That's what I found in the Globe and Mail's style section yesterday. A vacation curated by a mountain air sommelier. Would there be 4 levels of mountain air sommeliers? introductory, Certified, Advanced and Master?
There are olive oil, water, milk, sake, coffee and tea sommeliers. Beer sommeliers are known as Cicerones.
You can find Christina Li, Canadian water sommelier's website HERE.
As to being a sommelier, Wikipedia says this:
In modern times, a sommelier's role may be considered broader than working only with wines, and may encompass all aspects of the restaurant's service, with an enhanced focus on wines, beers, spirits, soft-drinks, cocktails, mineral waters, and tobaccos.
The inclusion of tobaccos makes me doubt that this has been written in modern times. And what about this quote:
"An experienced sommelier can even determine, through their refined sinus canals, the moon phase of the day the coffee beans were harvested."
And what does the Guinness Book off Records say about sommeliers - first robot sommelier is the first headline, then largest sommelier lesson.
NEC System Technologies and Mie University, Japan, have developed a robot capable of tasting wine and recognizing the differences between a few dozen varieties. To "taste", the "wine-bot" fires an infrared beam through the wine and analyses the various wavelengths of light that are absorbed. A built-in speaker is used to announce the variety of wine selected.
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