Different cultures have different preferences, and your first encounter with a foreigner culture may be a bad experience with water, because water is just something you take for granted. You know that if you are going to Mexico and you drink the water that you will probably end up with Montezuma’s Revenge, but Germany is a fairly civilized country, so you wouldn’t expect to have problems with the water there.
Wrong.
You need to know that Germans almost always drink their water from bottles instead of the tap, and that it is usually carbonated. If Germans drink water from the tap at home, then they will probably have a machine to carbonate their tap water, which they call Soda Club, as if some English speaking person would ever want to drink carbonated water.
Before you get into a situation where you are extremely thirsty, you need to acclimate yourself to carbonated water, or else you are going to have an emotionally scarring experience when you grab a bottle of water to quench your dry mouth after a sporting event, only to have matters made worse through the burning of the carbonation. The Germans now make bottled water which is less carbonated that you can use in conjunction with non-carbonated water to help strengthen your immunity against this senseless mutilation of perfectly good fluids.
Despite the fact that Germany is loaded with water (Lake Constance, the Isar, the Weser, the Oder, the Main, the Neckar, the Rhein, the Elbe, the Donau, and the Baggersee), the Germans treat water like a precious commodity. The Germans don’t have any drinking fountains in buildings or in parks. The typical office doesn’t even include a water cooler, instead they will have a vending machine filled with, of course, carbonated bottled water. The worst though is that you won’t get water at any restaurant for free. In fact, next to the other artificially scarce liquid in Germany, Coca-Cola, water will probably be the most expensive drink on the menu.
Also of note, every German that comes to America and drinks tap water will act disgusted and say, “Yuck! It tastes like chlorine.”
deutsche Übersetzung für Astrid
Ahoi liebe Astrid!
Hier die Übersetzung:
Du Flasche
Unterschiedliche Kulturen haben untertschiedliche Vorlieben, und Ihr erster Zusammenstoß mit einer fremden Kultur könnte eine schlechte Erfahrung mit Wasser sein, weil Wasser etwas ist, das Sie für selbstverständlich halten. Sie wissen, dass Sie, wenn sie nach Mexiko gehen und das Wasser dort trinken, wahrscheinlich mit Montezumas Rache enden werden, aber Deutschland ist ein ziemlich zivilisiertes Land, deshalb würden Sie nicht erwarten, Probleme mit dem Wasser zu bekommen.
Falsch.
Sie müssen wissen, dass die Deutschen fast immer ihr Wasser aus Flaschen trinken und nicht aus der Leitung, und das ist normalerweise mit Kohlensäure versetzt. Wenn Deutsche zu Hause Leitungswasser trinken, haben sie wahrscheinlich eine Maschine, um es mit Kohlensäure zu versetzen, welche sie Soda Club nennen, als ob irgendeine englischsprachige Person jemals kohlensäurehaltiges Wasser trinken wollen würde.
Bevor Sie in eine Situation geraten, in der Sie extrem durstig sind, müssen Sie sich erst an kohlensäurehaltiges Wasser gewöhnen, oder Sie werden ein Erlebnis haben, das eine emotionale Narbe verursacht, wenn Sie nach einem Sportereignis nach einer Flasche greifen, um Ihren ausgetrockneten Mund zu befeuchten, nur um alles durch das Brennen der Kohlensäure noch schlimmer zu machen. Die Deutschen machen nun auch Wasser in Flaschen, das weniger Kohlensäure enthält, das Sie in Verbindung mit Wasser ohne Kohlensäure benutzen können, um Ihre Immunität gegen diese sinnlose Verschandelung von perfekten Flüssigkeiten zu stärken.
Siehe Abbildung 1!
Trotz der Tatsache, dass Deutschland reich an Wasser ist (der Bodensee, die Isar, die Weser, die Oder, der Main, der Rhein, die Elbe, die Donau und der Baggersee), behandeln die Deutschen Wasser wie ein wertvolles Gut. In Deutschland gibt es keine Trinkbrunnen in öffentlichen Gebäuden oder Parks. Im typischen Büro steht noch nicht einmal ein Wasserkühler, stattdessen haben sie einen Getränkeautomaten, der natürlich mit kohlensäurehaltigem Wasser in Flaschen gefüllt ist. Das Schlimmste ist aber, dass Sie in keinem Restaurant kostenloses Wasser bekommen. Tatsächlich wird Wasser, neben dem anderen Getränk mit künstlicher Knappheit in Deutschland, Coca-Cola, wahrscheinlich das teuerste Getränk auf der Karte sein.
Auch noch erwähnenswert ist, dass jeder Deutsche, der nach Amerika kommt und Leitungswasser trinkt, angewidert tun wird und sagt “Igitt, das schmeckt nach Chlor!”
