Pouring cold water on H₂O sommeliers | Letters

Readers respond to an article on restaurants that offer customers different kinds of water from a dedicated menu

Water at £19 a bottle (‘You’re either going to be a pioneer or a joke’, 28 August)(Meet the water sommeliers: they believe H₂O can rival wine – but would you pay £19 a bottle?, 28 August)? What a load of rubbish. Far better to order a free glass of tap water. At an Open University summer school some years ago, students were invited to take part in a trial. All were given 10 lots of two samples, Nottingham tap water and Highland Spring. There were enough participants over the weeks for a statistical sample. Answer? They could not tell the difference. Incidentally, licensed premises are obliged to provide free tap water on request. Refusing to do would be a breach of their licence condition.
Rosalind Clayton
London

• Perhaps Joe Rawlins and Gaëlle Radigon, the owners of La Popote restaurant, could consider putting tap water on the menu as “Corporation Pop”, as we called it when I was a child in Manchester. If you wanted it fizzy, just shake it. The omission of Buxton water from their list is a crime.
Chris Walters
Buxton, Derbyshire