Mineral Water Mindjob

A friend says everyone should be a connoisseur of something. I agree, and have decided to be a connoisseur of mineral water. I think it’s a good choice, personally. I love the stuff, it’s relatively cheap, good for you, and attainable. Mineral water is pretentious (it is gourmet water, after all), but it doesn’t have the evil robber baron vibe of cigars, scotch, or other commonly connoisseured luxuries. And while everyone fancies themselves a connoisseur of wine, another friend points out that few actually have the breadth of knowledge to truly be vino-heads. Mineral water seems an attainable thing to be a connoisseur of.

Or so I thought. A look through Mineral Waters of the World broadened, expanded, and ultimately blew my mind, at least as far as a mind can be blown by mineral water. There is an astounding selection and detail in the mineral water world, hardly rivaling wine or cigars but still quite impressive. But I see that breadth as a enjoyable challenge, not an imposing deterrent, and thus I know I have picked the right luxury for which to cultivate an expert palate.

If I were a true blogwhore (just kidding Tony) I would ask dedicated readers to fund my newfound passion with PayPal donations or bottles of the good stuff itself. I am not, however, and I arch a sinister corporate eyebrow at bloggers who ask for anything more than bandwidth expense contributions. How about this: if there’s a water you really like, tell me about it. And not your usual Evian/Pallegrino kind of stuff either. Obscure water. Pretentious water. Water that’s more Euro than a Fellini film festival in Prague hosted by a chain-smoking Parisian who lives off university pensions and his banker mistress from Luxembourg dressed in this season’s Armani who both refuse both the idea of a commonwealth and genetically modified foods on vague grounds that you just couldn’t understand being a boorish American outsider. Water like that. Tell me about it.