How The Other Half Lives . . .

If you think tap water tastes fine and paying for bottled water is dumb, you’re going to hate THIS new trend . . . “The New York Times” did a big feature, on how rich people are moving on from “fine wine” . . . to FINE WATER tastings.The writer recently went to a “fine water competition” in Atlanta, where six judges (or “water sommelier ” if you’re not into the whole brevity thing), blind taste-tested 107 different types of mineral water from around the world. They say each type of “fine water” has a distinct taste depending on where it came from, and the mix of minerals it has. And some of them now go for HUNDREDS of dollars a bottle. One of the competition winners this year was “melted snow that had been filtered through Peruvian volcanic rock.” The judges also taste-tested one made of mist gathered from a pine forest in Tasmania.