The royal water scam

Here's a link to (and two quoted passages from) an article in yesterday's Philly Inquirer about a scam involving water, specifically a water bar where folks can get overpriced imported bottled water and pretend like it's wine or something...

Water makes a splash
With Philadelphia getting its very own water bar, where the wet stuff can go for $50 a pop, it was time for a sip test.
By Dianna Marder, Inquirer Staff Writer

Here I am at the Water Bar in the magnificently restored Water Works Restaurant and Lounge, where water sells for $4 to $50 a bottle - and the highest-priced brand sells best.

Accompanying me are Ed Grusheski of the Philadelphia Water Department and some foodie friends.

Michael Mascha, water editor for the online magazine The Nibble, couldn't make it, but he sent a copy of his book, Fine Waters: A Connoisseur's Guide to the World's Most Distinctive Bottled Waters (Quirk Books, $24.95).

So to recap, in case you thought I was kidding:

There are now water bars, staffed with water sommeliers who advise on pairing water with food and read magazines that have water editors. Indeed, one may now purchase Christofle sparkling water decanters for $415.

. . . .

What we don't get to taste is the $50 Bling H2O, bottled in the Great Smoky Mountains of Tennessee. It's pricey only because the brand name is spelled out on the frosted bottle in handmade Swarovski crystals.

"To me, this is classic L.A.," says Mascha, who is based there. "There, people don't drink much alcohol any more because they need to look beautiful the next day. Bling works for them because it costs about the same as a bottle of champagne."

Bling is the Water Works' best-seller.

Corporate clients tend to buy it "because they can," Agorastos says. "And others order it out of curiosity. They want to know what a $50 water tastes like. And then they can take the bottle home as a souvenir."

. . . .

Hello... Bling is not $50 water, it's a $48 bottle which happens to have water in it! Sheesh.

Now, I drink water all the time, but it's a vintage I call tap. I also refrigerate it (no cube/water dispenser in the door) to have it cold which the accompanying "How to select waters" piece ends up saying not to do for some reason. Oh well, so I'm no connoisseur—this I already knew.

Maybe there is something to this concept of pure natural waters that one can actually distinguish between, but I doubt that I would be able to discern any real differences—except for maybe a little bit with the sparkling varieties as the article mentions, but they're not my cup of tea, er... water to begin with.

Anyway, I'd say this whole concept is probably about 98% scam at a conservative estimate. Just my opinion.