Gruss,
John
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June 16th, 2008 at 4:34 pm
And what’s with Germans not drinking anything (or a 0,2L tiny sippy cup) at lunch? How are you supposed to rinse the taste of spargel out of your mouth with that??
June 16th, 2008 at 4:59 pm
You should add that neither bottled nor tap water contains added fluoride.
June 16th, 2008 at 5:10 pm
> You need to know that Germans almost always drink their water from bottles instead of the tap
That is fortunately NOT true in Bavaria, see e.g. http://tinyurl.com/6c2mtd
June 16th, 2008 at 5:29 pm
“And what’s with Germans not drinking anything (or a 0,2L tiny sippy cup) at lunch?”
I totally agree, whats wrong with 0,4l cups????
Most vending machines also contain non-carbonated water. And what do you need a water cooler for, there’s perfectly fin water in every tab, isn’t it.
“The worst though is that you won’t get water at any restaurant for free”
Yep, that really sucks.
Btw, american water tastes like swimming-pool, thats a fact and teh worst thing is they really make ice-cubes out of this stuff, which will ruin every drink you put it in.
June 16th, 2008 at 6:08 pm
There are no specialized fountains, because you can always drink tap water (usually non-chlorinated).
“The worst though is that you won’t get water at any restaurant for free.”
Seriously? This is definitely not the case in Austria. It’s not as convenient as in the US, where the waiter will just bring water for everyone, but you’ll get it if you ask (maybe it’s different in extremely tourist-y areas).
Carbonation is probably for Germans what ice cubes are for Americans: Every waiter will just assume that you want your drink in a glass fill to the top with (chlorinated!) ice cubes and a tiny amount of the liquid you actually ordered in the remaining space.
June 16th, 2008 at 6:09 pm
come on, the chlorine thing is just simply true.
Dent, good point about the ice cubes btw.
June 16th, 2008 at 6:23 pm
It’s really a shame that Germans don’t drink tap water. It usually has a very high quality – a higher quality than your normal Volvic or whatever you can get in a bottle has. Plus it’s environmentally friendly. (Getting all those bottles from A to B is crazy when you have a perfect infrastructure that does all that with practically zero CO2 emissions. Well, you get your water without CO2, but that’s healthier anyway. Burping adds greenhouse gases
German tap water is great and cheap and we should all drink it.
June 16th, 2008 at 7:44 pm
Nothing beats “Aqua Colbert”. That’s for sure.
Thirst locally, drink globally!
June 16th, 2008 at 9:40 pm
I drink nothing but tap water.
At work we have machines that carbonates the tap water…we can choose between lots of bubbles, not so many bubbles, only a few bubbles…
I prefer it non-carbonated though, even though I´m german
June 17th, 2008 at 12:27 am
“The worst though is that you won’t get water at any restaurant for free.”
that’s not quite correct. you will only explicitly have to order tap water, in so doing restaurants are not allowed to put it down to your account.
June 17th, 2008 at 8:57 am
Hahaha so true! Thirty years ago, when my Aunt from the US asked for a glass of tap water in a german restaurant, the waitress gave her a dumbfounded look and asked her if she needed to take medicine…I guess things have not changed.
June 17th, 2008 at 9:28 am
Conserve water — drink beer.
June 17th, 2008 at 11:36 am
> “You need to know that Germans almost always drink their water from bottles instead of the tap”
It’s not true here in northwestern germany (Bremen and Lower Saxony): http://www.umwelt.niedersachsen.de/master/C8841409_N8846863_L20_D0_I598
p.s.: “and the Baggersee”
June 17th, 2008 at 1:07 pm
Jochen, your unwavering faith in the Bavarian government is touching. Personally, I trust my city and its truly stellar water more.
http://tinyurl.com/3kaush
June 17th, 2008 at 1:30 pm
As a personal note: I like both, carbonated and non-carbonated, but I’m the only one in my family.
You usually get tap-water in a restaurant, if you ask for. I once ordered one and someone on the table asked later, how much does it cost. I said 1 Euro and she went to the waiter and wanted to “buy” some tap water. Luckily for her, the waiter was an honest man :D.
June 17th, 2008 at 4:07 pm
I wonder why americans keep their drinking fountains, especially in rest rooms. Isn’t that unhygienic by definition? I could get some sip of water before washing my hands! And then the employee who just washed his hands before getting back to work gets water and gets his hands dirty!
BTW what’s the deal with the “employees must wash their hands before returning to work” sign — apparently americans are not taught basic manners at home or in school, so the employer has to enforce them)?
