Out-of-touch-with-Reality Silicon Valley “bros” have been smoking something bad when they manage to convince each other to pay $35 for a jug of unfiltered, untreated “raw” water.

Raw water is water that is bottled directly from the source: a creek, a hillside spring, or a lake.  Raw water is ”raw” because it has not been filtered or treated to remove chemicals or bacteria that could cause illness or death.

We’ve researched this topic and unearthed a few enterprising bottlers of raw water. According to news sources, 2.5 gallon jugs are going for more than $35.

  • Piers Pure Raw Water (extracted from a tributary of Pence Creek that runs through the feedlot of Piers Dairy in Indiana)
  • Büdelsdorfer Reinkanalwasser (Imported) (source: the northern end of the Kiel Canal near Büdelsdorf)
  • Buttweiser Lite (source:  runoff from the Thomas Fire near Santa Barbara, distributed by Budweiser Van Nuys, CA)
  • St. Tammany Raw Water Reclamation (source: wells tapped on the Superfund site of Madison Creosote Works, Louisiana)
  • Red Hook Raw Sparkling Water (source: Gowanus Canal, Brooklyn, New York)

Update: Not only is Raw Water a thing, but National Public Radio (NPR) aired a story in 2015 about Bespoke Water*. The video about the Timmy Brothers’ enterprise can be viewed here.

*A discussion about the commercial overuse of the word bespoke can be read in The New York Times.☕️