Is Water Tasting the Next Big Thing in Tourism?

I went to the Bled Water Forum to meet water sommeliers and taste water cocktails.

Move over, wine tasting. Some dream travel destinations are now promoting water tasting as part of the tourism experience. Also this month:

• A new incentive to put away your phone while dining in Italy.

• The cafes in Europe that are evicting “laptop squatters.”

• What’s New on the Blog this Month. But first:

New Video and Blog from Lake Bled Water Festival

“My number one recommendation is that you drink our tap water,” said Iceland’s first lady, Eliza Jean Reid. She delivered the keynote address at the annual Bled Water Festival in Slovenia. It takes place in historic Vila Bled, the luxury hotel that was once the vacation residence of Yugoslavia’s leader, Josip Broz Tito.

During the event, a two-day forum brings together water experts and tourism officials from all over the world, including water sommeliers and water cocktail mixologists. Get a taste in a NEW post on the blog this month and watch the video here or on my YouTube channel.

What is a Water Sommelier?

As someone who writes about wine tasting, I was fascinated by the idea of water sommeliers who treat water like it’s a fine wine. The artisan bottled spring waters I tasted at the conference offered a wide range of mineral content, carbonation and “mouth feel.”

Water sommelier Haneul Kim introduces me to the deep sea water that is harvested and desalinated in South Korea. It pairs well, not surprisingly, with seafood. Deep sea waters are also produced in Japan, Taiwan, Norway and Hawaii USA.

“The water sommelier suggests the good water pairing with food,” said Haneul Kim, a water sommelier from South Korea. He told me that the ideal match usually is the country’s local spring water. He recommends Slovenia’s high-mineral Radenska water with meat-heavy Slovenian dishes. Beware of Donat, the Slovenian bottled water with the highest mineral content. Slovenes rely on its magnesium as a speedy cure for, uh, constipation. You’ve been warned.

AI Strikes Again

A water sommelier doesn’t even need to be human. Kim’s company has an artificial intelligence-based app that delivers water-tasting notes and recommendations. The AI water sommelier apparently had to pass the same demanding certification as its human counterparts.

I’m not sure how I feel about a robot tasting anything, especially after the disappointing results when I asked AI to plan a vacation. If you missed it, here’s the link.

Tasting Water Cocktails

For humans, a highlight of the Bled Water Festival was tasting water cocktails. “Red Goldness” started with a natural syrup of beetroot, honey, lime and ginger to be mixed with the mineral water of your choice and topped with a sprig of rosemary. Delicious!

Look closely at the photo to see that the choice of mineral water makes a difference in the color — and taste — of a water cocktail.

Tap Water Tasting

Yes, you can pay for artisan bottled spring water but the best thing about tasting the local tap water is that it’s absolutely FREE. And you know how much we love free stuff here at Strangers in the Living Room.

Unfortunately, an estimated 80% of the world doesn’t have access to safe, healthy tap water. And the hot new buzzword is “microplastics.” Scientists at the forum said they don’t yet have an accurate way to measure exactly how much plastic is in our food and water. But they are certain that more regulations are needed to prevent each of us from ingesting the equivalent of a credit card per year.

Alpine mineral water has made Lake Bled in Slovenia a wellness destination since the 1800s. This is the view from the Belvedere coffee house above luxury hotel Vila Bled, where Yugoslavian leader Josip Broz Tito once entertained the world’s dignitaries.

Not far from Bled, Slovenia’s capital city of Ljubljana is so proud of its tap water that it has an app to tell visitors where they can fill up their reusable water bottles. Voda iz pipe (water from the pipe) is always a FREE option, even in fancy restaurants. And if you must buy a plastic water bottle, please recycle.

Travel News This Month

Lock up your phone! One of my big complaints about travel these days is people spending so much time looking at their phones that they don’t engage with their actual surroundings. One restaurant in Italy is fighting back.

Customers get a FREE bottle of wine in exchange for locking up their phones during their meal. Here’s how it works. Ninety percent of diners at the Al Condominio restaurant in Verona have no problem putting their devices in phone jail. What do you think?

Evicting Laptop Squatters: Some cafes in Spain are tired of remote workers who hog tables all day long while not buying anything more than a single coffee. The trend has also been spotted in Paris, Berlin, Lisbon and the UK.

Rules vary. Some places have turned off the wifi, others restrict laptop use during peak times. Even the trendy new co-working and living space in Ljubljana has this rule in its Neubar: We suggest a consumption of 5.00 EUR per hour as compensation for using the workspace.

The Željava Air base, built to defend a country that no longer exists on the map, is a quirky tourist attraction with a few hidden dangers.

Also New on the Blog this Month: A fascinating look inside an abandoned Cold War air base on the border of Bosnia and Croatia. It was absolutely FREE to wander around, being careful to stay on the paved roads to avoid the Balkan War landmines in the area.

This road trip was so epic that it got me thinking about the advantages — and disadvantages — of skipping the crowds in Western Europe to explore the relatively undiscovered Balkans. More on that in the FREE newsletter next month. If you’re new here, please subscribe so you don’t miss it. And don’t be a stranger!