Money down the drain
We don't tend to think too hard about the contents of our glass or bottle when we're thirsty.
On a student budget, the only fluids most of us are willing to spend our hard-borrowed cash on are those that have been brewed, distilled or fermented in some way. When it comes to anything other than this, most of us are more than happy to reach for the trusty kitchen tap, even if what comes out seems just as cloudy as the River Cherwell.
Sometimes though, we may be tempted by the aspirational advertising campaigns, to switch to bottled, even in spite of the huge hike in price. Take Dasani, for example; the name had a kind of an Eastern, mystical, yogic ring to it. You could imagine the wellness seeping into your veins as the cool, clear nectar trickled down your throat.
According to Coca-Cola, who used to bottle and distribute this wonder product, "Dasani complements all the good things: confidence, spontaneity, style, passion and joy. As basic as breathing, Dasani quenches thirst naturally and deliciously."
Need more spontaneity in your life? Lacking in confidence and style? And who amongst us couldn't do with a bit more passion and joy? And the best thing about this gift to civilization? Let the marketing gurus from Coke spell it out in their own inimitable style: "Dasani is vitally refreshing and abundantly available." Well, they were right about that; it came out of the taps.
There was a bit of a hue and cry about this last year. Turns out that Coca-Cola were taking Thames Water's finest, straight from the taps in their bottling factory, filtering it, and then, to improve the taste, reintroducing all the minerals that they'd just taken out; along with some highly toxic chemical derivatives. The product has since been withdrawn from the British market, and the people of this fair isle are now deprived of the benefits of paying 95p per litre for tap water.
Of course, to be fair to Coke, they had also kindly removed all the bacteria, the cryptosporidium, the nitrates, the organic pollutants, the pesticides, and the heavy metals. Funny, you'd think that Thames Water would have thought of that.
It strikes me as quite a good marketing ploy, really; "Drink our water folks - it won't make you sick!" I reckon people would be prepared to pay for that. They do? Water rates, you say?
The bottled water market is estimated to be worth over £12 billion worldwide per year. In the UK alone, 2003 saw sales of £1.2 billion, or more than 2 billion litres, with still water accounting for 85% of that. But is there really any point in forking out for the stuff off the shelves?
Not all bottled waters are created equal. Natural mineral water must come from a specified protected source, the more picturesque the better, it seems. It filters through the rocks, picking up mineral deposits as it goes, so mineral water from different locations will taste different, but any particular brand is guaranteed to always have the same composition - and so, the same taste. Also, it must be safe to drink without any treatment.
Spring water, on the other hand, must come from an underground source, be bottled there and, though it is traditionally supposed to be safe as it is, UK laws do allow treatment to take place. Other types of bottled water are just tap water, dolled up to a greater or lesser extent.
Bearing all this in mind, I decided to put my scientific training to the test and find out if the stuff you pay for is worth the money, with the help of a handful of volunteers and a selection of water samples from Tesco.
My intrepid testers braved extreme bladder strain to bring you the answers once and for all. Overall, I hate to say it, but our old friends across the Channel came out on top. But the big question, I know you've all been wondering: could our testers tell the difference between tap water and bottled?
Well, actually, yes. In fact, the only thing that came out consistently worse than tap water, was Brita-filtered tap water, although one taster did rate both of these better than the bottled stuff. Of the also-rans, the Scottish Highlands' finest and the Cotswolds' local product had their fans, and the stuff that's proud to have been filtered through volcanoes, well, let's just say, it tastes like it.
Was there a pattern with mineral content and taste, or are they all pretty much of a muchness? Well, another surprise here, the higher the dry residue - the mineral content - the better the taste. Evian and Vittel have around 300 and 400 milligrams per litre, respectively, Volvic 130 milligrams, and the others somewhere in between.
So what's the take home message here then? Well, if you're keen on that real 'pure' flavour, a little less purity might be worth paying a bit extra for - between 30p and 70p a litre (depending on the size of the bottle) and look for a high 'dry residue' content.
On the other hand, if you like to think of yourself as a bit of a greenie, consider this: every year, 1.5 million tonnes of plastic is used to bottle the stuff and 89 billion litres of bottled water worldwide are consumed outside their country of origin - think toxic chemicals, landfill, fossil fuels, and emissions of greenhouse gases.
Finally, if you're worried about the safety of your drinking water, it's worth remembering that there are more standards under European law that are applied to regulating tap water than there are aimed at the bottled water market.
The water companies of England and Wales carried out 2.9 million tests on drinking water samples in 2002, of which 99.87% passed. According to the Drinking Water Inspectorate, our very own Thames Water comes out quite well. Personally, I reckon if it's good enough for Coca Cola.....
27th Jan 2005