At some point in the 1980s, bottled water suddenly became a big thing.

Before that, it would have seemed absurd to say that bottled water was going to become a multi-billion dollar industry.

I mean, come on, Jeff, they probably would have said in their high-powered boardroom,

assuming the CEO was called Jeff.

If people want to drink water, they've already got a tap for that,

conveniently located in their very own home, and it's basically free. There's no way people are

going to pay good money for a bottle of water any more than they pay $5 for a bottle of fresh air

or, I don't know, $5 for a cup of coffee. But of course, Jeff was

right, because this wasn't any ordinary bottle of water. This was mineral water. So-called because

it was full of healthy minerals, things like magnesium, calcium, bicarbonate and sodium. And it had these things

naturally because this water was bottled directly at the source, a geologically and physically

protected source. Not only that, but Jeff and Friends gave this water a sophisticated,

unpronounceable French name,

and then slapped a label on it that makes you feel like you're buying champagne rather than good old-fashioned H2O.

There is something to this, of course.

I think all of us would much rather drink water from its pure source than drink that same water once it's traveled a long way downstream

and passed through all sorts of potential impurities. Because actually, by that stage, it really isn't

the same water as the clean, refreshing water you find at the source. I don't own shares in mineral water,

by the way. I'm saying this because

go back to the source was a crucial slogan in the Reformation of the Church in the 16th century.

The Latin phrase the reformers used was ad fontes, ad meaning to the and fontes meaning fountainhead.

So it was sort of a rallying cry to the fountain head.

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