The Bottle vs. Tap Battle Finale: Alkaline H2O, Lead Pipes, and, Yes, Water Sommeliers

Gastropod

Cynthia Graber and Nicola Twilley

Science, Arts, History, Food

4.7 • 3.7K Ratings

🗓️ 20 July 2021

⏱️ 45 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

As promised, it's time for the final splashdown in the battle of bottled vs. tap water. When we left off last episode, bottled water had staged a miraculous comeback thanks to Nike, yuppies, and Orson Welles. Today, it's America's favorite liquid refreshment: we buy more bottled water by volume than any other packaged beverage, even though you can get its less glamorous cousin, tap, delivered directly to your home for mere pennies. So, is bottled water somehow better than tap? Is it safer, or even just nicer tasting? This episode, we dive into the science behind the taste of water (spoiler: it has to do with spit) and explore the fine art of bottled water appreciation, before sharing the secret to making your own DIY Pellegrino. Meanwhile, we've all heard the water horror story unfolding in Flint, Michigan: should we be worried about lead or other chemicals in our tap water—or in the bottles on grocery store shelves? All that, plus our very own water taste test, as we declare the ultimate victor in this war of the waters. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Instead of a wide-store, we created the world's first water store.
0:08.3	We printed our own elegant water menus with phony, imported waters.
0:12.0	What was the actual source of these chic waters?
0:15.4	A garden hose on the restaurant patio.
0:20.6	This is pen of pen and teller, and I hate to say it, but he's wrong.
0:25.5	They did not create the world's first water steward.
0:28.6	In fact, this great and glorious world of ours contains multiple water semeliers.
0:34.2	And there are dozens of ritzy hotels and restaurants that boast multi-page water menus.
0:40.4	Complete with flowery descriptions.
0:41.9	There's even an entire fine water academy in France where you can go to get your water
0:46.8	service certification.
0:48.6	And if you listen to our most recent episode, you know that the water these semeliers are
0:52.5	serving is bottled water because bottled water of all kinds is big business these days.
0:57.8	This episode, we are back with the bottled water verdict.
1:01.6	It's not the OJ trial for those of you old enough to remember that, but it's a pretty big deal.
1:07.6	Which is better bottled or tapped?
1:09.9	We have the answer.
1:10.9	And we of course are a gastro-bud, the podcast that looks at food through the lens of science
1:14.5	and history.
1:15.5	I'm Cynthia Graber.
1:16.5	And I'm Nicola Twilly.
1:17.5	Bottled has been battling tap water for supremacy for centuries now.
	...

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