A global water archive
Vatten
Tap water from world cities. Every compound measured. Engraved on glass.
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▽Sweden · 1252
Stockholm
“Clean. Quietly mineral. The granite archipelago in a glass.”
6.4°dH
Hardness
10
Drug traces
0.00088
PFAS ng/L
70
compounds tracked
France · 250 BC
Paris
“Heavy. Limestone. The Champagne aquifer translated into sensation.”
16.8°dH
Hardness
12
Drug traces
8.4
PFAS ng/L
74
compounds tracked
United Kingdom · 43 AD
London
“Heavy. Chalky. The Thames translated into mineral.”
21.2°dH
Hardness
12
Drug traces
9.8
PFAS ng/L
70
compounds tracked
Japan · 1457
Tokyo
“Pure. Neutral. The absence of mineral as its own sensation.”
2.3°dH
Hardness
10
Drug traces
0.88
PFAS ng/L
70
compounds tracked
United States · 1624
New York
“Clean. Soft. Quietly the best urban tap water in America.”
2.8°dH
Hardness
12
Drug traces
1.2
PFAS ng/L
70
compounds tracked
Germany · 1237
Berlin
“Hard, clean, mineral. The Brandenburg plain in a glass.”
14.8°dH
Hardness
11
Drug traces
1.8
PFAS ng/L
70
compounds tracked
Spain · 859 AD
Madrid
“Soft. Mountain-clean. Granite simplicity.”
4.1°dH
Hardness
11
Drug traces
0.81
PFAS ng/L
70
compounds tracked
Italy · 753 BC
Rome
“Very hard. Volcanic mineral. Roman water has always tasted this way.”
34.8°dH
Hardness
11
Drug traces
1.1
PFAS ng/L
70
compounds tracked
Greece · 3000 BC
Athens
“Balanced. Mediterranean limestone. Clean and quietly mineral.”
8.2°dH
Hardness
11
Drug traces
0.68
PFAS ng/L
70
compounds tracked
Portugal · 1200 BC
Lisbon
“Soft. Atlantic. The Castelo do Bode in a glass.”
5.2°dH
Hardness
11
Drug traces
0.61
PFAS ng/L
70
compounds tracked
Netherlands · 1275
Amsterdam
“Remarkably soft. The Rhine filtered by sixty days and sixty metres of coastal dune.”
7.8°dH
Hardness
10
Drug traces
8.9
PFAS ng/L
70
compounds tracked
Austria · 1137
Vienna
“The Alps in a glass. 180 kilometres of granite and time.”
8.4°dH
Hardness
10
Drug traces
0.00088
PFAS ng/L
70
compounds tracked
Denmark · 1167
Copenhagen
“Hard chalk. Mineral weight. The taste of an aquifer.”
18.2°dH
Hardness
10
Drug traces
1.2
PFAS ng/L
70
compounds tracked
Singapore · 1819
Singapore
“The most engineered water in the world. And it tastes like it.”
1.8°dH
Hardness
2
Drug traces
0.048
PFAS ng/L
70
compounds tracked
Australia · 1788
Sydney
“Soft and clean, with an undercurrent of chloramine.”
2.9°dH
Hardness
11
Drug traces
14.8
PFAS ng/L
70
compounds tracked
Canada · 1793
Toronto
“Great Lakes water. Fluoridated since 1963. Fentanyl-era traces.”
7.1°dH
Hardness
11
Drug traces
2.8
PFAS ng/L
70
compounds tracked
Belgium · 979
Brussels
“Hard. Heavy. The Ardennes in every glass.”
16.8°dH
Hardness
11
Drug traces
12.8
PFAS ng/L
70
compounds tracked
Switzerland · 929
Zurich
“Alpine limestone and lake purity. Switzerland takes no shortcuts.”
14.2°dH
Hardness
11
Drug traces
0.088
PFAS ng/L
70
compounds tracked
Norway · 1000
Oslo
“Nordic granite. A Norwegian mountain lake, perfectly still.”
5.8°dH
Hardness
9
Drug traces
0.0088
PFAS ng/L
70
compounds tracked
Finland · 1550
Helsinki
“120 kilometres of Precambrian granite. The world's longest water commute.”
