Last week, we received one single black bottle of water in the mail. It arrived in a sleek, elegant black box that urged us to “enjoy the dark side of water.” It was a bit off-putting to find that the water bottle itself wasn’t black; the water inside was.
Naturally, we want pure, clean, clear water. If it’s cloudy or contains visible particles, are you going to drink it? Neither would I. So it should come as no shock that many of us in the office were hesitant to try black water. After pouring it into a clear glass, I was sure that if I left it there for just a minute or two, one of the cleaners would have picked it up and dumped it down the drain. It looks like flat, day-old cola.
I took the first drink. And - much to my surprise - it tasted like...water. In a taste test, I could not have picked the black water from regular bottled water (and I pride myself on my tasting abilities).
Black water gets its colour from fulvic trace minerals. The companies that make it claim the water has loads of benefits. The water we tried was from blk (pronounced bee-el-kay). Among the many benefits blk touts is that its water has 77 trace minerals, is a “ferocious” antioxidant, has a pH balance of 9 and helps rebuild the immune system.
In some extensive, overly obsessed research on this, I found many sites that claimed fulvic trace minerals had amazing healing powers. But many of the companies touting these effects would like to make money selling fulvic trace minerals to you in some form or another. I also found lots of research from respected scientists at renowned institutions that convinced me these minerals do not, in fact, contain magical, healing properties. Black water could very well have some beneficial properties – but so does all clean water.
I also wanted to know what benefits are derived from drinking water with a pH balance of 9. But again, no research I found showed any benefit. I did learn that our bodies naturally maintain pH equilibrium and that it’s not altered by water consumption. Read: water with a pH balance of 9 probably has no impact on your body or your health.
That said, companies making black water have been successfully selling it abroad for a few years so there are lots of people buying into the hype. The one upside I see of this latest trend to hit the UAE is that it might get people drinking more water – at least until the novelty wears off - and that can’t be a bad thing.
For now, I’m sticking to plain, clear bottled water. But if there’s a younger, ultra-cool, trendier version of myself living in a parallel universe, I’m sure she’s got a bottle of blk in one hand and a Lulu Guinness bag in the other.
If you're trendy enough to pull it off, you can find blk water in Dubai at The Dollhouse Dubai Salon as well as the Wanna Banana kiosk and SALT food truck, both on Kite Beach. Dh18 for a 500ml bottle. For more, visit http://getblk.com.
