It’s a shop that sells nothing but water. Seriously. This is either the greatest idea in history, or the biggest ripoff of all time.

There are bound to be a lot of cynical naysayers who are bound to say, well, nay. The argument is obvious. Toronto has high-rated tap water that is safe, pure, and all-in-all not bad-tasting (i.e. it tastes like water). Plus, water is 71% of the world and 80$ of the body, for Christ Sakes! Don’t spit in my face and tell me it’s raining.

But then there’s the other side of the coin. As much as you might want to claim otherwise, it is possible to tell the difference between different types of bottled water. In Sarah Silverman’s movie, Jesus is Magic, there is a skit where she says she’ll only drink FIJI water, because “it just tastes different”. The skit is meant to emphasize her self-centred bitchy persona, especially considering the fact that she then spits the water in the face of her assistant, but I emphasized with her. And not only because she’s hot, either.

Although I’m hardly a connoisseur (and apparently water connoisseurs do exist), I was able to tell that Aquafina and Dasani were both lower-quality even before it was revealed that it’s nothing but purified tap water. Impressive, eh? I can also tell the difference between butter and I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter.

But even I would hesitate before buying a $12 bottle of water, which is the top-priced bottle you’ll find in the boutique Watershoppe. The lowest price you’ll find is $1.25.

Co-owners Tracey Robert and Lisa Gnat were inspired by the many fine designer and luxury waters available in Europe, and figured that there should be a market for this kind of stuff in Toronto. I could see how it might work; Toronto tends to be all over the newest fads, and an LCBO of the water market would certainly qualify.

The store carries over 40 brands from around the world. You’d be surprised how many variations you could get from something as simple as water. The bottles range from tall to short, plastic to glass, round to rectangular. The water itself ranges from purified to glacier, bubbly to flat, acidic to not, even flavoured.

There’s also an embedded bar where you can sit back and relax. Fortunately, the bar does contain drinks other than water, but no alcohol. Choices here are mainly Italian sodas, teas, and hot chocolates. As a bonus, they have snow cones (frozen water + flavouring – it still counts). Playing on flat screened TVs above the bar are a number of water-themed films like Waterworld and Splash. No, I’m not joking.

Although this is all a fun novelty, you still can’t help to think, ‘isn’t this just water’?
-R.T.

337 Danforth Avenue
Toronto, ON
416-463-3767