3.8°dH
Hardness
10
Drug traces
0.018
PFAS ng/L
70
compounds tracked
Germany · 1158
Munich
“Hard Alpine limestone and the secret of Bavarian lager.”
15.8°dH
Hardness
10
Drug traces
0.0048
PFAS ng/L
70
compounds tracked
Spain · 10 BCE
Barcelona
“Hard Mediterranean limestone. The water Barcelonins refuse to drink.”
18.8°dH
Hardness
11
Drug traces
5.8
PFAS ng/L
70
compounds tracked
Ireland · 841
Dublin
“Fluoridated peat water. The last EU capital that still adds what Europe removed.”
9.2°dH
Hardness
12
Drug traces
1.1
PFAS ng/L
70
compounds tracked
Iceland · 874
Reykjavik
“Lava and glacier. The cleanest tap water on earth.”
1.2°dH
Hardness
5
Drug traces
0.00088
PFAS ng/L
70
compounds tracked
Czech Republic · 880
Prague
“Bohemian rock and the city that invented meth.”
7.2°dH
Hardness
11
Drug traces
0.88
PFAS ng/L
70
compounds tracked
Poland · 1300
Warsaw
“Vistula water. Survived two world wars, still running.”
11.2°dH
Hardness
11
Drug traces
1.4
PFAS ng/L
70
compounds tracked
Switzerland · 58 BCE
Geneva
“The lake where diplomats drink. Alpine limestone at its most balanced.”
14.8°dH
Hardness
10
Drug traces
0.068
PFAS ng/L
70
compounds tracked
France · 43 BCE
Lyon
“The confluence of two rivers and two Alpine catchments.”
12.2°dH
Hardness
11
Drug traces
2.1
PFAS ng/L
70
compounds tracked
Italy · 222 BCE
Milan
“Soft Alpine groundwater, stained by the industrial valley it crosses.”
8.2°dH
Hardness
11
Drug traces
9.8
PFAS ng/L
70
compounds tracked
Portugal · 300 BCE
Porto
“Atlantic granite softness. The water that shaped Vinho Verde.”
4.8°dH
Hardness
11
Drug traces
0.48
PFAS ng/L
70
compounds tracked
South Korea · 18 BCE
Seoul
“The Han River miracle, bottled. Arisu — Korea's answer to a nation that stopped trusting its tap.”
8.8°dH
Hardness
10
Drug traces
1.8
PFAS ng/L
70
compounds tracked
United States · 1833
Chicago
“Great Lakes clarity with a century of industrial shadow.”
7.8°dH
Hardness
12
Drug traces
1.8
PFAS ng/L
70
compounds tracked
Canada · 1886
Vancouver
“Mountain rain through granite. Impossibly light.”
2.2°dH
Hardness
11
Drug traces
0.28
PFAS ng/L
70
compounds tracked
United States · 1776
San Francisco
“Yosemite granite. A 160-mile journey to your tap.”
3.2°dH
Hardness
11
Drug traces
0.88
PFAS ng/L
70
compounds tracked
China (SAR) · 1842
Hong Kong
“Borrowed water, extraordinary infrastructure. The city that has no choice but to excel.”
6.2°dH
Hardness
11
Drug traces
2.8
PFAS ng/L
70
compounds tracked
Japan · 645
Osaka
“Lake Biwa, four million years old, filtered by Osaka's obsession with flavour.”
7.2°dH
Hardness
10
Drug traces
1.2
PFAS ng/L
70
compounds tracked
New Zealand · 1840
Auckland
“Volcanic island water. Tāmaki Makaurau, the isthmus desired by many.”
5.8°dH
Hardness
10
Drug traces
0.58
PFAS ng/L
70
compounds tracked
Australia · 1835
Melbourne
“The world's most protected urban catchment. Melbourne's water is soft enough to taste its own absence.”
2.8°dH
Hardness
10
Drug traces
0.38
PFAS ng/L
70
compounds tracked
UAE · 1833
Dubai
“Mineral-forward. The sea remembered, then forgotten.”
