A quest more than a ranking.

It started, as a lot of obsessions do, with a problem to solve. Chronic migraines led me to an elimination diet, and one by one the things I used to drink regularly...coffee, soda, wine, juice...were removed entirely or shifted to occasional use. The beverage left for daily use was water.

For a while that felt like a sacrifice. Then it became something else. Once you're paying closer attention, you soon learn that water is more than one thing. The mineral water from a German spring tastes nothing like the tap water from your sink or the well water a few miles from your house. A "natural" carbonation has a different feel than a manufactured one. The bottle on the shelf at the local grocery store and the bottle pulled from a glacier are in the same category but they can be as different as two glasses of wine.

"It's older than the bottle that holds it. It has a hundred names, a thousand sources, and yet it is one thing."

Here are the rules that I gave myself.

First, taste everything and don't be a water snob. I'm interested in the cheap and the expensive, the cult favorite and the generic grocery store brand, the bottled municipal water with aggressive carbonation and the naturally carbonated spring water that worked its way through the ground for hundreds of years, the famous European mineral water and the obscure spring water in a part of the United States that doesn't even have mail delivery. All sparkling waters are welcome and wanted on this quest.

Second, learn the stories, taste the water, and share what you learn. Every water is a chance to learn about stories, legends, people, cultures, minerals, tastes, and smells. Each water also inspires memories and musings about how I might use or enjoy this water in the future. I'm not interested in scoring and ranking as much as learning and tasting.

Third, quests over quantification. I am operating from the idea that there is no "best" sparkling water any more than there is a best book. There are waters that I might drink daily and others that I would save for a special occasion, some for enjoyment others for healing, some that go with pizza and a movie and others that hold up to prime rib at a world-class steak house. The point of this quest is not about finding the best, although I've certainly come to develop some favorites.

Why "The Water Table"

There are two reasons for the name. Technically, a water table is the underground line where the soil becomes saturated…the place where water lives for a time. Personally, the table is also where you sit down with people, enjoy fellowship, and taste things together. Both meanings seemed right for this project.

What's here

There are three main areas. First, there is a growing catalog of every water I've explored, with tasting notes and a place to compare them. A second is an invitation to follow along or join in my learning journey about water. This ranges from short book and article reviews to field trips, experiments, and random musings about water. Third, there is a dedicated YouTube channel where I explore the stories and tastes of each water and sometimes share my thoughts and what I'm learning about water. As a supplement, you can also find the related Instagram account, which is really just glimpses of everything else.

If you have a water you think I should try, especially something local or hard to find, please get in touch and tell me about it.

The emblem

Three drops, one droplet, and a subtle artistic alchemical sign for minerals dissolved in water — borrowed from the visual language of old Earth-science books.