“Water is not just water.”
That’s the motto of the Fine Water Society, which is holding its Taste and Design Awards and Fine Water Summit in Atlanta this weekend.
The society was founded in 2008 by Michael Mascha, an anthropologist who became fascinated with naturally sourced water after health issues led him to turn away from wine in the early 2000s.
In an interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Mascha said he wants to shift the paradigm of water from a simple commodity to an epicurean product with identifiable terroir. He defines fine water as a natural, minimally processed water that contains the minerality and character of the land from which it came. He pointed out some food items that have undergone a similar shift.
Credit: Androulidakis Michail
Credit: Androulidakis Michail
“Fifty years ago when you went to a restaurant, your wine choices were red or white, right? Those times are gone,” Mascha said. “People 20 years ago, they had one salt at home, which was the white substance you buy in a big bag. Right now, I bet you everyone has two or three different salts at home: Himalayan pink salt, Hawaiian salt, one from France, fleur de sel.”
In the past four years, Mascha’s Fine Water Society has held its annual conference and competition in San Sebastian, Spain; Athens, Greece; Los Angeles; and Bled, Slovenia. The 2025 event was brought to Atlanta thanks to the sponsorship of local company Source to Bottle, which sells several hard-to-find international water brands direct to consumers and distributes them to restaurants.
The weekend event consists of two programs: the Taste and Design Awards, which will take place Friday, and the Fine Water Summit, a professional conference on Saturday and Sunday.
Friday’s awards program is free and open to the public, beginning with the jury tasting from 10 a.m. to noon at the Kimpton Sylvan Hotel in Buckhead. The jury tasting, conducted by Mascha and four other water sommeliers, will be livestreamed on Facebook. Attendees will have a chance to sample many of the waters submitted to the competition.
The Taste and Design Awards will be 7 p.m. Friday in a program that will also be livestreamed. An international panel of judges will hand out taste awards in 14 categories, ranging from super low minerality to very high minerality in still and sparkling classifications. The group will also give packaging design awards in five categories.
Credit: Michael Mascha
Credit: Michael Mascha
The Fine Water Summit is a conference for professionals who work with fine waters, like the water sommeliers certified by the Fine Water Society, and others in the food and beverage industry.
In addition to the events of the Taste and Design Awards on Friday, summit attendees will be taken to visit the Callaway Blue Spring Mountain Water bottling facility in Hamilton, just north of Columbus, as well as a fine waters food pairing dinner experience.
The summit, with sustainability as its theme, continues with a series of lectures and information sessions Saturday and Sunday.
According to Mascha, fine waters are meant to be a luxury, not an everyday product consumed for the necessity of hydration.
“I agree with the people that tell me, ‘I don’t taste the difference between the two waters,’” Mascha said. “Then please don’t buy the water in the bottle! Drink your tap water, it makes no sense to ship it all around the world.”
And does he drink tap water?
“I drink tap water. I cook with tap water at home,” Mascha said, though he added he has a reverse osmosis filter under the sink where at his house in Texas.
“I’m not having water shipped from Fiji and using that for cooking my pasta,” he said. “That would be totally stupid.”
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