Are Some Sparkling Water Brands Better Than Others?

[Music] sparkling water sales are hot and sales of it have nearly tripled over the past 10 years so the question for jack today is does brand really make a difference especially if you're dealing with the unflavored stuff yeah i was a little skeptical about this i was like it's water are we going to taste difference we did the experts really felt like there were differences not only in the level of carbonation but you will see in some of them sweet notes salty notes eggy notes really well we'll see so these are all chilled because i think they will taste better that way this is hard to taste so there are basically two different types of products that you are tasting here they're sparkling mineral waters and seltzers so sparkling mineral waters contain minerals because they come from underneath the ground and from a natural spring they may have carbonation added to them so they come to the surface with some carbonation but some manufacturers will supplement that with additional carbonation they do not add additional minerals so whatever flavor is in that water and that can be really sulfur compounds which are giving you those eggy notes or it could be sodium compounds which are giving you salty notes i think the eggy notes were more controversial and less liked by the tasting panel they really felt like they don't want to taste old eggs oh wow in their water so how you doing there well this is a this is a very hard tasting the differences are nuanced to say the least bubbles i'm noticing the bubbles in this one are very effervescent very strong whereas the bubbles in this one are very delicate and i like delicate bubbles you want them to do i do i like tiny bubbles but this one was a little stinky and this one was salty and these two i i you know i don't know that i could even tell a difference in flavor they very clean but this one was definitely salty this one had a little stinkiness to it that's about all i got you know if you've ever tasted flat seltzer water it doesn't taste like tap water because the carbonation creates something called carbonic acid which makes it a little tart and so that was another flavor characteristic is some of these seemed more tart and in general if it's got more carbonation it's going to be a little bit more tart i mean not really sour or acidic but again not like plain water right so you've gone back for thirds maybe fourths on all of them well hydrated you're well hydrated glowing okay i definitely have a favorite was this one the bubbles are very fine it's on the edge of being flat but i actually like that and the flavor was just very clean okay and this one the bubbles were the strongest and this one tasted salty okay so you truly are a tiny bubble yes i am a tiny bubble should we start over here which one i liked the best so you like the san pellegrino which was the bottom of the rankings because our tasters want big bubbles and lots of bubbles and when we sent all of these out to the lab to analyze that as a least carbonation it does and so if you want tiny bubbles that's your choice most people do not want tiny bubbles good to know all right now can we go to this one out of order because this one had a pronounced salty flavor so this is our winner this is a seltzer rather than a sparkling mineral water made down the road from our test kitchen here in boston it's made out in worcester and it's also the least expensive our taster thought it was bubbly and they liked the flavor yeah i can see why it has flavor all right now next one this one which has the biggest bubbles i've ever seen this is from mexico topo chico and again this has significantly more carbonation per psi measurements and our tasters it was number two overall because they liked a lot of bubbles all right last but not least this one well it's carbonated that's boston's finest right there yeah so we carbonated that ourselves i was hoping you were going to choose that you know also that seems to be your least favorite so maybe it is worth buying mineral water or seltzer water oh that's very interesting tasting thank you jack so there you have it when it comes to sparkling water brand does make a difference and our favorite is polar original seltzer at 42 cents a can thanks for watching america's test kitchen what'd you think well leave a comment and let us know which recipes you're excited to make or you can just say hello you can find links to today's recipes and reviews in the video description and don't forget to subscribe to our channel see you later i'll see you later

Channel: America's Test Kitchen

Views: 190,039

Keywords: americas test kitchen, cooks illustrated, cooks country, sparkling water, sparkling water taste test, taste test, best sparkling water

Id: fjVQhvIr6Qs

Length: 4min 35sec (275 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 16 2021