water review

I've been thinking that I hadn't done a water review in a long time. But if I buy water, it usually after an event at a convenience store or gas station. They just haven't had anything.

The other day my brother Dave sent me an email asking if I had seen Wat-aah. "Available locally, Barb had a bottle yesterday. Sounds up your alley." You betcha. (My brother knows me well.) I went to the site and it said it was available at Giant so I went there yesterday after walking with Betsy and Logan (a dog) in her neighborhood. (Also redeemed my 60 cents off gas bonus points—$3.02/gallon!) It was hot yesterday and my water was gone. i was thirsty. A perfect day to do it.

No Wat-aah.

It's been a long time since I've looked at the water at the supermarket. My are there a lot of them.

 The first one I noticed was NY20. It's spring water from the Catskills. The bottle is cool with this indent in the handle. It's the one I bought. It tasted wet.  But it was easy to hold. I didn't drink it till I returned home. I couldn't get the cap off.

 The next one I saw was Blk. It's black water. It's gross. It looks like watered down prune juice. Fulvic Acid makes it black. The description in my computer dictionary make sit sound like compost tea. Gross.  This contains 60 different kinds of minerals.

Next to it was 84. This is mineral enhanced spring water from the Catskills. Probably the same source as the NY20 water for twice the price.

I laughed my tush off at the name Skinny water. "Skinny Water’s® goal is to provide consumers with a great tasting functional water containing key electrolytes, antioxidants, vitamins with ZERO calories, ZERO sugar, ZERO sodium, ZERO carbohydrates and containing no preservatives, with all natural colors and flavors." Is that not the definition of plain old water? Water has no calories until you put crap in it. All water is skinny!

I have to admit I love the Ávitae Water  bottle. It had me at hello. This is water with caffeine. Finally there was Karma water. "Karma Wellness Water is a truly enlightened product, born out of the idea that what goes around comes around. A product based on the simple belief that if you do something positive—for others, or for yourself—you’ll get something positive back in return." Basically the flavor/vitiamns are in the cap and you release them into the water.

I should go down the water aisle more often. This was fun.

it's been awhile since my last water review.

Lydia bought this Human Kind spring water last night at Walmart. For two reasons. I would love the bottle and it's message. And it was cheap. Unlike Bonnie and I, Lydia is more a bottled water type of girl.

How do you like my impression of a Price is Right girl?

From the website "Humankind Water exists to bring clean and safe drinking water to people in need. 100% of the net profits fund water projects for those suffering without clean water all over the world." The images on the website are heartbreaking and uplifting at the same time.

If I need to drink bottled water. This is the water I should be drinking. It fits in with my my life philosophy ... local (Honesdale), socially responsible, well designed ... you get the idea.

If you know me, you'll see the inherent problem with me buying this water. It's only available at Walmart. I am not a big fan of that particular mega mart, for a number of reasons. Do I boycott it? No. That would be hypicritical. Every month I pick up my sisters Rx! $4 Rx is cheap. And sometimes, not very often, I'll kill two birds with one stone and buy something while I'm there. Maybe when I do I'll could stock up on some Human Kind Water.

How does it taste? Okay. Wet. Nothing special.

qure water

After yesterdays walk I mentioned we stopped at the Shell station. I decided to get some water. Their selection was slim. Deer park, Aquafina, Dasanti, lots of sports waters, and Qure.

Again, I was attracted to the bottle.

The website, and the bottle, say that it " a powerful and stable alkaline pH of 9.5".   It's got all kinds of infographics on the back which might help with my class with their beverage assignment. And a really cool QR code.

I tasted it. It was wet. Gave some to Bonnie and she concurred.

meet fred.

I met Fred at the Sheetz station. His shape made him attractive. (I'm teaching package design this term!) He's basic spring water, and way over-priced. But I didn't care. How many times can you drive down the street looking like your drinking vodka from the bottle?

The back says "Hello. I'm Fred. Aquarius. Velvety smooth and easy to hold. (It is shaped like a bottle of Jack after all.) I'm your daily allowance of awesome in a fully recyclable package and I'm born in the USA. Find me. Friend Me. Follow me. ..."

But he really isn't car friendly. He doesn't fit in the cup holder!

The spring water is from New York, but the company is from California.

Clearly this water was purchase for the bottle and design. Not the content. It was better than tap water, but no better than say Deep Park. Not worth the extra money. Unless your a graphic designer.

it's about time!

