- who knew? Now I do.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment