The Sparkling Water Report
three minds and gullets looking for the winning bubbles
With my friends Manuel and Aurélien, also friends of the fizz, we set out to find which sparkling water is the best one. We limited ourselves to ones that you could readily buy in Paris, up to the limit of what we could carry. This means 14 waters, blind tested: each water was poured in an opaque glass associated to a number, the glasses were then shuffled and turned facing opposite of the drinkers. Each taster scored every water on overall liking, fizziness, and minerality, then we ran a head-to-head tournament with the 8 best ones.
1Overall ranking
| Water | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Numen | 3.50 | 2.33 | 1.33 |
| 2. Fine Bulle Perrier | 3.33 | 2.67 | 1.00 |
| 3. Quézac | 3.00 | 3.00 | 1.50 |
| 4. San Pellegrino | 3.00 | 2.00 | 1.33 |
| 5. Badoit Intense | 2.83 | 3.00 | 1.67 |
| 6. Solan | 2.83 | 2.00 | 2.33 |
| 7. Jaune | 2.67 | 1.33 | 1.67 |
| 8. Perrier | 2.67 | 2.00 | 1.33 |
| 9. Badoit Fine | 2.67 | 2.67 | 2.67 |
| 10. Saint Géron | 2.50 | 2.00 | 2.33 |
| 11. Voss | 2.33 | 2.00 | 2.33 |
| 12. Mill & Well | 1.67 | 1.67 | 2.67 |
| 13. Rozana | 1.00 | 1.67 | 4.67 |
| 14. St Yorre | 0.67 | 2.00 | 4.00 |
Numen edges out the field on liking, but Fine Bulle Perrier, Quézac and San Pellegrino are all tightly bunched just behind. The bottom of the table is unambiguous: St Yorre and Rozana were absolutely terrible.
2How the features relate
- High minerality was punished hard. More bubbles generally helped. The mineral-heavy waters also tended to be the flatter ones.
3Agreement between tasters
Manuel and Aurélien were strongly aligned. I was not.
4Does price predict liking?
Paying more is slighty correlated with better tasting. Quézac, San Pellegrino and Badoit Intense are good value for money.
5The head-to-head tournament
We ran a single-elimination bracket on top of the 8 best waters out of the general tasting.
San Pellegrino came in clutch, which made me happy as I was rooting for it. I usually get this one in restaurants and was convinced it's a top tier water.
6A Bradley-Terry model of the results
A Bradley-Terry model takes the head-to-head matchups and estimates a latent “strength” for each of the 8 waters in the tournament, from which the probability of any water beating any other can be derived. Strengths below are shown as a share of the total (they sum to 100%).
| Water | Strength (π) | Share |
|---|---|---|
| 1. San Pellegrino | 3.58 | 44.8% |
| 2. Fine Bulle Perrier | 1.21 | 15.1% |
| 3. Numen | 0.93 | 11.7% |
| 4. Badoit Intense | 0.77 | 9.6% |
| 5. Quézac | 0.54 | 6.7% |
| 6. Badoit Fine | 0.40 | 5.0% |
| 7. Perrier | 0.34 | 4.2% |
| 8. Solan | 0.23 | 2.9% |
Conclusion
- Best tasting overall: Numen.
- Best value: Quézac, San Pellegrino, Badoit Intense.
- Tournament winner: San Pellegrino.
- Avoid: St Yorre and Rozana.
- Remember: Perrier Fine Bulles is absolutely better than normal Perrier.
- Driving factor: low minerality and decent fizz.
I have to tell you that by the end we were not thirsty anymore. We were the opposite of thirsty. We were waterlogged men. We should have spat it out, like the wine people do, into little buckets.
Appendix: raw data
| Water | Overall | Fizz | Mineral | Notes | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Man | Aur | Max | Man | Aur | Max | Man | Aur | Max | ||
| Numen | 3.5 | 3 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | Manuel citrus notes, a bit more acid. Quite familiar but has a subtle character Aurélien similar to 10 Maxime I fuck with these bubbles, they shake my sensors, seems like high-end water if such a thing exists, wouldn’t necessarily drink this everyday though |
| Fine Bulle Perrier | 3 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | Manuel fine bubbles, pretty mid Aurélien really thin bubbles, tongue tickling Maxime clean, would drink this any day |
| Quézac | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 1.5 | 1 | 2 | Maxime this thing’s clean |
| San Pellegrino | 3 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | Manuel fine bubbles, pretty mid Maxime it’s there, quenched my thirst and drank all of it |
| Badoit Intense | 3.5 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | Manuel pretty classic, tastes like something I could like but nothing special Maxime might as well have still water |
| Solan | 2.5 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 2 | Manuel quite generic Maxime sharp, effective, refreshing. Initially didn’t like it, but after the third or fourth sip I’m digging it. Seems expensive |
| Jaune | 3 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | Manuel very standard Maxime bland ass water |
| Perrier | 3 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | Manuel very mid Aurélien standard shit Maxime don’t like this one, but someone else might |
| Badoit Fine | 3 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 3 | Manuel defined taste but not overpowering, quite standard but not generic Maxime no |
| Saint Géron | 3.5 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 3 | Manuel clearly non-standard, but I quite like it Aurélien not great, lacks power Maxime like they chose to make water worse than it is, why, who is this for. Feels like they tried to make something but not for me. |
| Voss | 2 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 3 | Manuel fine bubbles, pretty mid, almost citrus taste Maxime fine bubbles, fizzles in my mouth, slightly mineral taste that lingers but I don’t like what this one gives me — it could not be there and maybe that’d be better |
| Mill & Well | 1 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 1 | Manuel weird aftertaste Aurélien super weird taste, maybe a bit flowery, but not appreciable for water Maxime if a film d’auteur was a water. Wonder how this can be made only of water?! Impressive, only for those rare days when you need your water to feel like something more than it is |
| Rozana | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 4 | 5 | Manuel horrible taste, tastes like aspirin Aurélien way too mineral Maxime if I wanted saltwater I’d have gone to the sea |
| St Yorre | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 4 | Manuel gag reflex, horrible taste Aurélien way too mineral Maxime what a weird taste, like piss a bit, acidic and sour? I don’t want this water ever |