I teach at the local community college. When I arrived today I thought the water fountain was busted. It wasn't. They added a bottle/cup filling adapter. I'm so happy I could dance.

The water fountain left you fill anything, maybe 1/3 of the way. The bathroom faucets are on timers and they give maybe 5 seconds of hot water.

Update to yesterday's post.

The day didn't get any worse. But I did eat ice cream when I got home at 9:30. After stress eating, instead of stress eating. Progress. Not good for my no sugar commitment, but I don't care. I think I'm doing well—I think I might be at 95% sugar free. In my classroom right now are donuts and I'm resisting them. Actually, no. I don't even care about them. They are just there.

Today I went to Wegman's and bought my fruit tart for Thanksgiving dinner. I'm sure there is sugar in there. And I plan to eat it. For me this is all about breaking bad habits.

When I was driving to Wegman's, my phone rang. When I called back it was Muhlenberg. My doppler test is scheduled for Monday at 7:30 am. They connected me to billing but they were useless. I didn't have the silly code. I have no idea how much this will cost. I'm assuming it will be 5K like the last one.

water review

Friday I was out shopping for strangers Christmas. I had the holiday hope chests to fill, as well as the two tags that I got at Lafayette.

I was walking with Betsy at 1:30, so I left my house at 11:30. I took a 32 ounce bottle of water. But between shopping and walking I drank it all.

I really wanted a smoothie, but I'm sure both Wegmans and McDs have sugar. Instead, I opted for the 7-11 and a bottle of water.

I choose it because of the bottle. The graphic designer, teaching package design this term, fell in love at first sight.

It's called Voss, and it is artesian water from Norway that has been packaged and bottled at its source. 

During these water surveys I found that I really like artesian waters. They do have a taste to them. It must be the minerals. This one was no different. it was fresh and clean. The bottle is hard to drink from, but I had a glass in the car. (Yes a real glass.) I poured some in and chugged it down. The second class I drank like a normal person. I could actually taste something other than wet.

I'm refilling the bottle with tap water and taking it on today's walk. I don't have the heart to recycle it. Yet.

fizzy water

It's clear. I am not addicted to the sugar in soda. It's the bubbles.

Today for lunch we went to a college hill pizza joint, and I ignored the to-die-for cannoli's, and the soda and went straight for the sparkling Italian water Pellegrino.

I've had this once or twice before so I knew what it tasted like. I was a bit surprised it was still bottled in glass.

It's naturally carbonated and then they add more, plus calcium, chloride, flourine, lithium, magnesium, nitrogen, potassium, silicon, sodium and strontium.

But mostlly it's fizzy.

Which leads me to start thinking about a Soda Stream again. The price has come way down, and I could make my own fizzy water. (I've tasted the soda mixes. Yuck.) Maybe I should ask Santa.

water review

Fiji. What's the big deal?

Since I've been doing these random water reviews I've avoided Fiji water. First of all because it's expensive. Second, because everyone is always fussing about it. A woman in my office brings quarts of it in.

Yesterday I was out longer than I planned and stopped at the Wawa for water. I was going to get Perrier. I like the bubbles and maybe I could trick myself into thinking it's soda. Fiji was on sale 2/$2.22. That brought the price in line with regular spring waters. I bought two. (Full price for one!)

The company wbesite, and the bottle pretty much say

“Please don’t touch the water” – it’s our number-one rule.

Fiji Water’s state-of-the-art bottling facility was designed to protect the purity of our water at every step of the production process, and as part of that strict commitment to quality, no human hands are allowed to touch it. In fact, the facility was built directly on top of the Fiji Water aquifer, where a completely sealed delivery system draws the water up from the protected chamber and places it directly into our iconic square bottles, which are made from the highest-grade terephthalate (PET) plastic resin.
     To put it simply, until you unscrew the cap, Fiji Water never meets the compromised air of the 21st century nor is it touched by another human being. No other natural waters can honestly make that claim.

Up to this point I was beginning to think water was like wine or beer (or Coke/Pepsi), that you could tell the subtle differences between two waters. I noticed it a lot with the bottle of artesian water from Duane Reade.

Gotta tell you, I was underwhelmed. I couldn't taste the minerals. It was cold and wet. Better than tap, but not better than spring water tapped out of the big jug in the office.

Another strike. The square bottle doesn't fit in the cup holder.

The second bottle is going with me to my last night of Zumba. School starts next week. Maybe by that time the toning sessions will start.

water review four?

Is this the fourth water? I don't remember.

