It’s just water, folks

I mentioned a few days ago about “beer snobs” and “coffee snobs”, and proceeded to catch all sorts of shit from a self-proclaimed “beer geek“. Some people can’t take a joke.

But I neglected to mention the “water snob”, a quite interesting type of snob.

I drink some water, which is to say nowhere near the amount I should. But I drink it from the tap. I’m not going to pay a buck-fiddy to two dollars or more for something I can get out of my house for damned near free, that is virtually identical to the store-bought bottled stuff that people claim is so much better tasting and better for you.

Friggin’ lambs.

I think many drinkers of the Dasani, Alhambra, Deja Blue, Hinckley Springs, Ice Mountain, and all the other hoidy-toidy bottled water brands would be shocked to know that their water really isn’t that much better than tap water (unless you live here… sorry Mom), and in some cases, is no better for you. You’re paying for hype.

Truth is, all that bottled, “natural spring” water is no better for you than water out of your tap.  If you’re still scared to death that your tap water contains various cooties and what not, get yourself a Brita or Pur filter (whether in pitcher form or attached directly to your faucet- they even make refrigerators with water dispensers with Brita filters now) and you’re golden.  Don’t buy in to the super-chic myth that it’s better and somehow classier to drink the expensive stuff- that probably comes out of a tap at the plant anyway.

But the best line I ever heard regarding bottled water snobbery came just this morning from ESPN’s Colin Cowherd:

” ‘Evian’ is ‘naive’ spelled backwards.”

How can you argue with that?