Water Menu at the Claridge’s
(excerpt from the Daily Mail)

The luxury London Hotel has put together a water list with 30 brands of the world’s finest bottled brands to choose from- and prices that would not look out of place on a wine menu. With exotic sources such as icebergs off Newfoundland, diners can pay as much as 50 GBPs a litre.

Many might find the idea ludicrous. But Claridge’s insists discerning customers are increasingly requesting certain waters to accompany different dishes. Renaud Gregoire, Claridge’s food and beverage director said: “Water is becoming like wine. Every guest has an opinion and asks for a particular brand. We try to be ahead of our guests requests and offer the very best choice available. I am excited about this menu. Because of the hard work that went into research, I am confident that we have created something very special”.

Berg costs an equivalent of 30 GBPs a litre, the 15,000-year-old iceberg water from Canada's east coast is harvested from Greenland bergs off Newfoundland, Berg water is described as "pure fresh iceberg water from one of the cleanest and unspoiled regions of the world. Formed thousands of years ago, the berg water is totally unsullied."

Claridge's waters come from a variety of sources -- a chalk-confined aquifer and sources deep below certified organic fields in Britain, artesian water from Japan, or rainwater bottled at one of the most remote places in the world, King Island, Tasmania.

But pricey or not -- $100-a-litre water is a bargain compared to what they pay to drink it on the International Space Station. Try $11,000 a litre -- including transport costs -- for that stuff, and each astronaut goes through about $50,000 of it in a day, according to the Discovery Channel's Daily Planet show.

Of course, if paying more than a buck for your beverage is out of the question, Claridge's also has good old London tap water, free of charge.

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