'I run the world's first gourmet water bar with vegan H2O and aqua cocktails'
A viral 'gourmet water bar' that flogs 30 different kinds of water including 'vegan' and 'H2O cocktails' to plain liquid enthusiasts is coming to the UK.
AQUA Water Bar by LUQEL in Dubai has only been open for two weeks, but it has already found viral fame thanks to a video produced by Blackburn's Shabaz Says as part of his deadpan TikTok series 'I'm rich, you're poor'.
The concept of the bar and its launch as the global economy staggers on through the current crisis has left many people scratching their heads.
Why, when taps across the world deliver perfectly drinkable, perfectly healthy water straight into your home, would you need to visit a water bar?
Roia Jabari, AQUA Water Bar's managing director of the Middle East, argues that the concept of the bar is so strong it is shocking that no one came up with it before.
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"I ask myself why was there never a water bar done before when there's two coffee shops on every corner," she told the Mirror. "Water is an essential drink of life we can't live without."
The bar has been selling water for less than a month (Supplied)One reason why may be that water can be seen as functional and relatively boring tasting - nice with ice on a hot summer's day, but otherwise the defensive-midfielder of the drinks world, solidly doing a job with little fanfare.
Roia hopes that AQUA can change this view and elevate the status of the workman-like liquid. She says not all cups are created equal.
"I believe you absolutely can tell the difference (between our different types of water). When I taste the water with different minerals, a low dose and high dose, I can tell the difference," she continued.
"Some people like Evian, others like San Pellegrino. There is taste in water. My personal favourite is the vegan. It's a bit sparkling. I like the minerals."
The 50 to 60 customers who are currently heading down to AQUA each day can choose between 30 different types of water.
If they want a "boost in the morning" then the bar's 'water sommeliers' will offer them a glass of 'kick start', which has extra magnesium added - a mineral which can have some marginal health benefits, although most people get plenty of it in their regular diets.
Roia Jabari says she can taste the difference between the water (Supplied)
The bar has 30 different types of water (stock photo) (Getty Images)"Or why not try ‘Natural Beauty’ enhanced with extra calcium, sulphate and magnesium giving great tasting mild, smooth water for healthy body and mind?" the AQUA website tempts.
Whatever your poison, the glass will be delivered to your table with all the style and panache associated with a city associated most strongly with the flair meat chef Salt Bae.
In AQUA's promo video one of the bar's 'globally recognised water sommeliers' can be seen placing a translusent dome around a glass of water, misting it in a fine drizzle of water while shining a laser through the haze, and then releasing a bubble containing dry ice.
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You can also ask the bartender to whip you up a water cocktail in a shaker.
The idea for the bar came about when Roia convinced former German adhesive equipment magnate Josef Schuker to bring his water filtration systems to Dubai after meeting him close to his home in sun-drenched Marbella.
For seven years the multi-millionaire had been pouring time and money into water filtration, trying to work out how to make the perfect glass full.
He landed upon reverse osmosis, a technique which of purifying water through a semi-permeable membrane to remove unwanted contaminants, stripping out what he saw as all the potentially nasty molecules which may be lurking in your cup.
Because this has a habit of leaving the water tasting weirdly sterile, it has to be remineralised - something the aqua wizzes at LUQEL do to make their drinks taste like big brand names such as Evian.
The bar employs water sommeliers to mix up the drinks (Supplied)Whether or not this is a worthwhile pursuit - given that the human body ends up filtering out many of the mineral and vitamins artificially consumed - is likely to be questioned by scientists.
"It's a state of the art thing," Roia continued. "We opened up the aqua bar to show people the 30 types we use. Lots of high end restaurants in America have a high end water menu.
"We have yoga water, which is a balanced mineral for while you're doing yoga. We have a recovery water, for high impact sports like paddle boarding."
What Roia and Josef - who first got into the water game after seeing, with dismay, plastic containers floating around the Galapagos islands from the vantage point of his large yacht - hope is that the bar can help reduce the number of disposable water bottles produced globally.
They see themselves as part of a movement promoting delicious water, consumed in reusable containers. Within their first month of being open they've been contacted about launching elsewhere in Dubai, including via kiosks on golf courses.
Now they're eyeing up a spot in London, which Roia believes is primed for some high-end water.
"We have a resident DJ. It's a nice place to come and chill, to bring your laptop and do your work," she said.
"It's like a coffee shop. We have a water mixologist that creates different recipes every day. Drinking alcohol is part of the culture (in the UK), but people are drinking less than before."
Roia is also keen to address Shabaz's video, which she has seen, and the accusation that the bar's water is for the rich.
"People think it's luxurious, but it's not. We charge £1 for a litre of water, about 4.5 dirhams for a mineral water. All the waters are the same price and we sell about 50 to 60 litres a day."
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