Now most people think water is water. But for millions of people, different bottled water brands are not the same. Aquafina and Dasani are both made from two rival companies that have a long-standing feud. You may have heard – Pepsi and Coke. Aquafina was the first bottled water available for a long time – in 1994. Coke waited to see the success of Aquafina before Dasani year They released it in 1999.
Aquafina has always tasted horrible to me, ever since I first drank it in high school back in 1995. It tastes like metallic tap water with a strange twang you’d want to pull from the bottle at the end of any long drink. With the advent of the Internet, we can see exactly how Pepsi makes Aquafina.
Aquafina is, in fact, the sound of water that has undergone carbon filtration, reverse osmosis, and finally ozonation. All that to help purify the water, and yet it still retains that strange taste of the water. Nothing seems to be added to Aquafina.
As for Dasani, it tasted like liquid gold to me, since it first came out in 1999, when we would try any Bottle water than Aquafina. Of course, with exclusive distribution of Pepsi or Coke products in almost every place where soda is sold, it limits your options somewhat. I first saw Dasani at a gas station cooler when I was filling up my car’s gas tank after soccer practice in 105 degree weather.
I bought a bottle of Dasani and opened it, hoping it would taste better than Aquafina but didn’t want to preempt me by taking a long sip first. So I got sober and sloshed the water around in my mouth. I tasted like pure water with no taste, and when I was very thirsty, I eagerly drank the whole bottle in one swallow.
Dasani sells purified water purified with added minerals to enhance the taste, and I can certainly testify that its taste is much better. than Aquafina. Dasani water uses the same sound as Aquafina but uses a different process to make the water taste different. Dasani purifies the water through reverse osmosis and then adds small amounts of minerals between salt and Epsom salt for a better taste. Dasani
After I tasted Dasani, I couldn’t go back to Aquafina because of the choice. Given the choice, I would always choose Dasani – there is no reason to simply choose Aquafina other than necessity. And of course I mean the road trip road in California from North Carolina in the year 2000. across the deserts of New Mexico and Arizona, I could feel the heat rising from the road. Temperatures hovered between 125 degrees during the day. And every single gas station I stopped on the road poured only Pepsi products.
As you can imagine, I was very unhappy on that trip. I had no choice but to drink Aquafina in those arms of the road. But once I crossed the border into California and saw Dasani at the cooler of the first gas station, I almost cried with joy. I bought five bottles and drank them all in a vain attempt to wash away the memory of Aquafina.
Now in another perspective, Aquafina would technically be “purer” water, but when will we ever drink something that is “purer”? We mix water with all the other additives and flavors to make mock drinks. What does it matter to us?
And Aquafina fails me in the taste test. Long live Dasani!