June 17th, 2008 at 4:09 pm
Well, it’s said already but tap water has always be for free at any occasion. It’s good to know if you’re clubbing and running out of money…^^
And hey, of course carbonated water sucks! But why drinking boring tasting tap water if you can drink Vilsa Stiller Quell Medium?
June 17th, 2008 at 4:17 pm
Carbonated water rocks. If you don’t like it, you’re just a wimp.
June 17th, 2008 at 5:02 pm
American water (That sounds funny for some reason) tastes like pool water?
I’ve drank pool water before. (Yes, I wasn’t that smart as a child) It hurts. I’m pretty sure my tap water doesn’t hurt when I drink it.
Though, I learned from Bio that people have a hard time adapting to how water tastes in other countries. You get sick because your e.coli is fighting the e.coli in the water. It’s body war!
June 17th, 2008 at 9:38 pm
war between bacterias?
June 17th, 2008 at 10:22 pm
That’s what I learned.
June 17th, 2008 at 11:59 pm
That american tap water tastes like chlorine is absolutely true, it’s disgusting. I even had trouble showering the first week cause it also smelled pretty bad, at least where I am. You get used to it though, I hardly notice the smell anymore. I will never drink tap water again here, I rather pay for bottled water.
What is way worse than no carbonated water is that I hardly ever see any apple soda over here. “Lift” apparently is only known in Europe and the only version of apple soda I’ve seen so far came in ridiculously tiny and expensive bottles. Weird.
June 18th, 2008 at 6:15 am
At home I only drink tap water. The quality is as good as it is in those expensive bottled waters like Volvic or Margonwasser, so why should I pay for bottles and actually have to carry them (and then return the empty bottles to get part of my money back)?
What I really miss are the drinking fountains, I don’t understand why there aren’t more of them in Germany. Some cities have already started to install some (we have three here in Dresden that I found) and I once found one in Nuremberg. The thing is: most people don’t really know what to do, being unfamiliar with the concept. I once saw an old lade lifting up her small dog and having him drink the water, complaining loudly why the “drinking station for dogs” was so ridiculously designed
June 18th, 2008 at 8:04 pm
I lived in the US for a while.
And no American ever even touched the water in American restaurants. So why are you always getting upset about having to pay for it in Germany?
June 19th, 2008 at 8:50 am
In Germany tap water has to fulfill excactly the same health guidelines like bottled water. So drinking tap water is absolutly safe. I really don´t understand people who spent money on driving bottled water around.
I saw a documentary about water in the US recently that said that there are states where the water quality is that bad that you get contaminated just by showering. So I really was surprised about that post. Well the restaurant-part and so on is true.
(Stuttgart)
June 20th, 2008 at 4:23 pm
I hate hate HATE carbonated water and never drink it. Water is what the tap was made for, after all!
June 21st, 2008 at 2:59 pm
I think, that drinking tap water really depends on where you live in Germany. Though tap water is the severest tested food in Germany (there are more regulations for it than for “Tafelwasser” (e.g. “Apolinaris”), it doesn’t taste the same everywhere. I grew up in Dessau and now live in Kiel, where I drink ONLY tap water, whereas in Rüsselsheim where I lived once I coundn’t drink it at all because it tasted like blood (A lot of iron in it - but only where I lived. It was fine where I worked only a few kilometres away. Must have been the old plumbings in the house.).
Buying bottled water for money, driving it around, creating more polution, hurting your back by toting it to the fourth floor of your Altbau (what is an Altbau called in English btw.?), having to store it somewhere and finally having to bring the empty bottles back - I really think that’s ridiculous.
PS: We own a Soda Club too - but guess how often we use it? About once or twice a year when some guest demands “bubbles”.
June 26th, 2008 at 9:45 am
We didn’t come up with the name “Soda Club”. This company was founded in 1991 by a Briton in Israel. Though of course I don’t know if he likes carbonated water himself or only sells his system to non-English speakers :p
July 2nd, 2008 at 5:48 am
The Mosel!
July 5th, 2008 at 10:09 pm
Growing up in Southern California, drinking tapwater is almost taboo- the water from the tap is totally disgusting! It was probably this “anti-tapwater conditioning” I grew up with that prevented me from drinking even the delicious Munich water directly from the tap. We had a Soda Club, and ironically using tap water didn’t bother me after it was carbonated. The CO2 water took some getting used to, but now I love it and hate drinking even bottled still water. Oddly enough, my German husband has gotten used to drinking still water at work (we are in the UK now) so every week he is buying me bottles of sparkling water and himself still water from Lidl. (yes, Lidl is also in the UK)
August 12th, 2008 at 3:11 pm
How anybody wants to drink non-carbonated water is beyond me, as it tastes like something died in it. Except, of course, American tap water, which tastes like you’ve accidentially took a sip out of the Dan Clorix bottle.
