Tasters Give Briarcliff's Water 2nd Place Honors

Staffers with the Westchester County Department of Health held a curbside taste test Friday afternoon, urging passers-by to sample a slate of unlabeled tap waters from around the area.

Of the nine municipalities represented in the anonymous test, Briarcliff Manor earned the second most amount of votes (29). Just Mount Vernon, with 47 votes, beat out the village.

Elmsford came in third, with 21 votes.

Nok Siriphonlai, an associate engineer with the health department, told Patch the once-a-year taste test coincides with Drinking Water Week, and is used to gauge opinion.

"It's purely public input," she explained. "We want to promote public awareness of safe drinking water."

The event—held at the corner of Court Street and Martine Avenue—ran from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., with health officials pouring pedestrians plastic cupfuls. The testers then filled out a quick form, selecting which cup tasted the best.

In his Village Manager's Report Friday, Briarcliff Manor's Philip Zegarelli shared some little known local trivia.

"In the early 1900’s, the 'Briarcliff Table Water Company' was the gold standard in bottled (glass bottled) water in its day. Long before all the 'natural' water knockoffs we see today, Briarcliff Water was served at only the finest establishments in the region," he wrote. "In point of fact, the beginnings of our own municipal water distribution system were an outgrowth of Briarcliff Water."

Also participating in the 2013 competition: White Plains, Elmsford, Mount Vernon, Scarsdale, New Rochelle, Yonkers, Cortlandt and Peekskill.

Past winners:

2012 – Cortlandt Consolidated

2011 – United Water New Rochelle

2010 - Ossining

2009 – Yonkers

2008 – Croton on Hudson

2007 – Yonkers

2006 – Croton on Hudson

2005 – United Water New Rochelle

2004 – Yonkers

2003 – Yonkers