Berkeley Springs International Water Tasting Awards
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE -- FEBRUARY
23, 2008
Travel Berkeley Springs - Berkeley Springs, WV
Press contact only: Jill Klein Rone -- 304-258-3302
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LOS ANGELES NABS THE GOLD AT ACADEMY AWARDS OF WATER IN BERKELEY SPRINGS
BERKELEY SPRINGS, WV ----- While stars gather in Los Angeles for the Academy
Awards, their drinking water was judged best in the world in tiny Berkeley
Springs, West Virginia which hosted the 18th annual Berkeley Springs
International Water Tasting, known as the Academy Awards of water. Title of the
Best Municipal Water in 2008 is shared by the Metropolitan Water District of
Southern California which services much of Los Angeles, and Clearbrook, British
Columbia. Metropolitan Water District was a gold medal winner in 1998 and has
placed in the top five, four other years since. Clearbrook was the silver medal
winner in 2007.
For the first time in the history of the event, there were ties for both the
gold and silver -- and both ties involved a Southern California and a British
Columbia water. Three of the four are previous gold medal winners at the event.
"Good water rises to the top," said Jill Klein Rone, event producer.
"Our tasting process is vindicated when the same waters are rated by a
completely different panel of judges each year and still win."
Second place is shared by Desert Hot Springs, California and the Village of
Montrose, British Columbia. Desert Hot Springs won the gold in 2004 and 1999
and placed second in 2001. This is the first winning entry for Montrose.
Rutland, Vermont; Independence, Missouri and Montpelier, Ohio placed third,
fourth and fifth in the world respectively. Montpelier was 2007's gold medal
winner. There were 29 municipal waters from 13 states, Canada and New Zealand.
"We had five former gold medalists competing this year," said Klein
Rone.
More than 200 people watched at the Country Inn in Berkeley Springs on February
23 as a ten media judges spent hours tasting more than 120 waters from 19
states and nine foreign countries from New Zealand and Romania to Macedonia and
the Philippines. Arthur von Wiesenberger, author and founder of
BottledWaterWeb.com once again served as the event's watermaster. "This is
the longest running and largest water tasting in the world," he said.
"The grandaddy of them all."
A sentimental and local favorite -- and a first time entrant -- won the best
bottled water. Tumai Water of Martinsburg, WV uses their business to raise
funds to provide safe water in Africa. Second place was won by El Dorado
Natural Spring Water, Eldarado Springs, CO; third by Prairie Spring Water,
Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, Canada; fourth by 83 from Blanchard, British Columbia,
Canada. Completing the top five was hometown Almost Heaven bottling famous
Berkeley Springs, West Virginia water.
Sparkling water winners spanned three continents. Slavus Mineralwasser Medium
of Emsdetten, Deutschland won first place followed by Zema Woda, Tesanj,
Bosnia. Third place was Waiwera Artesian Water, Waiwera Infinity Thermal Spa
Resort, Auckland, New Zealand and fourth was another Bosnian water -- Tesanjski
Dijamant from Tesanj, Bosnia tied with one of the only two remaining old time
seltzer bottle waters --Pittsburgh Seltzer Works of Pittsburgh, PA. A former
owner of Seltzer Works, travel author Sam Edelman was one of the judges.
"The judges have no idea what waters they are tasting," said Klein
Rone, "so we did not make Sam give up his seat." Fifth place in
sparkling was Canadian Gold, Marchand, Manitoba, Canada
Purified water which is processed and bottled municipal tap water became a
category in 2001. "We added them because this is a growing field,"
said von Wiesenberger. The 2008 winner was Great Blue, Federalsburg, MD,
followed by Clear Creek Water Company of Farmington, NM. Third place was a tie
between two central Canadian waters: Blue Moon Water, Brandon, Manitoba and
Saskatchewan Clear, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. Element H2O, Chantilly, VA won
fourth and The Original Cherokee Great Smoky Mountain Drinking Water, Cherokee,
NC was fifth.
The crowd was interested in the peoples' choice packaging competition where it
was their votes that chose which of the dozen entrants was the most alluring.
In 2008, the clean line of Mist Premium Spring Water of Vanleer, TN captured
the popular vote with last year's Aquadeco coming in second. Third place was
won by the winning bottled water -- Tumai of Martinsburg, WV; fourth was the
square bottle of Daytona Beach FL and fifth was the classic Mountain Valley
Vintage Glass of Hot Springs, AR.
The ten media judges selected by Klein Rone from publications including Atlanta
Magazine, Delta and US Air inflight magazines, Southern Fried Magazine and
Smart Set were instructed by von Wiesenberger to look, sniff and taste each
water under guidelines like those in a wine tasting. The waters were rated for
each attribute including appearance (it should be clear - or slightly opaque
for glacial waters), aroma (there should be none), taste (it should taste
clean), mouth feel (it should feel light), aftertaste (it should leave you
thirsty for more). Waters were tasted in four separate flights over two days.
"The presence of Nayl D'Souza who came from Bath, England to judge signals
the importance of this event to the global water world," said von
Wiesenberger. "D'Souza's 'Water Innovation Magazine' is a respected
international voice in the industry. It shows that Europe is paying attention
to this event." There were 16 European waters entered.
The water tasting is the centerpiece of the Winter Festival of Waters, a
three-month series of special activities produced by Travel Berkeley Springs to
heighten winter tourism business in Morgan County.
The 19th annual Berkeley Springs International Water Tasting is scheduled for
Saturday, February 21, 2009.