8.2°dH
Hardness
0
Drug traces
9.8
PFAS ng/L
70
compounds tracked
India · 1661
Mumbai
“Monsoon soft. Pharmaceutical undertow.”
3.4°dH
Hardness
11
Drug traces
3.8
PFAS ng/L
70
compounds tracked
India · 1052
Delhi
“Alluvial weight. The Yamuna's long journey.”
5.8°dH
Hardness
11
Drug traces
18.4
PFAS ng/L
70
compounds tracked
China · 1045 BCE
Beijing
“Hard and mineral. Water with imperial weight.”
8.8°dH
Hardness
0
Drug traces
5.8
PFAS ng/L
70
compounds tracked
Brazil · 1554
São Paulo
“Rain-soft and plateau-clean. The city that almost ran dry.”
1.8°dH
Hardness
11
Drug traces
2.8
PFAS ng/L
72
compounds tracked
Mexico · 1325
Mexico City
“Volcanic calcium. An ancient lake remembered.”
7.2°dH
Hardness
11
Drug traces
5.2
PFAS ng/L
70
compounds tracked
Turkey · 667 BCE
Istanbul
“Limestone medium. Two continents in one glass.”
5.8°dH
Hardness
10
Drug traces
1.4
PFAS ng/L
70
compounds tracked
Egypt · 969 CE
Cairo
“Nile mineral. Five thousand years of civilization dissolved.”
6.2°dH
Hardness
11
Drug traces
6.8
PFAS ng/L
70
compounds tracked
South Africa · 1652
Cape Town
“Mountain soft. The Fynbos biome in a glass.”
2.1°dH
Hardness
8
Drug traces
0.148
PFAS ng/L
70
compounds tracked
Nigeria · 1472
Lagos
“Tropical soft. The Lagos Lagoon carries everything.”
2.8°dH
Hardness
9
Drug traces
2.4
PFAS ng/L
70
compounds tracked
Thailand · 1782
Bangkok
“Tropical medium. The river that keeps rising.”
4.4°dH
Hardness
11
Drug traces
2.8
PFAS ng/L
70
compounds tracked
Argentina · 1536
Buenos Aires
“Pampas soft. Fluoridated for the future.”
3.8°dH
Hardness
11
Drug traces
2.8
PFAS ng/L
72
compounds tracked
Taiwan · 1709
Taipei
“Mountain crystal. Asia's finest tap water.”
1.4°dH
Hardness
1
Drug traces
0.082
PFAS ng/L
70
compounds tracked
Israel · 1909
Tel Aviv
“Engineered Mediterranean. The sea remade as drinking water.”
6.4°dH
Hardness
8
Drug traces
0.052
PFAS ng/L
70
compounds tracked
Indonesia · 397 CE
Jakarta
“Industrial river. A city that drinks bottled water.”
5.2°dH
Hardness
11
Drug traces
18.8
PFAS ng/L
70
compounds tracked
Kenya · 1899
Nairobi
“Rift Valley volcanic. Medium-bodied highland water.”
4.2°dH
Hardness
7
Drug traces
0.52
PFAS ng/L
70
compounds tracked
Colombia · 1538
Bogotá
“Páramo water. The most mineral-free in this collection.”
1.2°dH
Hardness
9
Drug traces
0.038
PFAS ng/L
70
compounds tracked
Chile · 1541
Santiago
“Andean snowmelt. One of South America's finest tap waters.”
1.6°dH
Hardness
9
Drug traces
0.088
PFAS ng/L
70
compounds tracked
Qatar · 1820
Doha
“The Gulf, purified. Water with the weight of its origin.”
9.6°dH
Hardness
0
Drug traces
6.8
PFAS ng/L
70
compounds tracked
Malaysia · 1857
Kuala Lumpur
“Tropical granite soft. Rain season in a glass.”
2.6°dH
Hardness
10
Drug traces
1.8
PFAS ng/L
70
compounds tracked
United States · 1781
Los Angeles
“Hard, warm, mineral. A desert river in a glass.”
14.8°dH
Hardness
12
Drug traces
18
PFAS ng/L
70
compounds tracked
United States · 1896
Miami
“Limestone dissolved in warmth. The aquifer in a glass.”
