Tiny annoyance number four-thousand and twelve: Campuses (or other such locations) with exclusive Pepsi contracts. Because it means the only bottled water they’ll carry is Aquafina. Which is demineralized water. Which is bad. Or at least I think so, and there are some people who’ll agree.
There are two camps on this: one says that minerals clog up our bodily functions and we should drink demineralized water to avoid them. The other (which I’m more inclined to believe – this is also the side the WHO stands on) says the minerals in water are a part of healthy human function, and drinking demineralized water actually leeches existing minerals out of our bodies without replacing them, leaving us with deficiencies.
Unfortunately, it seems that Aquafina is really dominating the bottled water market these days (it being the only water I can get at work and at school on the days I forget my own bottle to replenish from the interoffice filters and drag around with me), and I don’t like it. Where can a girl get a good ol’ bottle of Evian or other regular spring water these days?
I remember a year or two ago it was a big deal at UBC when we found out that the school was putting water fountains out of service because the students weren’t drinking enough Coke products to cover the minimum the company wanted to keep paying grants to the school.
This still sickens me.
Hmmm do you know Evian is Naive spelled backwards….just a thought !
I’m rather partial to glacial water myself.
then again, dasani (bottled by coke) is salted to make it taste ‘better’. i’ll stick with my brita water, thanks.
Yeah, Dasani is far eviller than Aquafina, in my opinion. I drink demineralized water because it’s cheaper, and I make up my minerals elsewhere. Like in the tap water I use for cooking.
I refuse to drink Dasani. De-then-Re-mineralized water? Yikes. I drink from the Brita filter at home (because I don’t like the chlorinated taste of my tap water), and otherwise look for spring water when I’m out. Thankfully the office dispensers are just filter units now, instead of filled with jugs of distilled water (same as demineralized) like they used to be.
I think the reason that UBC shut down water fountains was because of the non-trivial amount of lead found in the water – these are ancient buildings. I’m pretty sure the whole “No water because Coke says so” thing is a red herring, as the AMS (student society) is the one with the Coke deal, yet Plant Ops (Maintenance staff) would be the one shutting down fountains.
I just got a Brita filter for my fridge, and I find that I miss the taste of all the goody-goodies that Vancouver water has in it. I actually bought lime cordial to put in my Brita water because it tasted like nothing otherwise.
I’m still actually in awe that there’s such a huge market for bottled water. It comes out of the TAP people. And it’s not like we have polluted water sources here in BC. Even if we did, we should be forced to drink the water so we’ll be more motivated to protect the water sources. BUYING water is the biggest freakin’ waste of money in the universe.
I’d like to Sue. I grew up on Vancouver tap water and for most of my early years I thought it was wonderful. Then along came Expo and they added chlorine “for the visitors”. Later there was that beaver fever scare, which didn’t scare me itself, but suddenly our water was filled with chemicals that I found just awful to taste.
I would gladly campaign for us to protect our water supply, the whole scam of Macmillan Bloedel selectively farming “diseased” trees in our water shed is utterly shameful. Unfortunately the vast majority of Vancouverites prefer so-called cheaper methods than just keeping the water sheds clean and civilization-free.
Now I live in Richmond and the tap water is utterly gross, Sometimes I’m scared to even cook with it.
When I lived in Hope we had AWESOME tap water. In fact, there was a bottled water plant up the road from my place – used the same stuff (natural spring water) that came out of all the other taps in the town.
Sue: perhaps leave the Brita filter on the counter? I find that room-temperature water has a more authentic “taste” than cold water.
everybody knows that Dasani is just tap water, right?
i didn’t realize that Aquafina water was demineralized. yeah, i guess i’m sticking with my girlfriend, Brita.
I can confirm that Richmond’s tap water is yucky.
During the day I fill a pitcher with (North Van – yummy!) tap water with a slice of lemon and a slice of lime. Mmmmmm! It tastes good!
i likes the tap water