There's a Pepsi bottling plant a few blocks from my place. Coca Cola is here, too. Guess what they're bottling? Charlotte tap water. That's right. Your $1.50 dollar of Dasani or Aquafina might just be the same H2O I get from my faucet for free. And no, I'm not making this up. It's been in the local paper regularly since I got here. The irony is that Charlotte is in a "severe drought." But Pepsi and Coke are drawing down thousands of gallons from the city's water reservoirs to bottle and sell at exorbitant prices.
Long before it became environmentally cool to say no to bottled water, I preferred to drink from the tap. Especially in Utah during the winter when the water comes out so cold it makes your teeth ache. But I've always felt a little ghetto offering guests a glass from the faucet instead of filtered or bottled water. Given what I now know about Coke and Pepsi, I've decided to start offering my guests some Dasani without the bottle, and then turn on the faucet.
5 comments:
It is run through several filters before being bottled by Pepsi or Coke, so your tap isn't quite the same. Maybe you could settle for a Pur filter/pitcher in your fridge.
Oh how I miss Utah tap water - the best ever. Water in DC comes straight from the Potomac, and I don't think they filter it. Okay, so I know they do because it has this very strong chlorine stench. Our water here in Vegas isn't too bad (of course we have to say that given Tim's employer), though not tolerable for me unless it's filtered - we use the Brita pitcher filter.
~b
I've tried the filter and I seriously cannot taste the difference. And the other thing I learned is that while city utilities are held to very high standards for drinking water, the bottling companies aren't held to anything close to that. So I'm sticking with the tap. I drank it in France, Thailand, Vietnam, Prague, Istanbul and I'm drinking it here! The best tap water I ever had, though, was Sparks, NV near Reno. Like it was melting straight from a mountain glacier into my mouth. Mmmmmmm!
Oh, I prefer tap water myself. I just meant that if you felt "ghetto" serving tap water, then you could give your guests the equivalent of Dasani by using a Pur or Brita filter.
Good suggestion. I used to do that, actually. Except that I was never drinking the water from the filtered pitcher, so it would get stale and the filter would expire . . . and that's pretty much worse than serving a guest tap water. Thanks for the very good tips. I'll serve you a glass of tap water if you're ever in Charlotte!
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