Water is on fire. A-listers like Jennifer Aniston, Beyoncé, and Jaden Smith have their own water brands. Reusable vessels have become status symbol accessories thanks to brands like Stanley, HydroFlask, and S’well. Now, H2O is the Champagne of a growing number of five-star spas, Michelin-starred restaurants, and luxury hotels.
“Water is not just water. Water can be more in our lives,” says beverage consultant Martin Riese, one of the world’s leading authorities on hydration and a designated Mineral Water Sommelier by the prestigious German Mineral Water Trade Association. “It’s not just about hydration, it’s about our well-being. Hotels and restaurants are realizing this, that it’s not okay anymore to just serve filtered tap water. They need to really enhance it.”
Water brand Evian is diving into the hospitality game with a deluxe French spa.
Courtesy of Evian Spa
Based in Los Angeles, Riese has been tapped to develop water menus for high-end venues, including Michelin-starred Gwen, a Hollywood favorite helmed by celebrity chef Curtis Stone; Petit Ermitage, a boutique luxury hotel in West Hollywood; and, most recently, the Austrian-inspired Lustig in Culver City. And in 2023, he partnered with the Aruba Tourism Board on a project to promote the island’s tap water, which is filtered by a high-tech filtration system that uses UV light to remove bacteria — and tastes “nice, crisp, creamy, and a little bit sweet,” he says.
According to Riese, there’s a huge opportunity to educate consumers about water’s critical role in gastronomy, especially among die-hard oenophiles. A number of factors in drinking water—including its minerality (or TDS, which stands for “total dissolved solids”) and carbonation—impact the wine drinking experience, particularly the mouthfeel.
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