Severn Trent Water was today crowned Britain’s best tasting tap water by food and drink experts.
Water from 10 regions was marked by judges in a blind taste test at the Chelsea-based restaurant Tom’s Kitchen. And the judges marked Severn Trent Water the best.
The panel, which included Michelin starred chef Tom Aikens, gave each sample a mark out of five for clarity, smell and most importantly taste.
Severn Trent Water, which covers Shropshire, Birmingham, Derbyshire, Gloucestershire, Nottingham, Leicester and parts of Mid Wales, was described as having a “clean taste” and being “very fresh” by Mr Aikens.
Richard Rotti, head of wines at Annabel’s and a panellist, said the water was “beautifully pure, a mountain stream of freshness”.
David Wickens, quality and environment manager for Severn Trent Water, said: “Severn Trent takes the production of high quality drinking water very seriously, so we’re naturally delighted to have come top in this blind test.
“The results demonstrate that we’re doing a good job in providing our customers with top-quality, great tasting water.”
Anglian Water, which covers East Anglia and parts of the East Midlands, was placed second while Thames Water, which covers Oxfordshire, London, Wiltshire, north Kent, Thames Valley and Surrey came third.
The tasting competition was set up to celebrate the launch of a new initiative from the Green Thing, an environmental group.
The Drink Tap campaign will encourage people to stop drinking bottled water and switch to tap water during August.
Green Thing aims to highlight the beneficial impact that this change will have on the environment. With tap water there is no plastic to recycle and no carbon emissions from transportation of the product.
See Also:
9 Comments
That’s a bit of a surprise! We have to filter all our drinking water due to the nasty chemical taste. The sample that won obviously didn’t come from a Shifnal tap!
Report abuse
With tap water there are “no carbon emissions from transportation of the product”? Of course there are. It’s pumped, isn’t it? By elecreic motors, using power generated, in the main, from fossil fuels? It really is time articles of this were not so depressingly naive – or should I say so deviously misleading?
Report abuse
I am quite shocked I have always thought that Shrewsbury water tastes horrible and occasionally very metallic.
Report abuse
This research is clearly flawed.
I have lived in Highlet where the water supplied by Severn Trent is very nice tasting, however in Telford where I now live the water has a very bitter taste.
Must be all the chemicals used in Telford water or perhaps the state of the pipes underground which seriously need replacing.
Report abuse
Lets hope they don’t go and put fluoride in it.
Report abuse
whilst on holiday in shropshire i was delighted by the quality of your water, such a refreshing taste, compared to devons fluoride and medicinal taste and smell
Report abuse
Not bad value for a £35M fine which they aren’t going to dispute.
And to link Green issues with a fundamental resource such as water is downright disgraceful.
So this means in future, whenever you are thirsty, you need to be near a tap?
And anyway – our water supplies should be OF THE HIGHEST QUALITY, bearing in mind how much we pay for it.
The quality should NEVER be in question.
Report abuse
no plastic to recycel – that would be fine IF th council recycled plastic, even if they did, what only about 60% of people bother, so the rest goes to landfill – thus wasting oil for plastic bottles is criminal
Report abuse
‘Must be all the chemicals used in Telford water’ thanks for that considered view Darogan. I would suggest that your research is clearly flawed as Telford is, mainly, a hard water area (with a conductivity of anywhere between approx 480 and 800 ug/l. This means that, although it won’t do your kettle or washing machine much good, from a purely drinking it point of view, it is one of the best waters in the county. Of course, if you don’t like the taste then there’s not much Severn Trent can do but I would assure you that, because Telford is supplied by a series of groundwaters, the water has already been naturally filtered and consequently, the water company simply pumps it up, chlorinates it and stores it in a covered reservoir. They certainly don’t chlorinate anymore than they have to (it costs money apart from anything else) and it is unlikely that you will ever taste chlorine at the levels used in the Telford area. There are simply no other chemicals added to it and, from what I can recall, approx 99.98% of the 20 000 odd samples that were taken by ST last year passed very strict quality controls. Do your research. Oh, and if you do buy bottled water, remember what Evian spelt backwards reads…..
Report abuse