“Cold or warm?” was the question for a few of us “oldies” when it came to water; and as time passed, it became “still or sparkling?” Now – in some restaurants, at least – there are water lists and sommelier-style recommendations; an occurrence frequent enough that even The Straits Times and The Guardian have reported on it.

Which got the GastroSense team wondering – what are the different flavours of water? Surprisingly, all of us believed strongly that water definitely has flavour, but what really stumped us was what the different flavours were and whether the different flavours indicated how thirst-quenching they were.

Naturally, the question led to action. In other words, it’s Time To Taste!

THE CONTENDERS
A little research and one grocery run later, we had six waters lined up. Each represents a different type and preference.

In alphabetical order:

• Acqua Panna: Perhaps the most recognisable brand of spring water in Singapore
• Fiji: The – ahem – more mature amongst us still remember its splashy launch in Singapore (pun unintended) and the younger few think of it as a recognisable IG classic
• Ice Mountain: Is there any Singaporean who doesn’t know this icon?
• pH Balancer Ocean Alkaline Ion Water: one of the more low-key brands here; we had a moment when we found it
• Tap Water, filtered: Singapore’s tap water is considered elite amongst tap water, potable right from the tap even when unboiled and unfiltered!
• Voss: From Norway, a part of the world believed to offer some of the purest water in the world 

A LITTLE BACKGROUND
The initial discussion on this taste test was … heated, to say the least. After all, water feels so familiar, so plain, and so subtle that it seems like we might need to be extremely picky to find each water’s differentiating factors.

In the end, would it really come down to loving our favourite or our most familiar brands?  And we know all too well how preconceived notions could affect the final conclusions.

So, to keep things as fair as we could, we tasted only still waters and served them

• at exactly the same temperature
• in identical glasses
• labelled only by numbers, not by brand names!

Each numbered glass always held the same brand of water, and each new tasting was a new pour in a fresh glass for hygiene purposes and to keep the flavours as unaffected as possible.

Tasters only find out the water brand once everyone has tasted and voted for their favourite. But for our dear readers, we offer THE GOD VIEW:

Everyone did the tasting solo, without anyone else present (besides the hosts!), so every opinion belongs to that taster alone. In fact, several tasters drank each glass more than once as comparing one glass against another made their perceptions sharper, and their opinions clearer.

Needless to say, this was our most hydrating, most cleansing tasting – bar none!

At the end, tasters need answer only one question:

All things equal, which water is your absolute favourite, the one you would choose to drink if you could order it anytime, anywhere?  

HOW THE TASTING WENT
To the hosts’ shock, several of our team members were able to accurately pinpoint the brand of water in different glasses – especially if the water was a familiar flavour. We won’t post spoilers here, but our tasters’ palates are sharper than ice-skates!

Some of the most interesting comments came at the start; our favourite was – “this tastes like… water?” (confession: this was not spliced into the reel!) As the tasting went on, comments became more focused on texture and mouthfeel, minerality, and how well it quenched the thirst.

Glass 1 was called “thicker” and “natural tasting” while Glass 2 was simultaneously described as “clean” and “salty” by two different tasters. Glass 3 was called “bitter” in comparison to the others and Glass 4 was immediately noted as “having an element of spring water” and “very refreshing”. Glass 5 was called “very UN-salty” while a taster noted that Glass 6 had a “sweetness”.

THE WATER WITH THE MOST VOTES?
Voss! This also happens to be our most costly water at S$5:09 for 800ml. For comparison purposes, Ice Mountain was found at $1.40 for 1500ml and Fiji was S$2.65 for 500ml! Should we say we have expensive taste?

Surprisingly, Fiji and Ice Mountain tied for second place! We’re not sure if familiarity played a role, but one of our tasters raved about how rounded number 2 (Fiji) was and another mentioned that number 1 (Ice Mountain) just feels so soothing.

Which water do you think you would have picked?

PS –– Watch us guess, sip and debate over H₂O on our Instagram reel -- coming soon!