Fred’s at Coachella right now, so odds are he’s very thirsty. That got me thinking about hydration and water bottles, in general, and how most of the solutions to one of the most basic human problems of quenching thirst suck.
Most water bottles are about as elegant as a concrete block. They’re hard, they take up a lot of space, they start to stink after a while and make water taste bad, thereby inherently making them bad at doing their sole job. I imagine most cavemen had the exact same problems with their water-carrying devices.
Can’t we find a better solution?
The Problem With Hard Water Bottles
I’ve tried to use Nalgene-style water bottles a few times in my life, but I’ve always been excessively disappointed from a utility standpoint alone. Let’s be honest: they’re less than ideal to drink from. The size of the opening is simply too big for a bottle that large. Unless I’m enjoying the great outdoors on a hot day, I have zero interest in pouring water all over my chest.
Hard water bottles take up a fixed amount of space. When they’re empty, they don’t become any smaller. Should we take it for granted that a water bottle should take up a fixed amount of volume in our precious luggage space?
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