In our increasingly frantic, double-booked and over-complicated lives it seems even hydrating is causing us anguish. Gone are the days of a leisurely cup of tea. Banished are the simple pleasures of enjoying a cold beverage. Today, it’s all about hydrating on the go which, much like overhearing your neighbour’s phone conversation, tells us a lot about the strangers who invade our personal space.
On crowded sidewalks everywhere, harried passengers, exhausted commuters and serial over-workers are pounding the pavements clutching their drink of choice. Evian is the new Prada; Pelligrino (in a glass bottle) the new Gucci, these drinks are branding us in a way marketers could only dream.
This alarming development came to my attention whilst waiting patiently at La Guardia airport - destination: a fashion week, far, far away. Clutching my plastic bottle of coke I became somewhat self conscious of my beverage choice. ‘I’m much classier than this’ I wanted to scream. ‘I just need the caffeine!’
Looking around at the many people darting from gate to gate I began to realize that it’s not only our clothes, haircut, tattoos (or lack thereof) which are visually categorizing us, it’s our beverage choices. More than food, it’s the one thing we carry with us as an accessory, the one thing that defines our lifestyle and choices simultaneously. As the new age of intelligent consumers refuses to be branded by any one label, beverages are taking over where fashion left off.
The luxury items pertaining to beverage consumption, for example, include most of the European brands just as in fashion. Any beverage, Italian or French, is deemed couture on the drinking scene with San Pelligrino mineral water (in a glass bottle ) as well as the original luxury drink, Evian branding a person: rich enough to afford superfluous items, pretentious enough to want everyone to know it and fashion conscious enough to care about quality.
I myself, am a Pelligrino (in a glass bottle) drinker and to me it’s the champagne of bottled water, the Italian leather handbag of the drinking world. And yes, like a good pair of Italian loafers it’s worth every penny.
A little down the scale on the more Zara/Gap level are the waters in plastic bottles, a mainstream attempt at couture beverages. Much like its fashion counterpart it provides a convenient, less high brow way to get hydrated.
For the Nike crowd the endless brands of Vitamin water and energy drinks are the ultimate accessory. Similar to the brand of shoes they wear, their drinks must be seen as having the latest technological advances. Beverages with words like ‘electrolytes’ spur on these consumer’s choices. They want a competitive edge, even if it is just in their water.
For high powered execs, the new power suit is not the Chanel, hounds tooth matching two-piece, rather, the Starbucks mega latte, double shot espresso. Bounding, self importantly through peak hour traffic this group of consumers are simply running on caffeine. They are too busy for food (or so they would like you to think) and often shout out their well rehearsed order for all to hear.
And so the list goes on and on. Every minute someone is hydrating and high tailing it into a beverage, branding boutique to purchase an item that will tell the world what sort of person they are. And we all, subconsciously (or consciously), sit back and judge in our own special way - something to think about next time you’re clutchin’ and struttin’.
Angela Gilltrap: Sunshine on Sugar Hill 
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