Green Water Trend Tapped Out?

Remember that trend, over the last year or so, of restaurants moving away from bottled water because it’s bad for the environment with all its packaging, not any better than the tap and sometimes even harmful because it often is subject to more lax regulations? Did you think that was going to stick? Come on, how much money is there in not selling something?

This is more like it, from today’s Washington Post:

Desalinated seawater from Hawaii, meanwhile, is being sold as “concentrated water” – at $33.50 for a two-ounce bottle. Like any concentrated beverage, it is supposed to be diluted before drinking, except that in this case, that means adding water to … water.

And from Tennessee, a company named BlingH2O – whose marketing imagery features a mostly nude model improbably balancing a bottle of water between her heel and her hip – is retailing its water at $40 for 750 milliliters, with special-edition bottles going for $480 – more than a million times the price of the liquid that comes from your tap.

Aahh, that’s the stuff. That freaky little green trend of this past year really lacked the crass consumerism we look for in a fad. Unless it can be made into a status symbol, what the hell good is it? We’re frankly not buying Daniel Gross’s Slate piece about the snobbery of tap water (would that we could). Fortunately, the bottled water train is back on its platinum-coated rails, and (this is a real thing) water sommeliers everywhere seem to be doing just fine for job security. Gross.

What’s Colorless and Tasteless and Smells Like… Money? [Washington Post]
The snob appeal of tap water [Slate]
Water Sommeliers [Fine Waters]

[Photo: Tap via id/flickr]

Green Water Trend Tapped Out?