Dehydrated Water

Mineral water, a drink that is shipped all over the developed world, has, naturally, water as it's primary ingredient.

Identical distilled water can be produced pretty much anywhere, but is not particularly pleasant to drink.

Surely it would make environmental and economic sense to remove as much water as possible from mineral water before shipping it, and then dilute it at it's destination?

Taken to it's logical conclusion, this would mean that mineral water could be available in powdered, and highly concentrated form, and shipped all over the globe. Mineral water from say, the Rocky Mountains and the Alps would have slightly differing mineral contents, and could be enjoyed in faraway continents at a minimal price.

Furthermore, chemical compositions of different waters could be analysed, and then manufactured, removing the need to build roads for large trucks to trundle to and from areas that are often of oustanding natural beauty.

This would make it possible to recreate mineral waters from remote areas such as the Andes or the Himalayas, hugely increasing the range of possible mineral waters available to the consumer.

[Sep 2001] Thanks for resurrecting this, Jutta. I'm greatly impressed with your archiving. Unfortunately the subsequent notes have been reduced to powder form, so I'll try to rehydrate a couple from memory, though I'm afraid I can't remember who said them:

Negative points included the cost of producing distilled water, and the possible difficulties of recombining it with a powder, which is composed of hard minerals.

A positive application suggested, was to use these water kits when homebrewing wine and (especially) beer, where the content of the water greatly affects the brewing and flavour of the finished product.