Italian water
Water-ever
Italy is a country of food snobs only we are quite unprentious about it, it is just that we like good food. We understand food as it is meant to be which is made with fresh ingredients, in the traditional way. We also know the importance of pairing the right wine with a dish, and for the very particular among us we also think drinking the right water is important too!
Mineral water is a huge business in Italy. Media ads bombard Italians families with messages like drink this water and you will live longer, drink that water and you will stay younger, become more beautifull, improve your digestion. Italians drinks more mineral water than anybody else in the world. Nearly 200 liter pro capita a year, more than half a lite each every day. And we spend around €300 each a year. Italy has about 266 number of different brands of mineral waters – those are waters which are collected at source. But 70% is controlled by big multinational like Danone or Nestle group but each regions still boasts it’s own brand of mineral water collected at a local spring.
Water is water, but what gives the different bottled waters their unique taste is the minerals and chemicals that they pick up in their passage through the ground. This means that what happens on the earth through which they flow must be strictly controlled. And the Italian law is quite strict on the amount of chemicals in the water.
The Region Emilia Romagna is on the front line to defend the special taste of the Italian mineral spring water. Bologna regularly organized convention and water tasting event. All over the region it is not a rarity any more to receive the water list together with the wine list on restaurants. The waiter will suggest water to drink with Emilia Romagna given dish.
Over the top? Maybe but I kind of admire the attention to detail that this requires.
Apart my farm well water, my favourite mineral is a slightly frizzante water that comes from near Pisa. Naturally sparkling mineral water is delicious. None of those boisterous bubbles from carbonated water that go up your nose, burn your throat and leave you feeling more thirsty than you were before you drank. Smooth, slightly salty, and very very refreshing!
The water in my well has a very high limescale (although is not as bad as London tap water) but is wonderfully fresh tasting having filtered down through the limestone substrata on the forest hills above me.