Don't drink the water

Since people are apparently still reading this blog, I decided to do another series of posts. It's not as exciting as the one dairy products, maybe, but this post is the first in a three part series about drinks. It includes all of your standard liquids: water, wine, and beer.

In which of these scenes are you living in Germany?
1. You sit down un a restaurant and before you even order, the waiter brings you a tall, frosty glass of ice water. Later he comes by with a pitcher and refills it.
2. A friend offers to get you a drink from her kitchen. You ask for a glass of water. She opens a bottle and it goes pssshhhhh.

The correct answer is number 2. If you were in Germany in scene number 1, you'd better tell me where you are eating so I can go there.

Despite the fact that Germany has cleaner tap water than most countries in the world, Germans prefer to drink from the bottle. There are 528 brands of bottled water in Germany, compared with 183 in the US and 13 in Sweden. In Berlin, there are 18 public drinking fountains for its 3 million residents. And the name for drinking water in German is Leitungswasser, which literally translates as 'plumbing water'. Hmmm that sounds appealing.

So why don't they drink from the tap? The number one reason in my highly informed expert opinion is bubbles. Most bottled water is sparkling. It comes in different levels of carbonation: light, medium, and regular. And for a population that is big on being environmentally friendly, it uses a lot of plastic bottles. If you had the choice between sparkling water and plumbing water, which would you take?

Let's go back to the restaurant scene. What really happens is that you look at a menu and see that water costs as much as beer, or maybe more. You could order a still water but decide to ask for tap water instead. Here are the rules I have figured out:
1. If you order tap water alongside another drink, you are more likely to get it. So you can order a wine and a water or a Coke and a water, but not a water and a water.
2. There will be no ice and no unsolicited refills.
3. Sometimes the server will casually forget that you asked for tap water. Sometimes you get a funny look. Once in a while they just say no.

With all of these barriers to consider, it's probably best to fill up a bottle at home, carry it around in your purse, and just order a beer.