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KOR ONE Water Bottle
By
Published: May 31, 2018
Category:
Food and Wine
Everybody knows about the massive floating island of plastic — three times the size of France — floating between California and Hawaii. Everybody knows 1.4 billion tons of mostly plastic trash ends up in the ocean each year. Everybody knows we buy a million plastic bottles per minute and that 91% of all plastic is not recycled. Everybody knows half a trillion plastic bottles will be sold in 2020. Everybody knows blah blah blah, and everybody still buys plastic bottles of Evian/Fiji/Pellegrino/water that neither comes from Poland or a spring.
What will it take for us to carry one water bottle all summer long?
Esthetics. Snob appeal. The cool factor. Functional? Yes, it’s high-end excellent. But you come for the cool.
This snob has made a tour of the water bottles sold on Amazon and finds the KOR One the clear winner. It has all the Good Stuff you want in a water bottle. Non-spill. Easy to open. Big (750 ml). Free of Bisphenol-A (BPA), a hormone disruptor linked to birth defects and high blood pressure. The negatives: you can’t use it for hot beverages — for that you want the Zojirushi Stainless Steel Mug. It won’t fit in bike racks. It looks like glass, but it’s heavy-duty plastic — if you insist on putting it in a dishwasher, use the top rack only. And… it’s solid. That is: heavy. But the assets rule: It just looks better than bottles that seem to be designed for mountain bikers and rock climbers. [To buy it from Amazon, click here.]
I bought one even though it has a feature that has zero appeal for me: an area just under the lid where you can insert a picture or a piece of paper with a meaningful phrase. KOR calls this a “Mantra insert.” Its purpose: “inspire you, one sip at a time.”
I might dismiss this as a marketing gambit, but the thing is: the people at KOR really believe they’re serving a Higher Purpose. KOR doesn’t make water bottles – it makes “hydration vessels.” You’re not a customer — you’re a “water advocate.” The company has a Deeper Understanding: “Health starts with water. Water is the operating system of our body.”
And here’s KOR’s sense of its place in the universe:
At our core, we are our higher selves. Everything we need is already inside of us. We are unique, yet part of everything. We are the yin and the yang. We seek balance between ourselves and the world, between our body and mind, between who we are now — and who we have yet to become. Living from our core gives us great strength, yet we walk with humility knowing we are a work in progress, striving to improve each day. We hold compassion and empathy toward others, knowing they, too, seek the path to live their core.
It pains this snob to admit it, but…. I’ll drink to that.
