Would you pay extra for luxury water. Wait. What IS luxury water, anyway?
We were taught in school that water is colourless, tasteless and odourless. That couldn't be further from the truth, says Ganesh Iyer.
It's not just a line he throws around for drama, it's the foundation of his life's work. Iyer is 48 and has spent nearly 30 years in the beverage industry, and has been a water sommelier since 2017. Turns out, there's more to the substance than two atoms of hydrogen and one of oxygen, science textbook be damned.
In Iyer's world, water can be swirled, sniffed and paired like wine. One sip, and he can tell you whether it comes from an alpine spring, an underground aquifer, or from a municipal tap. Water, like wine, tastes subtly different based on where it's been, the minerals it contains and how it's purified. Iyer has helped launch bottled-water brands such as Evian, Perrier and Himalaya. But India, he says, has had a pretty icy reception to his work.
'None of the hospitality institutes, be it IHM or OCLD, teach water as a subject,' he says. So, those in the business still view water as lacking flavour or smell. That's where he steps in. One restaurateur signed him on after he couldn't figure out why his Jaipur restaurant's laal maas tasted different when it was cooked in Udaipur, despite using the same recipe and cooks who'd received the same training. Iyer worked out that Udaipur's limestone-heavy local water masked the spice, flattening the dish's punch.
But mostly, getting the food industry to take water seriously is tough. Most commercial kitchens rely on RO-purified water, a process that aggressively filters the water and strips it of most of its natural minerals. 'It's dead water,' Iyer says. 'It quenches thirst but does nothing else.' Worse, it sabotages good tea. 'If you're charging ₹450 to ₹500 for a chamomile and brewing it with RO, you're cheating the guest,' he says. Filtered tap water brings out the taste better.
Much of what gets piped into Indian homes is unsafe to drink – even textbooks get this bit right. But with packaged drinking water, we may be giving up an entire bouquet of taste and flavour. High-quality water should not just be clean, it should come from a single source, with high levels of minerals such as calcium and magnesium. It's what the industry calls fine or premium water, and stirs in some derision. Because fine water can cost up to 10 times more.
At posh restaurants worldwide, water menus are already part of the experience. Three Bays from Australia claims to come from a three-billion-year-old aquifer. Donat MG from Slovenia advertises 6,200 mg per litre of magnesium (regular hard water doesn't have more than 40 mg per litre). Svalbardi is sourced from melting Arctic icebergs in Norway. And water from Bhutan is said to be rich in calcium.
Premium water makes up less than 1% of India's bottled water market. And Iyer's job is made doubly tough by bottled-water companies who also market ocean water, mushroom water, collagen water, alkaline water and black water, exaggerating their health benefits. 'Just because celebrities drink it doesn't mean it's good for you,' he warns. 'They also have elite healthcare and private chefs. That's not your reality.'
Drink water that is clean. Drink it to stay hydrated. Don't expect it to help you lose weight or improve immunity. If you can afford it, pick a brand that offers single-source water. And if you enjoy the taste, drink more of it. It's not that complicated. 'Even if you can't switch entirely, know what you're drinking. At least stop calling it tasteless.'
From HT Brunch, June 14, 2025
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