In any problem this large and complex, there are no easy answers, and Bottlemania should leave most readers with as many questions as answers. Amazingly, while Mascha's hyper-elitist attraction to obscure cave drippings from foreign countries is clearly wastefully obsessive, it might be just be more rational than the growing trend of purchasing repackaged tap-water from the municipality next to you. Some of these mineral waters contain alarming quantities of heavy metals or other toxic impurities, often more than the federal guidelines allow.Ī close enough examination of almost any field or business can set off environmental alarm bells, but what's amazingly peculiar about bottled water is that our own natural desires for health and prosperity have somehow been co-opted into paying money for something we can get for free, or nearly free. Instead they are dissolved solids - read impurities - and carbon dioxide that effervesces out of the water when pressure is relieved. The flavors that Mascha's sophisticated palate can discern between relatively pure glacier water and mineral rich springs are anything but water. While it would seem that such rampant consumerism virtually guarantees he's to be the easiest target in the book, the truth is a little more complicated.Framing her narrative against the struggle between the locals of Fryeburg, Maine with the Poland Spring company (now owned by Nestle!), Bottlemania explains the drawbacks and advantages of gathering water from a variety of sources. Michael Mascha, a self-proclaimed bottled water connoisseur, who advocates the careful pairing of pedigreed ground and glacier waters from around the world with meals during fine dining. After just posting a rather lengthy sustainability diatribe, reviewing Elizabeth Royte's Bottlemania: How Water Went on Sale and Why We Bought It seems a little like environmental overkill, but her work is as much a classic David and Goliath adventure as it is a polemic.

Bottlemania by Elizabeth Royte