Recently, I thought I would have a 5 gallon jar of spring water at home as a way to make drinking water as easy as it used to be in my childhood out a simple terracotta surahi wrapped in a piece of wet cloth during the summer months. It sat on the kitchen platform and the water was always at the perfect temperature.
I am not sure of the source of the water but would guess it was the nearby river. The town did have a water filtration plant so it was not quite natural water but the taste was very pleasant. At the time, I was not aware water could taste any other way. But when we traveled out of town, I noticed the water did not taste quite the same. Since we would be back home in a few days anyway, that was not such a big deal.
Since leaving what used to be my home in India, the taste of drinking water has always been problematic. To workaround the issue and stay hydrated, I took drinking tea. By the third or fourth round in the same pot the output become more hot water and less tea. That's been my process for decades. One day, it occurred to me there may be a way to re-create the childhood surahi experience atleast in part and thus the big spring water jar.
As it turns out there is no easy way to go pick up such jar from the grocery store. There is one one brand of water in the market where I live at that size - it is highly processed with added minerals, a very far cry from spring water I was looking for. It took visiting half a dozen grocery stores over several days before a solution was found. This is as close to the taste of water I grew up with.
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