Tap Water Shame—Apparently It’s a Thing (in Belgium)
Do you put a carafe of tap water on the table when you have dinner guests? Or does a bottle of mineral water then make an appearance? A Belgian study shows that half of Belgians drink tap water with their meals, but when they have visitors, they don’t dare serve it. Tap water shame—that’s what’s going on. Serving plain tap water would be considered impolite.
Tap water, impolite? As frugal Dutch people, we can hardly imagine it. The water from the tap is perfectly good quality, the best in the whole world, in fact, if you listen to the experts. And it costs next to nothing! Surely it’s no different in Belgium? So where does this shame about ordinary tap water come from?
‘Not proper’
The study shows that people consider it ‘impolite’ to serve their guests a glass of plain old tap water. Only a third of the people surveyed for the study turn on the tap when they have visitors; the rest buy mineral water for the occasion.
Cheap and sustainable
And here’s the thing: older people are especially affected by this tap water shame. Of those aged 55 and over, only one in five dares to offer their visitors a glass of tap water. Young people don’t suffer from it at all—they simply fill the water glasses under the tap. Why? Because of the environment and because the home tap is nice and cheap. They also see it as a major advantage that they don’t have to lug around bottles of water. The older generation could learn something from young people: there’s nothing wrong with tap water at the dinner table.
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Source: Knack.be
