H₂O on the rocks
Issue 148 - 19 July 2023 (7-min read)
They say the next war will be fought over water, not oil. Makes sense, after all water is fast becoming a scarce resource. But as I learn more about the world of luxury water and the water sommelier movement, I’m beginning to think this water-led war may have some unlikely players, like the wealthy chasing the most pristine water sources.
If the words 'luxury water' and 'the water sommelier movement' sound odd to you, join the club and continue reading. This week, The Global Tiller is taking a dive into the world of fine water. What is the water sommelier movement and how widespread is it? How does it unveil the structural inequities of our global order and what does it reveal about humanity’s deepest fears?
The world of fine water is as pretentious as you can imagine and has been spreading fast around the globe for many years. Water sommeliers taste bottled waters, in much the same way as one would taste wine. They rank different brands based on the waters terroir and “virginality,” or a water’s level of protection from its surroundings. "They help design water menus for restaurants; they judge contests in which bottled waters compete on taste, texture, and mouthfeel; and they collect bottles of tasteless water from icebergs that cost as much as $300!"
There are even schools, such as the Associazione Degustatori Acque Minerali in Italy, the Doemens Academy in Germany, the Aqua Sommelier Association in Japan and the Fine Water Academy in the US, where water sommeliers get training. To drink water.
Only last week, Athens hosted the Fine Water Summit where connoisseurs took one sip after another of water bottled from around the globe. Dubai has a new Aqua Water Bar serving "gourmet water" sourced from the Alpine or the Arctic. Back in 2013, an LA restaurant introduced a 42-page water menu from 10 different countries. Even India is jumping on the bandwagon with 'black water' infused with electrolytes and high alkaline content.
As restaurants and bars embrace this trend, companies that produce luxury water gain even more legitimacy. An Australian company, called Frequency H2O, which sells a litre of water for US$2.30, won a 2018 competition as the 'ultimate elixir of life'. This company un-ironically advertises its water as one “infused with the sound frequencies of love, the moon, and light spectrums of the rainbow”. Svalbarði was another leading brand selling $90 bottles of freshly squeezed water from Norwegian icebergs. Too bad, this company announced its permanent closure — possibly because it ran out of capital — earlier this year.
Another popular brand is the American Kona Deep, sourced from the deep ocean next to Hawaiʻi. I’m sure for someone located halfway across the world, the idea of getting bottled ocean water from a tropical paradise is alluring but let’s not forget that the US Navy contaminated drinking water for years in Hawaiʻi so next time you take a sip of paradise water, spare a thought for Hawaiʻi’s Red Hill residents who are being forced to drink bottled water but for entirely different reasons.
And that brings us to the reason why luxury water and the idea of a global water sommelier movement leaves a bitter aftertaste. Mineral and bottled water companies suck our ground water dry, only to sell it back to us at a premium rate. This is exactly what Nestlé has been doing, not only in Pakistan and other third world countries but to First Nations communities in Canada as well.
Yet, the trend continues. Sometimes out of necessity and often out of conformity, we continue to drink bottled water making this industry worth over $342 billion globally in 2023, and expected to grow every year at 5.24%. There are many reasons why. Even as early as 19th century, the leisure class in the Global North that vacationed in 'spa towns' looked at access to rarified waters as a status symbol. More recently, the wellness movement has spurned alcohol and soda, making water a beverage of choice for the enlightened.
But the most interesting explanation is one offered by researchers at the University of Waterloo in Canada who say that the reason why society is so devoted to bottled water, they say, may be our fear of death. This social-psychological study on water consumption choices claims that “individuals’ unacknowledged death anxiety may be an unrecognized barrier to environmentally sustainable behavior change”. It explains that this anxiety makes human beings act more selfishly, distracts us from our eventual demise and helps us reach irrational conclusions, such as “How could the planet be dying when I hold in my hand a bottle of such unfathomably pristine water? How could I be dying when I’m making such healthy decisions?”
While it is an interesting conclusion to explain why this trend continues to grow, it does not dismiss the fact that water scarcity is an accelerating global crisis, predicted to affect two-thirds of the world’s population by 2025. Wouldn’t it be a better utilisation of those $342 billion to make sure every single person in the world has access to clean drinking water, instead of melting our glaciers to help some rich person feel good about dying?
Until next time, take care and stay safe!
Hira - Editor - The Global Tiller
Dig Deeper
Pumping groundwater isn’t just running communities dry, it is also impacting the planet on a more permanent scale. This article explains how pumping groundwater for drinking and irrigation has had a noticeable effect on the entire planet.
…and now what?
Are you a big fan of diamonds? Or gold? Or precious stones? If so, why? Eventually those are just rocks. Pretty rocks for sure, but rocks nonetheless.
Why are humans so attracted by these shiny things? Because they have a big value. Why are they so valued? Because they are scarce: either in quantity and/or because they are hard to extract.
This love for the rare and the scarce has pushed humans to extract these resources since pretty much the dawn of time: as a sign of wealth, power… we like to show that we have access to things others don’t. Until somehow it becomes mainstream. Today, the diamond market is changing because technology allows us to create a real diamond through the magic of engineering. And because they are becoming more accessible they are becoming less attractive.
So if you want to show off your power and wealth, where do you turn to? The next best scarce resource: water. It’s no coincidence that rich people are becoming all so fancy with water. Because we all know today that water is becoming scarce. It has reached such an extent already that inequalities have risen around water a few years back. Flint, Michigan, is a terrible living testament of how the quest for wealth leads to exploitation, abuse and hoarding.
So if something is a sign of our time, this new trend on water is definitely it. It may be advertised as a health thing, but it is only about scarcity. How unique and exclusive can it be to show off on Instagram with water from a dying glacier?
We could even draw a parallel with the rise of wild animal hunting that has raised online protests the last few years. Do you remember those rich white people showing off online with a dead elephant or tiger outraging millions of couch-activists? This is the same dynamic at play here: biodiversity is waning, so those who can afford it will get the last bite of it. And to hell all of us trying to be responsible citizens.
Is it just another sign of our infinite doom? Is that the final nail in our coffin? The last evidence of our self-imposed curse?
Maybe not! As the stubborn skeptic optimist that I am, let me take you to the potential silver lining here: as diamonds have become such a huge thing in our world, many people have tried to find ways to access scarcity without having to give out a kidney for it. So we invented artificial diamonds and made them more easily accessible and less impactful for the environment.
As electric cars (through Tesla) have become such a hype (until Elon revealed to the world that he’s just a big crying baby bully), all the other brands went on to democratise it. We all thirst for scarcity so we all end up finding ways to access it and make it more affordable.
Will it be tricky for water? Potentially as this is more essential to life than diamonds can be (even if many pictures of stars and models eating diamonds may make you think otherwise). But our creativity can sometimes be surprising.
So let’s leave the rich enjoy their small slice of power, let them feel better and holier than all of us while many of us are actually trying to access scarcity for a bigger slice of accessibility.
Philippe - Founder & CEO - Pacific Ventury