Tasmanians, drink it in: yours is the best-tasting tap water in Australia.
The sample from Barrington, provided by TasWater, was named the best tap water in Australia over four other state finalists in a blind taste test.
The Tasmanian tipple beat out the New South Wales sample from Bowraville, South Australia’s from Morgan, Victoria’s from Myrtleford, and Queensland’s from Barcaldine at the competition’s final on Wednesday.
Heats to determine state finalists were held throughout the year, with samples judged on colour, clarity, odour and taste.
According to the “water-tasting wheel” devised by the Water Industry Operators Association of Australia, which staged the competition, water can taste sour or acidic, sweet, salty, or bitter.
Its “mouthfeel” can be drying, astringent, cooling, oily, chalky, tingling or metallic.
Any fishy, medicinal, alcoholic, flowery, marshy, septic, grassy, chlorinous or mouldy elements are considered undesirable.
Craig Mathisen, the chief operations officer of WIOA, said source was the most influential factor, with the Queensland and NSW samples were bore water, and Tasmania and Victoria both drawn from “pristine rivers”.
South Australia’s sample was drawn from “the mighty Murray river”. “That has a whole range of other challenges by the time the water gets to Morgan,” he said.
The Best Tap Water in Australia competition was a “very democratic” blind taste test, said Mathisen.
“The first would be appearance – you’re looking for a nice, transparent appearance.
“The smell is important, you don’t want it to be too chemical or earthy. You want it to be a pleasant odour.”
Taste, he said, “was an individual thing”: “People have various opinions about what they like.”
The result was voted by residents of Marysville, Victoria, which won the inaugural competition last year, as well as members of the water industry there for a WIOA event.
A sample of Marysville’s winning water had been awarded the silver medal at the Berkeley Springs International Water Tasting Competition held in West Virginia in February this year.
Mathisen said Marysville community had embraced the “bragging rights” associated with “the second-best water in the world”. (The gold medal for the Best Water in the World went to Clearbrook, British Columbia, Canada – a multiple award-winner.)
“Last year was the first time we’d entered. We were gobsmacked – well, we weren’t really, we were aware that Australia produces great water for our consumers, but to actually come second was terrific.”
Mathisen said the competition presented the WIOA – a not-for-profit association that facilitates those with operational roles in the industry – with an opportunity to celebrate Australia’s water businesses and suppliers.
“Most people don’t appreciate the efforts that go into providing it.
“You run your tap on in the morning to have a shower or to have a cup of coffee and you don’t even think about it – you assume it will be there.
“It’s not until there are issues that it comes to the forefront,” he said.
The Barrington sample would be entered into the 2017 global competition, said Mathisen. Guardian Australia has contacted TasWater for comment.
“We’re hoping this year’s winner may go one better and bring home a gold for Australia.”
In the meantime, Mathisen said the WIOA was attempting to organise a trans-Tasman competition with its New Zealand counterpart early next year: the “Australia v New Zealand, Bledisloe Cup” of water.
He added: “We might be able to beat them at something.”