When we were tripping around NYC on Tuesday, we stopped to get water at Duane Reade on our way to the Port Authority for the bus. I was hoping to get some of the artesian water I had the last time I was in the city.

At the one we were at, at 8th avenue and about 44th street, there was none in the coolers. On the floor you could buy it by the gallon and quart.

The graphic designer in me reached for the store brand spring water. The UPC code is a statue of liberty. Also available are a subway car, a skyline, and the Brooklyn bridge. All the store brand products have these UCP codes, and the are the major art work also. I was down right giddy in the trail mix aisle. My pix got awful, so I borrowed this one from a web site.

I had it in my hand and the graphic designer saw another bottle. It's a continuous label, which is what we are working on in out package design class. It's water and blackberry essence. Looks great and was cold. But really tasted like plain water, not worth the money. But then again, who wants to fill up their water bottle at a NYC public fountain?

water review 3

(If I must buy bottled water, it will not be purified tap water. I already paid for that once.)

Yesterday in NYC I stopped at a Duane Reade for a bottle of water. They had so many interesting choices I could have bought a dozen. Alas, I only needed one.

I settled on Delish Artesian Water. (I chose it for the label and price.) What is artisan water? It comes from an artesian well. My computers dictionary says it is "relating to or denoting a well bored perpendicularly into water-bearing strata lying at an angle, so that natural pressure produces a constant supply of water with little or no pumping". Aren't you sorry I asked?

That is why the Nutrition Facts listed fairly high mineral content. And it tasted good. But more importantly it was cold and wet on a hot spring day in the city.

another water tasting

Forgot my water bottle on my way to Bingo at the Fearless yesterday. I'm not normally a bingo player, but this is for the Boy Scout camp group that Jarrod belonged too. Grams made out well. Bonnie won and so did I. It was a good afternoon.

I got this at my favorite fancy water store, Walgreens. I had to stop and have a pix printed. This was called RESOURCE and the water was from a source in beautiful downtown....drumroll please...Bangor! It was bottled by Nestle in a bottle that was 50% recycled plastic. The graphi designer in me wants to comment on the great label.

It tasted good. It wasn't just flat and wet. It had minerals or bear poop or something in it to give it some flavor. It said "electrolytes".

Sadly I drank it while watching the Oscars. I drank birch beer at the Bingo.

water

Partially  because I'm an eco-brat, and partially because I'm cheap, I rarely buy water in bottles. I have numerous water bottles both plastic and metal, and also tumbler-like cups with lids. At 5Ks and other events I pick up bottled water. They often hand it to you as you cross the finish line. Often I don't open it and save it for another day.

But there are those rare ocassions when I leave for school or work and discover I have no vessel for water in my car. Yesterday was one of those ocassions.

So I stopped at Walgreens, because I knew the school bookstore would still have long lines. Then I proceeded to stare at the choices. When I do buy, I try not to ever buy Dasani or Aquafina. Those are tap water that have been filtered. Why pay for tap water twice? Generally I buy Deer Park or Poland Spring.

But Walgreens had really interesting choices of imported waters. Beyond Evian and Perrier which I like. And it got me thinking about something I saw on the news.

There was this group of ladies with some rare disease that all the could drink was water. They were constantly sipping water. So they were having a fund-raiser for the disease and it was a water tasting. I thought it was an odd concept. But they were talking about water like  my brother Dave talks about wine, and my colleague talks about beer.

My only conversations about water have been about how bad it tastes. I used to think Allentown's water was horrible until I drank Easton's. I don't think mine is too bad. I drink a lot of it. I know people who've moved here that tell me I am wrong. But "flavor notes" like beer and wine, I don't think so. But I believe in beer brewing that the water makes a difference in the taste of the beer. So clearly I'm wrong.

I decided, right then in there in the cold beverage aisle of Walgreens that if I had to buy water, I was going to buy something different each time. I wanted to see I they really do taste different. It didn't hurt that Iceland Pure was on sale, cheaper than my normal choices. (How they ship it all the way from Iceland in that ultra thin plastic bottle is beyond me.) It has a pH of 8.88. I have no idea what that means but it was important enough to put on the front label. And from reading the nutrition facts it has lots of minerals in it.

It was good. Better than my local water. And light years better than the bottled filtered tap waters. It was clean and fresh, even after it got warm. I could really taste the difference when I refilled it from the water fountain.

Now I want to run out and buy all the types they had and have a water tasting party.