16.1°dH
Hardness
12
Drug traces
11
PFAS ng/L
70
compounds tracked
Canada · 1642
Montréal
“Soft, clean, cold. The Canadian Shield in liquid form.”
6.2°dH
Hardness
12
Drug traces
2.9
PFAS ng/L
70
compounds tracked
Hungary · 1873
Budapest
“Hard water from limestone hills. The bath city in a glass.”
16.8°dH
Hardness
11
Drug traces
6.8
PFAS ng/L
70
compounds tracked
Romania · 1459
Bucharest
“The Wallachian plain in solution. Honest river water, chlorine and all.”
12.4°dH
Hardness
11
Drug traces
14.2
PFAS ng/L
70
compounds tracked
Scotland · 1124
Edinburgh
“The water that makes whisky. Ultrasoft, clean, cold from the moor.”
2.8°dH
Hardness
12
Drug traces
1.8
PFAS ng/L
70
compounds tracked
Italy · 59 BC
Florence
“Limestone Tuscany in solution. Renaissance water with a hard edge.”
19.2°dH
Hardness
10
Drug traces
8.2
PFAS ng/L
70
compounds tracked
Russia · 1147
Moscow
“Twelve million people in solution. The megacity taste.”
9.8°dH
Hardness
12
Drug traces
12.8
PFAS ng/L
70
compounds tracked
Russia · 1703
St. Petersburg
“Europe's greatest lake, carried to your glass through a century of iron pipes.”
3.8°dH
Hardness
11
Drug traces
11
PFAS ng/L
70
compounds tracked
Estonia · 1219
Tallinn
“The Baltic's best-kept secret: excellent water from a medieval city that joined the EU and never looked back.”
8.2°dH
Hardness
10
Drug traces
1.8
PFAS ng/L
70
compounds tracked
Latvia · 1201
Riga
“The Daugava runs through 8 centuries of amber trade and into your glass.”
7.1°dH
Hardness
11
Drug traces
6.8
PFAS ng/L
70
compounds tracked
Serbia · 279 BC
Belgrade
“The Sava meets the Danube in your glass: hard, ancient, full of life.”
14.8°dH
Hardness
11
Drug traces
18
PFAS ng/L
70
compounds tracked
Lithuania · 1323
Vilnius
“The forest aquifer: deep, clean, and tasting of time itself.”
11.2°dH
Hardness
9
Drug traces
0.88
PFAS ng/L
70
compounds tracked
India · 1537
Bangalore
“Plateau mineral. The Cauvery under silicon stress.”
5.2°dH
Hardness
11
Drug traces
14.2
PFAS ng/L
70
compounds tracked
Vietnam · 1698
Ho Chi Minh City
“Delta softness. Tropical and improving.”
3.8°dH
Hardness
11
Drug traces
9.8
PFAS ng/L
70
compounds tracked
Vietnam · 1010
Hanoi
“The monsoon in a glass — vivid, earthen, alive”
2.8°dH
Hardness
12
Drug traces
8.2
PFAS ng/L
70
compounds tracked
Pakistan · 1729
Karachi
“Hard, heavy, and carrying more history than any water should”
14.2°dH
Hardness
12
Drug traces
9.4
PFAS ng/L
70
compounds tracked
Sri Lanka · 1505
Colombo
“Tropical softness — clean, warm, and faintly of jungle rain”
1.9°dH
Hardness
12
Drug traces
4.2
PFAS ng/L
70
compounds tracked
Saudi Arabia · 1824
Riyadh
“The sea remade. Water that travelled 900 kilometres to reach you.”
10.4°dH
Hardness
0
Drug traces
8.4
PFAS ng/L
70
compounds tracked
UAE · 1761
Abu Dhabi
“The Pearl Gulf, demineralised and rebuilt. Technically perfect, climatically impossible.”
