Smartwater is a brand of bottled water produced by the Glaceau company — the same company that makes those colorful VitaminWaters.
I was surprised to learn Glaceau is a subsidiary of Coca-Cola. But what makes Smartwater so special?
Is it really any different from regular water?
Here’s what we know.
Vapor Distillation
Smartwater is “vapor distilled” water.
From what I can understand, pretty much all water is vapor distilled, meaning it originally came from clouds.
Where Does Smartwater Come From?
According to their website, most Smartwater is procured from “municipal water systems.” In other words, “tap water.”
Filtration
Then the Smartwater goes through Glaceau’s proprietary filtration process, that removes just about everything from the water except two H’s and an O.
Electrolytes “For Taste”
Smartwater then adds back in the electrolytes:
- calcium chloride
- magnesium chloride
- potassium bicarbonate
This is done “for taste.” I think the “for taste” part is important because the nutrition label still reads 0 mg of sodium, and the amounts of electrolytes added have essentially zero “gatorade-effect”.
In fact, the amount of electrolytes found in Smartwater is less than in other brands of “non-electrolyte-added” bottled waters.
Two independent taste-testers (my wife and I) could not taste any difference between Smartwater and Brita-filtered tap water.
Other Smartwater Smart-ness Factors
Glaceau has chosen to write “smartwater” in all lower case letters, which definitely seems trendy even if not necessarily grammatically correct.
It seems like the water in the Smartwater bottle isn’t anything amazing. It’s not going to raise your IQ or replenish your body of lost nutrients any more than any other water would.
So what really makes Smartwater smart?
Its business of course!
Globally, bottled water is a $100 billion dollar industry.
Glaceau has found a “smart” way to buy tap water for a national average price of $0.002/gallon, clean it up, and sell it for $5/gallon or more.
A 250,000% markup makes for an insanely profitable business.
By calling it Smartwater, Glaceau is basically calling every other bottled water brand Stupidwater. If you’re buying bottled water (arguably not the smartest activity to begin with–for your finances or the planet), are you going to pick the regular bottled water or the Smartwater?
Great choice, Einstein.
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(photo credit)
Perhaps all water should be sold in the dehydrated form. It would sure save on the shipping costs!
I believe that dehydrated water is simply oxygen.
Oh houts66, can we leave anything to subtlety?
Actually, it would be nothing seeing that dehydration is the removal of water (h2o) and oxygen is obviously part of that…
Yep. To dehydrate water you’d either have to go against the law of conservation of matter stating that matter cannot be created nor destroyed or you could perform molecular separation, which would give you you breathable oxygen but also potentially dangerous and explosive hydrogen.
Dehydrated water is not oxygen. If you drink liquid oxygen it will be the last thing you ever do.
I drink distilled water. Now when I try 0ther water I do not like it. The cats water dish has spout. Tap water leaves a build up I have to scrub. Distilled leaves nothing.
They do sell dehydrated water, they charge people to breathe oxygen at oxygen bars now ♀️
distilled water over time will kill you as it has zero the properties needed for nutrition. So I suggest after drinking a bottle of distilled water take a child’s shovel amount of back yard dirt and pack it in your mouth… you might want to add some water as dry dirt is not easy to swallow and distilled water will do the same to you except you will die of starvation instead of an impacted esophagus.
I distill water at my house so that I basicly get smart water for virtualy no cost.
Tom, Unless you obtain heat for free, consider that in order to distill a liter of water, starting at room temperature (20 deg. C) it takes 80 KCal to heat it to boiling (100 deg) plus 533 KCal of latent heat to boil it. That’s 541 kCal per liter. Add to this the cost of periodically de-scaling the boiler. I hardly call that free. Such costly distillation may make sense for a lab or some industrial purposes, but not for ordinary household uses.
Distilled water is NOT healthy!!!!! No one should be drinking this because our immune system relies on regular exposure to microbes to keep it healthy – distilled water has no microbes. In fact, as noted in the science news in 2015 – decreased exposure to microbes from drinking distilled water and using those antibacterial soaps may be leading to increases in autism – where a mother’s immune system does not recognize fetal brain tissue as non- threatening and attacks it. REsearch this in credible sources and beware
I supplement my distilled water with a little dab of 5h1t to maintain my exposure to microbes.
Jedediah Smytheson
That’s not new, wouldn’t be anything new that all those pro-biotic drinks, there is actually 5h1t in it……
Are you sure you know what you are talking about? I’ve been drinking distilled water for years now with only benefits to my health. My immune system is stronger than it has ever been before. The water that I drink is not only distilled but also vortexed and mineralized with Blue Ocean minerals. For example, drinking tap water long-term has detrimental consequences to your health because of the filtration process it undergoes and because it contains not only parasites but also industrial minerals that the human body has no way of getting rid of as to turn all them into kidney stones. Also, buying spring water doesn’t sound like a sustainable healthy solution either because almost all spring water is filtered with Reverse Osmosis technologies. No matter how advanced a filtration technology is it still damages the structure of the water. Vortexing water is the solution to that. Last but not least, ‘bulk water’, which is essentially tap water that was made safe to drink but still contains a large amount of TDS is not the water that you want to drink because it cannot pass through the cellular structure of the body as easily as distilled water does so you may drink the suggested 1.5, 2 litres per day but if the water you drink fails to hydrate your cellular structure and leaves industrial deposits in your kidneys then you are out of luck with your immune system too.
Honestly, I’m pretty sure you just threw out a bunch of anecdotal evidence and technobabble. Distilled water hydrates better? Are you kidding me? Take a science class and get back to us.
Smart!
Hi,
I just wanted to say that vapor distilled means that the water was boiled, then cooled in a condenser. It’s the exact same process that makes clouds, only faster. The advantages are that it doesn’t require special filters, just a heat source, holding tank, and a condenser (usually a tank of water with a coil of copper pipe running through it). It’s a cheap and effective way of producing very clean water.
Just found your website today, and I’m loving it. It’s nice to have some one deconstruct marketing tactics.
Thanks Matt!
I understand this is also how they make my bourbon so yummy!!
I think, like most food/drink items, and energy items, etc the user or consumer is getting the most because of the psychological consumer bias that comes from a bottle or can that says it makes you sleep better or feel better. It may have nothing different but smart water can seriously effect a person of they believe. Yes it may sound cheesy but it’s true.
You are referring to the placebo effect. Two patients with pain problems are given two identical pills, but one pill is the actual pain medication, the other is simple a tasteless tablet. It’s a clinical study to see if the mind is powerful enough to make the body feel better if it is tricked in to thinking that it is actually treated.
However, the clinical studies of placebo have not exactly given negative or positive results, as they tend to be mixed, especially in larger groups.
Pretty much why I wanted to read up on smartwater. Consumer bias or is it actually made in a “smart process”.
People say it’s a convenient bottle size as well. It seems too tall though.