Taste expert names Buxton among the best high street bottled waters

Doran Binder, 52, who gets paid almost £1,000 to give bottled water tastings, rated Harrogate, Buxton and Evian waters as being among the best but he thinks Smartwater is the worst.

Doran - who says he has not drunk tap water since 2013 - says his own personal favourite is Crag Spring Water which cost £1.30 a for a 1L bottled which he bottles himself.

He also said he would "happily" pay £50 for a bottle of water at a restaurant - though he isn't interested in lucrative bottles which cost up to £6,000.

The sommelier said: "I've tried hundreds of different bottles of water and they all have their own unique story and taste. Not one is the same - water is not just water."

Doran, from Wildboarclough, Macclesfield, Cheshire, is one of three water sommeliers in the UK and qualified in 2021.

He took up the profession that is normally associated with the likes of wine in 2021 after launching his own bottled water company, Crag Spring Water in 2016.

It came after he found an aquifer containing some of the world's finest water below the Crag Inn pub he had purchased as a home.

He successfully became a water sommelier by passing the Fine Water Academy which is run by the Fine Water Society (FWS). It cost £1,650 and took him six months to qualify - it involved him passing three assessments.

The FWS was founded by Dr. Michael Mascha - it is a global organisation dedicated to recognising and promoting fine bottled water.

The academy teaches aspiring sommeliers the "ins and outs" of natural spring water including how it is formed, the different types, and how it tastes.

Doran has told you are also taught about the "vintage" (age) of water, the "orientation" (PH), and it's "virginality" (nitrate levels) which distinguishes how polluted the water is.

He has also revealed the course explores the many different types which include iceberg and glazier waters, well waters, rain waters, deep sea waters, and even water from clouds.

He said: "There was a whole dimension of beverage that I had no idea about. My mind was blown for how detailed and sophisticated water is."

According to Doran water has a taste - it is established through the number of total dissolved solids (TDS) found in the liquid.

The solids include minerals which have been absorbed naturally from the earth into the water before it is taken from the source.

TDS levels range from super low between 0 to 50 to super high which is 1,200 plus - he believes the perfect hydration level is between 100 and 200.

Doran has revealed the highest TDS water he owns is Donat from Slovenia which has a score of 15,000.

He said: "If water is high in different types of minerals it will give different tastes. For instance if it is high in sodium it will be salty, or if it is high in calcuim it will give a sweet taste. But it is is high is magnesium the water will give a more bitter feel."