My Sparkling and Surreal Experience As a Water-Tasting Judge | The Walrus

"I t's a Saturday night in late February, and I'm in small-town West Virginia witnessing an unexpected stand-off. In the garden room of The Country Inn of Berkeley Springs are forty, maybe fifty people, crowded against each other. About 100 more spectators are watching from the perimeter. At the centre of the action are the gleaming prizes they're vying for: unopened bottles of water, piled in the middle of the floor."

"These people aren't here because of a water shortage. What I'm seeing is the "water rush," the traditional finale of the Berkeley Springs International Water Tasting competition. For thirty-five years, this historic spring town, nestled in the Appalachian Mountains, has been the gathering place for the world's most passionate drinking water enthusiasts, an annual event dubbed "the Oscars of Water.""

The Berkeley Springs International Water Tasting occurs in late February in a small West Virginia spring town and draws both industry professionals and passionate water superfans. The event features multiple competition categories, including Purified Bottled, Bottled Carbonated, Bottled Non-Carbonated, and Municipal. Hundreds of purveyors from dozens of countries have competed over thirty-five years. The finale, known as the "water rush," sees dozens of participants jockeying to claim unopened bottles of water from around the world. Attendees sign mandatory waivers, and longtime co-host Jill Klein Rone addresses rushees before the ceremonial countdown.

Read at The Walrus