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“Would you like bottled water or tap
water?” the server asks. That question, routine in upscale big-city
restaurants these days, never fails to make me uncomfortable. If I say I
just want tap water, do I seem cheap? As if I wouldn’t be able to pay
the check if I ordered bottled water? Well, the truth is, I am cheap. I
typically drink several glasses of water while eating, especially if
I’m thirsty. Because we usually have wine or beer with our evening
meal, the water keeps me from slamming down something that should be
savored just to quench my thirst. There are several mineral waters I like,
but their nuances are lost alongside the flavors of the food and other
drink. Tap water works just fine. Thanks to a recent New
York Times article, I’ll no longer feel
any discomfort when asked the tap-versus-bottled question. The article
highlighted a growing group of highly regarded restaurants that no longer
serve bottled water. Like so many other trends, this one began in
California. Several restaurants in the San Francisco Bay area made the
decision to stop selling bottled water to their customers. When Alice
Waters, the legendary “mother of California cuisine” and fierce
advocate of local and sustainable food, stopped serving bottled water and
began serving house-made sparkling water in her restaurant, Chez Panisse,
chefs and restauranteurs everywhere began taking notice. Del Posto, the
crown jewel in Mario Batali’s New York restaurant empire, is jumping
on the bandwagon.
Many are reluctant to give up selling bottled water,
with good reason. It has the highest markup (read profit) of any menu item,
often sold for four or more times its retail cost, and accounts for an
estimated take for restaurants nationwide of $200 million to $350 million.
Still, for anyone committed to eating locally,
drinking locally is a logical move. As Batali’s partner, Joe
Bastianich, explains: “Filling cargo ships with water and sending it
thousands of miles to get it around the world seems ridiculous. With all
the other things we do for sustainability, [using local filtered water]
makes sense.
It makes sense to take a look at bottled-water
consumption outside restaurants, too. Consumption of bottled water has
skyrocketed. There’s the convenience factor, of course, but another
primary reason is a general perception that bottled water is purer than tap
water, a perception pushed by labeling and marketing that use images of
clear rushing mountain streams or pristine glaciers. A recently published
four-year study by the National Resources Defense Council in which more
than 1,000 bottles of 103 brands were tested strongly challenged the
assumption that bottled water is purer. Some of the waters tested were of
high quality, but about a third contained contamination, including
synthetic organic chemicals, bacteria, and arsenic. Of course, there can be problems with tap water, too,
but ironically the standards for the public water supply are much more
stringent and strictly enforced that those for bottled water. Part of the
reason is that tap water is regulated by the Environmental Protection
Agency, whereas bottled water falls under the jurisdiction of the Food and
Drug Administration. The EPA requires multiple daily tests, which must be
made publicly available; the FDA requires only weekly testing, which
doesn’t have to be reported to the agency, state governments, or the
public. The FDA does not require any testing of sparkling water. The NDRC report found that “about one fourth of
bottled water is actually bottled tap water according to government and
industry estimates (some estimates go as high as 40 percent).” Both
Aquafina (sold by PepsiCo) and Dasani (sold by Coca-Cola) are reprocessed
from municipal water systems. All this sounds a bit scary, but of course most
bottled or tap water is safe to drink. Just be aware that that pretty
picture on the bottle is probably not where the water inside originated. In 1995 the FDA
issued rules to prevent misleading claims, but, according to the NRDC
report, while although the agency has prohibited some of the most deceptive
labeling practices, the rules haven’t eliminated the problem. The
report describes several of the most egregious labels, including one
reading “Spring Water” and adorned with a picture of a lake
surrounded by mountains. The water was actually from an industrial parking
lot next to a hazardous-waste site. Then there’s pollution. According to the Earth
Policy Institute, the plastic bottles for U.S. consumption alone require
more than 1.5 million barrels of oil annually. That’s just the oil
from which the plastic is derived and doesn’t include the energy
expended in the manufacturing process. Transporting all those bottles
results in “a significant contribution to global warming, and
fundamentally an unnecessary one,” says NRDC senior scientist Dr.
Gina Solomon. There’s also the problem of the leftover bottles, only
10 to 14 percent of which are recycled. Good news on this front is that
some companies are adopting more eco-friendly alternatives, such as
Colorado’s Biota, which is bottling its spring water in a
biodegradable plastic derived from corn.
In spite of all of this, I have mixed feelings about
bottled water.
People who criticize bottled water seem to assume that
everyone would drink tap water instead, but I’m not sure that
that’s always true. Bottled water at least is an alternative to less
healthy liquids. I’d much rather see children — and adults, for
that matter — with a plastic bottle of water in hand than with a
plastic bottle of soda or other soft drink. I occasionally drink bottled
water — especially when traveling — and try to recycle as best
I can. I use distilled water at home to make coffee and tea, because our
well water’s high mineral content makes lousy brews. But in
restaurants I’ll be having the tap water, please. For several years, I particularly enjoyed the
cucumber-lemon “smart” water made by Glacéau. The
company discontinued it, but reproducing the flavor was simple enough.
It’s light and refreshing, a good alternative to iced tea, lemonade,
or plain water.
Send questions and comments to Julianne Glatz at
realcuisine@insightbb.com.
Cucumber Lemon Water
Add half of a sliced cucumber (if using a
store-bought waxed cucumber, peel it; otherwise, don’t bother) and
one thinly sliced, washed lemon (lime also is good) to 2 quarts of water.
Refrigerate for at least 4 hours to let the flavors come out before
drinking.
This article appears in Jun 14-20, 2007.
