On Saturday, Neel Khare, a recent San Francisco transplant who runs the coffee pop-up Anecdote, will be hosting a tasting with his college friend Andrew Yatzkan. They will not be serving coffee: The tasting menu will consist of ten different brands of water.
Khare, 23, has until this weekend centered his efforts on what he calls intentional, intimate coffee “experiences.” Now, Khare will be applying the same care and attention to a water tasting, an event that was still largely unplanned as of our conversation Wednesday evening.
Khare says it’s not a prank per se, but rather a full-execution tongue-in-cheek response to some of his friends’ antics.
“Two of my friends were having an argument about whether Evian is better than Fiji,” said Khare. “And I was like, this is fucking stupid.”
For Saturday’s event — which currently has 80 RSVPs — Khare and Yatzkan plan on having guests attempt to accurately guess tasting notes of the different waters.
“Coffee comes with tasting notes, so I'm assuming really high-end specialty water does, too,” Khare told me. “If not, then we can make it up. But that really is beyond my paygrade.” (This is a free event; Khare and Yatzkan are paying out of pocket for the water and the 48 wine glasses they ordered.)
Khare is not alone in trying to elevate the most elemental substance on the planet. Water sommeliers are trained in programs all over the world, from the Fine Water Academy in the US to the Associazione Degustatori Acque Minerali in Italy to the Aquasommelier Association in Japan to the Doemens academy in Germany. Per the Fine Water Academy’s website, key concepts include minerality, three different lenses for carbonation, orientation (pH), hardness, and “virginality.”
In our consumeristic, health-obsessed, trend-chasing society, it was only a matter of time until we got swept away with this. So-called “raw water” had a brief moment several years ago, with people buying Live Water at prices as high as $64 from Rainbow Grocery. (The water, which the company ironically called “Fountain of Truth,” turned out to be Oregon tap water repackaged in glass orbs.)
It was my understanding that these days, the many metal bottle-wielding people in the Bay are awash with judgement towards anyone who would attempt to undermine Yosemite’s finest. Yet, despite strides in water infrastructure and the environmental concerns of packaging, bottled water remains a booming industry. The bottled water category recorded $29.9 billion in sales, a 3.6 percent increase year-over-year for the 52-week period ending April 20th, according to Chicago-based market research group Circana. Not only that, but Gen Z and millennials are leading the charge as the largest consumer group of bottled water and exhibit strong brand dedication, according to a report from Mintel.
Khare, notably, grew up drinking reverse-osmosis water in India and has paid little attention to the intricacies and identities of different water brands. One thing he does pay attention to is hosting.
“Being intentional in creating your event and being fun and silly about it are not mutually exclusive,” he says. His vision for Anecdote has not taken concrete form; all he knows is that he wants to create a space for people to meet and chat, analog-style, and that there must be coffee and cardamom buns present.
Water tasting may just be an excuse to gather folks together, even to taste water. That people are thirsty for this kind of interaction is made evident by the flood of RSVPs to the event. So in that sense, no, this is not a prank.
“It's more so just a way to bring back a little bit of whimsy,” Khare said. “You should take your work seriously but never yourself.”
