There are not many people in the world who hold the title of water sommelier, and Martin Riese is among the most recognized. Having pioneered the role in the United States, he has spent years demonstrating — in restaurants, on stage, and in media — that water is not a neutral substance but a complex drink shaped by mineral content, source geology, and processing. When Martin Riese sat down with Sean Kelly on the Digital Social Hour, he reset the conversation around something most people think they already understand.
The episode is genuinely educational from the first minute. Martin moves through the chemistry of what makes water taste the way it does, the truth about some of the most heavily marketed bottled water products in the United States, and why the alkaline and hydrogen water trends are, in his professional assessment, largely built on misrepresentation. He also conducts a live water tasting on camera, which turns a fairly abstract discussion into something concrete and memorable.
About Martin Riese
Martin Riese is widely credited as America's first water sommelier — a formally trained and certified role that originated in European spa and hospitality culture, where the mineral properties of local spring waters have been valued for centuries. He brought that framework to the United States, creating water menus for high-end restaurants and building a public profile through media appearances, consulting work, and education around water literacy.
His expertise centers on total dissolved solids (TDS), the mineral composition of different water sources, and how those factors affect taste, mouthfeel, and actual hydration. He is an outspoken critic of marketing claims that he considers scientifically unsupported, including the widespread promotion of alkaline and hydrogen water as having special health properties. His approach combines rigorous food science with the kind of sensory training traditionally applied to wine or spirits.
What Martin Riese and Sean Kelly Talked About
- Why the concept of "pure water" is a scientific myth — and why minerals are essential to how water tastes and hydrates
- What total dissolved solids (TDS) actually measures and why it matters more than most hydration marketing acknowledges
- The real difference between spring water, purified water, and tap water — and why about 60 percent of bottled water is simply processed tap
- Martin's assessment of the alkaline and hydrogen water categories: why the health claims don't hold up to scientific scrutiny
- Why certain low-TDS waters can produce a sensation of dryness — and what that reveals about how minerals affect mouthfeel
- How European water culture, built around historic spa towns and medicinal springs, differs from how Americans think about drinking water
- Why New York City tap water produces better pizza and bagels than most other cities — and what the chemistry explains
- How to think practically about water filtration, reverse osmosis systems, and remineralization for everyday use at home
Why This Conversation Matters
Martin Riese's conversation with Sean Kelly is the kind of episode that changes a small but meaningful habit. Water is the most consumed substance in most people's lives, and yet the information most people have about it comes from marketing rather than science. Martin has spent his career correcting that gap, and his appearance on the Digital Social Hour is one of the more informative and accessible versions of that conversation available.
▶ Watch the full episode on YouTube
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About Sean Kelly & the Digital Social Hour
Sean Kelly is an entrepreneur and the host of the Digital Social Hour, one of the fastest-growing interview podcasts in the world, where he sits down with entrepreneurs, athletes, creators, and cultural voices for candid, long-form conversations. The show draws over 100 million views a month across platforms. Explore more guest features on SeanKelly.io.
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