Oasis, the complete guide to bottled water throughout the world by Arthur von Wiesenberger

This book is outdated in some ways, but in other ways it still functions like a foundational field notebook for tasting bottled waters, including sparkling ones. The classifications and brand landscape reflect an earlier era, yet the underlying method holds up: compare waters systematically by source, mineral profile, and sensory impression rather than marketing language. It treats total dissolved solids as a shorthand for weight and structure, then connects mineral makeup to perceived taste and mouthfeel in a fairly direct way. For sparkling water, it pays attention to carbonation as a shaping force, especially how bubbles interact with texture, lift, and finish depending on whether the CO₂ is natural or added. The value now is less in its catalog and more in its habit of disciplined side-by-side tasting under consistent conditions, where differences become learnable and repeatable rather than intuitive guesses.