Water cooler talk
Tuesday, May 13, 2008 | 08:14 PM ET
by Amber Hildebrandt, CBCNews.ca
Remember that clink-clunk as a case of milk bottles was delivered to your doorstep back in the olden days? Me neither.
But what’s old may be new again. Instead of milk, though, the sound may be the soft thud of a glass water cooler bottle as it's gently placed on your porch.
Ontario-based Cedar Springs began offering its large water cooler bottles in glass early last summer in response to customer requests. Since then the product's popularity has been on the rise.
“People like the inert qualities of glass,” said company vice-president Craig Hayhoe. "It’s the old-style packaging and they appreciate it."
Health seems to be the main issue, Hayhoe says. He admits news stories about concerns over plastics haven't hurt glass bottle sales, though notes "it doesn't necessarily drive all our sales."
But a return to glass can also pose its own set of problems, most noticeably due to its weight and breakability.
To accommodate the weight difference and make it easier to lift, the company offers smaller bottles in glass than the standard plastic ones - an 11.3-litre bottle weighing 40 pounds (18 kilograms) compared to the 18 litre plastic ones weighing 50 pounds.
And the bottles, imported from Italy, are a bit more delicate to handle, say Hayhoe. "You have to handle it like china."
For now, I have enough trouble trekking home from the grocery store with my bulky milk bottles. I think I'll just keep tapping into my city's water supply. Easy to carry that glass and no problem if it breaks.
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From trends and culture to politics and nutrition, Food Bytes serves up tasty tidbits about food and the issues surrounding it that flavour our everyday lives.
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Amber Hildebrandt writes for CBCNews.ca in Toronto. Growing up on a farm in Manitoba, she acquired an insatiable appetite, but it was during a stint in Japan that she developed her discerning tastebuds and "foodie" ways.
Andrea Chiu is an associate producer at CBC Radio Digital. Though she loves to eat, cook and discuss food,
don't ask her to bake. It never turns out well. She tweets as @TOfoodie on Twitter and organizes food and wine events in Toronto called FoodieMeet.
Tara Kimura is the consumer life reporter for CBCNews.ca, covering a wide range of issues that range from rising food costs and the growing organic movement, to new trends in the marketplace.
Andree Lau is a CBC web reporter in Calgary. Her journalism career includes seven years as a CBC-TV reporter. Her own blog called "are you gonna eat that?" chronicles her eating adventures (including sampling snake and camel hoof tendon).
Jessica Wong is a CBCNews.ca writer who loves to eat and cook, as well as discuss, read and watch programming about food, sometimes all at once.
Kevin Yarr, CBCNews.ca's writer in Prince Edward Island, wrote about food and beer for national and regional magazines before joining the CBC. He acquired a desire for new tastes on his first trip to Europe, and an appreciation of eating locally and in season when he finally settled down on P.E.I.
Elizabeth Bridge is a writer with the CBC Digital Archives in Toronto. She first ventured into the kitchen as a child to indulge a sweet tooth by baking cookies and making fudge. A student budget compelled her to be a vegetarian (for a while) and instilled in her an ongoing curiosity about food and cooking.
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Comments
Martin
The glass cooler bottles are great, but where are they available in BC? They have bottle-less water coolers now that seem a little smarter, paired with a glass water bottle from sesen, a Canadian company. I would hate to see one of those big ones break.
Posted October 6, 2008 09:39 AM
alfred boleyn
I woould like to have information on water coolers.
what kind is the best and last longer.
Posted February 5, 2009 05:31 AM