If it doesn’t make you belch, it can’t be refreshing.
August 18th, 2008 at 11:06 am
I do drink tap water and I absolutely hate CO2 water! I’m glad I’m not the only one here.
September 2nd, 2008 at 1:23 pm
People don’t drink the water in the States because normal beverages are cheap, and you get free refills. Hence, the need for water is negated (unless you are out with college students, who will try to save money by having just water).
When you pay 1,30euro for 200mL of coke, it’s… well…. ridiculous.
September 26th, 2008 at 11:42 am
Here is my (biased inside) view on German water drinking habits:
We drink tab water at home.
These Soda Club or however they called Carbonating machines are a relatively new thing, they came into vogue the last years and are beginning to become unpopular again.
The reason is our obsession with carbonized water.
Germans would never buy just plain water in a bottle (exceptions exist), for plain water tab water is just enough.
But carbonized is this little extra which many are willing to pay for, and ’schlepp’ the bottles into our homes.
Soda Club and Co are our way out of this trap.
The reason why you see so few drinking water fountains in workplaces is that everyone would happyly fill his glass on a tab. No need for a water cooler, we don’t like cool drinks anyway.
And for selling the water in vending machines, plain still water has no selling point. This is why there is almost only carbonated water to buy anywhere.
Ah and btw. restaurants are as far as i know required by law to give you tab water for free.
But consume denial has a bad image, so few people do this.
October 7th, 2008 at 12:17 am
Im an American who recently returned from living in Germany for a year.
Now yes the carbonation can be quite annoying, but you really can’t patronize them for thinking the American water is disgusting and overly chlorinated. It’s just that we’re used to it. Try it the next time you come back to America after being in a country like Germany for a long time. Its horrible!
October 13th, 2008 at 4:00 am
I always ask for a glass of tap water in every bar or restaurant. I always GET my glass of tap water. No prob, but one needs to ask. By and by, however, there are coffee shops and bars where you get a glass of tap water - unrequested.
March 22nd, 2009 at 12:24 pm
So, I’m sitting here in Germany, lamenting the state of water. I drink a *LOT* of water - like more than the recommended daily minimums. So, coming to Germany has proved …”interesting”. I got to this page because I punched in “why can’t all water be ‘ohne Kohlensäure’?”
The worst part about all this is, when you *DO* buy the un-carbonated “stille wasser”, they look at you and mockingly as, “why don’t you just drink tap-water: it’s better quality than the bottled water.” So, they KNOW that their tap-water is good (and probably better for the environment, overal,” but the they persist in the atrocity that is “mit Kohlensäure”. And, when you answer back to the “why don’t you just drink tap-water” comment/question, “because no one will give me any in a restaurant,” they give you the sarcastic smile.
Bastards. =)
June 8th, 2009 at 3:13 pm
Usually you can safely drink tap water in Germany. But it just doesn’t taste good in all places. I used to live in Hannover some years ago and the water there was just fine. But there are places you should avoid drinking out of the tap. Today I live in Köln an the tapwater is terrible. Full of lime! I have no idea if this is unhealthy or not but I don’t care because it tastes just strange! And it slowly but surely kills your koffee-machine, water-boiler, washing-machine…I don’t know where this crappy water just comes from…I hope they don’t get it out of the filthy river (Rhein)…but I guess they use Rhein-water to brew their sad excuse for a beer (Kölsch) …yuk!
June 19th, 2009 at 2:21 pm
I am German and also don’t like carbonated Water. It’s interesting. In Germany it’s “Kohlensäure” (this in the drinks) and “Kohlenstoff” (like in CO2). In America you have only “carbonate”
September 18th, 2009 at 6:58 pm
Well it DOES taste like chlorine. And, of course, carbonated water is a good thing.
April 28th, 2010 at 9:15 am
Tap water is the best thing to drink, but it depends on where you live. I was born up north in Germany and moved close to Heidelberg after 43 years. The water up north was great to drink, the water where I live now is nasty. Too much calcium and it clogs up everything in days. Just like Micha said. Hannover (north) and Koeln (more south) - big difference in the water. Scientists even state that tap water is the cleanest and better than bottled water since it is under constant control (which doesn;t change the nasty taste…)
But I noticed that you find those typical american watercoolers in more and more offices. And I even have one in my kitchen (but that was a present from an american friend of mine who went back to the US). I “prettied” it up by painting it so it looks like it was custom made for my kitchen…grin. But now I have to ask friends that have a contract with a company who delivers the waterbottles to buy me some since we can not buy them on the economy. Makes sense?