The Sparkling Water Report<br>1Overall ranking<br>Scores use a 0–5 scale, and are averaged across all three tasters.WaterOverallFizzMineral1. Numen3.502.331.332. Fine Bulle Perrier3.332.671.003. Quézac3.003.001.504. San Pellegrino3.002.001.335. Badoit Intense2.833.001.676. Solan2.832.002.337. Jaune2.671.331.678. Perrier2.672.001.339. Badoit Fine2.672.672.6710. Saint Géron2.502.002.3311. Voss2.332.002.3312. Mill & Well1.671.672.6713. Rozana1.001.674.6714. St Yorre0.672.004.00<br>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
Overall<br>Fizziness<br>Minerality<br>Overall<br>1.00<br>0.48<br>-0.91<br>Fizziness<br>0.48<br>1.00<br>-0.38<br>Minerality<br>-0.91<br>-0.38<br>1.00
−10+1
Feature correlations across all 14 waters.<br>High minerality was punished hard. More bubbles generally helped. The mineral-heavy waters also tended to be the flatter ones.
3Agreement between tasters
Manuel<br>Aurélien<br>Maxime<br>Manuel<br>1.00<br>0.75<br>0.49<br>Aurélien<br>0.75<br>1.00<br>0.35<br>Maxime<br>0.49<br>0.35<br>1.00
00.51
Inter-taster agreement on overall scores.<br>Manuel and Aurélien were strongly aligned. I was not.
4Does price predict liking?
0123456701234Price (€ / L)Mean overall scoreNumenSolanMill & WellFine Bulle PerrierSt YorreSan PellegrinoRozana<br>Each bubble is a water; the dashed line is the best-fit trend (Pearson +0.24).<br>Paying more is slighty correlated with better tasting. Quézac, San Pellegrino and Badoit Intense are good value for money.
5The head-to-head tournament<br>We ran a single-elimination bracket on top of the 8 best waters out of the general tasting.
QUARTERFINALSSEMIFINALSFINALCHAMPION1 Numen8 Perrier4 San Pellegrino5 Badoit Intense2 Fine Bulle Perrier7 Badoit Fine3 Quézac6 SolanNumenSan PellegrinoFine Bulle PerrierQuézacSan PellegrinoFine Bulle PerrierSan Pellegrino 🏆
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<br>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%).<br>WaterStrength (π)Share1. San Pellegrino3.5844.8%2. Fine Bulle Perrier1.2115.1%3. Numen0.9311.7%4. Badoit Intense0.779.6%5. Quézac0.546.7%6. Badoit Fine0.405.0%7. Perrier0.344.2%8. Solan0.232.9%
Conclusion<br>Best tasting overall: Numen.<br>Best value: Quézac, San Pellegrino, Badoit Intense.<br>Tournament winner: San Pellegrino.<br>Avoid: St Yorre and Rozana.<br>Remember: Perrier Fine Bulles is absolutely better than normal Perrier.<br>Driving factor: low minerality and decent fizz.<br>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
WaterOverallFizzMineralNotesManAurMaxManAurMaxManAurMaxNumen3.534232112Manuel citrus notes, a bit more acid. Quite familiar but has a subtle character<br>Aurélien similar to 10<br>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 Perrier343233111Manuel fine bubbles, pretty mid<br>Aurélien really thin bubbles, tongue tickling<br>Maxime clean, would drink this any day
Quézac3333331.512Maxime this thing’s clean
San Pellegrino333132112Manuel fine bubbles, pretty mid<br>Maxime it’s there, quenched my thirst and drank all of it
Badoit Intense3.532441212Manuel pretty classic, tastes like something I could like but nothing special<br>Maxime might as well have still water
Solan2.524222322Manuel quite generic<br>Maxime sharp, effective, refreshing. Initially didn’t like it, but after the third or fourth sip I’m digging it. Seems expensive
Jaune323121221Manuel very standard<br>Maxime bland ass water
Perrier332132112Manuel very mid<br>Aurélien standard shit<br>Maxime don’t like this one, but someone else might
Badoit Fine332332323Manuel defined taste but not overpowering, quite standard but not generic<br>Maxime no
Saint Géron3.522222223Manuel clearly non-standard, but I quite like it<br>Aurélien not great, lacks power<br>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.
Voss232222223Manuel fine bubbles, pretty mid, almost citrus taste<br>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 & Well113122341Manuel weird aftertaste<br>Aurélien super weird taste, maybe a bit flowery, but not appreciable for water<br>Maxime if a film d’auteur was a water. Wonder how this can be made only of water?! Impressive, only for those rare days...