Could it be that there are two different kinds of bottled water?

by Michael Mascha

As you can imagine we get a lot of email here at FineWaters from around the world. About 98% of the emails falls into the category of information requests, general enquiries and encouragements for our mission. And then there are the other 2% of email. Many of them  are hostile, accusing us of promoting and prolonging the bottled water fraud. The tenor of the mail is “why should I pay for bottled water if it’s just tap water”.

I just dismissed those email for the longest time until I was asking myself: Could it be that there are two different kinds of bottled water?

It recently occurred to me that the answer is yes. There is Bottled Water and Bottled Water and this creates confusion in some consumers. Let me try to shine some light on the significant differences between the two.

Bottled Water

The emphasis is not on water but on the aspect that it is bottled. This is having the convenience of buying water in a bottle on the go at the gas station or the airport. You are thirsty and want to drink some water. You could use the water fountain but clever and sometimes deceptive marketing and PR campaigns have convinced you that it is healthier to buy a bottle of water.

Do you care where the water is coming from?

You should, in fact between 25 - 40% of bottled water sold in the US is actually bottled tap water according to government and industry estimates. FDA rules allow bottlers to call their product "spring water" even though it may be brought to the surface using a pumped well, and it may be treated with chemicals. But the actual source of water is not always made clear -- some bottled water marketing is misleading, implying the water comes from pristine sources when it does not. In 1995, the FDA issued labeling rules to prevent misleading claims, but while the rules do prohibit some of the most deceptive labeling practices, they have not eliminated the problem.

This makes Bottled Water a commodity and by definition a commodity disguising it’s origin. The only appeal is the convenience of having it in a bottle. Unfortunately this is also the water that occupies most of the shelf space in supermarkets as these brands are owned by large corporations and have vast marketing powers behind them. Now I can understand why 2% of the people who email us are angry. I would be too if I would buy water in the super market, carry it home and discover its tap water.

Bottled Water

There are people out there that care deeply about the source of their water. They are proud of delivering natural bottled water and obsessed in protecting the source. I know this, because I talk to them every day. They are US or international companies and individuals, in some instances these are new companies and in some instances the water from those sources has been used for more then 2000 years. This companies produce and sell Bottled Water and the emphasis is on the water.

These waters are very special and express terroir. They are bottled at the source, treated as little as possible, and in some instances they are naturally carbonated. All this waters have a unique composition of minerals, depending on their journey through the earth. Some of the waters are 30 days old and some clock 20,000 years. Many have long been associated with curative powers due to a unique composition of minerals and trace elements. These waters are truly special. The emphasis is on the water and it’s source and the bottle is just a means of getting the water to you.

Like with many things there is a world that reveals itself when you start paying intelligent attention. Due to the fractured bottled water distribution system in the US those Naturally Bottled Waters are hard to find in the US and it will require a demand by consumers to change that.

The mission of FineWaters is to allow consumers to see the difference between Bottled Water and Bottled Water and this will hopefully create a demand at a wide consumer level. The trend towards Naturally Bottled Waters* is already visible in top end restaurants/hotels/resorts and we reported about the emerging trend of having “Water Menus” in a previous news letter.

Resources:
Environment, Health and Safety Online
Natural Resources Defense Council

*In order to for people not to confuse the two “bottled waters” I will start using the term Naturally Bottled Water™ going forward for bottled water with a natural source, a gentle bottling process, and the emphasis on terroir.