12.8°dH
Hardness
0
Drug traces
8.8
PFAS ng/L
70
compounds tracked
Lebanon · 3000 BCE
Beirut
“Limestone springs through ruins — what Beirut water was, and what remains”
22.8°dH
Hardness
12
Drug traces
22.4
PFAS ng/L
70
compounds tracked
Morocco · 1515
Casablanca
“The Atlas in the glass — hard, white, Mediterranean”
18.5°dH
Hardness
12
Drug traces
8.8
PFAS ng/L
70
compounds tracked
Ghana · 1877
Accra
“Tropical soft. The Densu carries the laterite plateau to your glass.”
4.2°dH
Hardness
9
Drug traces
2.8
PFAS ng/L
70
compounds tracked
Ethiopia · 1886
Addis Ababa
“High plateau. Almost mineral-free. Volcanic silk.”
2.1°dH
Hardness
7
Drug traces
0.28
PFAS ng/L
70
compounds tracked
Australia · 1825
Brisbane
“Sandstone plateau. Fluoridated softness. Queensland sun.”
3.8°dH
Hardness
10
Drug traces
12
PFAS ng/L
70
compounds tracked
United States · 1851
Seattle
“Cascade snowmelt. Unfiltered. Exceptional.”
0.8°dH
Hardness
12
Drug traces
1.8
PFAS ng/L
70
compounds tracked
Jordan · 1878
Amman
“Hard limestone plateau. Mineral-dense. Rationed.”
18.4°dH
Hardness
10
Drug traces
7.2
PFAS ng/L
70
compounds tracked
Bangladesh · 1608
Dhaka
“Delta water. Treated at the limit. The weight of 22 million.”
6.8°dH
Hardness
8
Drug traces
22
PFAS ng/L
70
compounds tracked
Peru · 1535
Lima
“The Andes dissolved into a glass, delivered against the odds.”
9.8°dH
Hardness
12
Drug traces
4.1
PFAS ng/L
70
compounds tracked
The project
Water carries the memory of everywhere it has been.
Every city's tap water is a chemical autobiography — the geology it passed through, the agriculture upstream, the pharmaceuticals excreted by ten million people, the drugs that made it through wastewater treatment. We test it, bottle it, and print it. The full truth, in 7pt Space Mono, on a square glass bottle.
The politics
We grade every city. Stockholm gets an A. Paris gets a C — not because its water is unsafe, but because a city that spent €1.4 billion on the Seine and then had Olympic swimmers get sick has a credibility problem. We publish the score. The city can earn a better one.
This is how accountability works: not through shame, but through measurement. You can't improve what you don't publish. We publish it for you.
Physical specifications
The Bottle
Bormioli Rocco Swing series — square-base borosilicate glass with steel bail-arm swing-top. Made in Parma, Italy. Three sizes, two glass finishes. All four faces sandblast-engraved. Specifications to the millimetre.
250 ml
Art. 100026260
Base
58 × 58 mm
Height
194 mm
Weight (empty)
269 g
Capacity
250 ml
Glass
Frosted borosilicate
Origin
Bormioli Rocco · Parma, Italy
Closure
Swing-top (bygelstängning) — steel wire + ceramic stopper + NBR gasket
Engraving
Sandblast-engraved · 4 faces · surface-selective frosted reveal
Frosted field with clear-on-frost engraving. The chemistry appears in clear glass against milky ground.
500 ml
Art. 100026940-S
Base
68 × 68 mm
Height
248 mm
Weight (empty)
420 g
Capacity
500 ml
Glass
Clear borosilicate
Origin
Bormioli Rocco · Parma, Italy
Closure
Swing-top (bygelstängning) — steel wire + ceramic stopper + NBR gasket
Engraving
Sandblast-engraved · 4 faces · matte-on-clear engraving
Clear glass — the water is fully visible. Engraving reads as frosted text against transparent ground.
1 L
Art. 100026940
Base
80.4 × 80.4 mm
Height
308 mm
Weight (empty)
605 g
Capacity
1 000 ml
Glass
Clear borosilicate
Origin
Bormioli Rocco · Parma, Italy
Closure
Swing-top (bygelstängning) — steel wire + ceramic stopper + NBR gasket
Engraving
Sandblast-engraved · 4 faces · matte-on-clear engraving
Proportionally the most imposing bottle — 308 mm tall. The 4-face engraving carries the full 68-compound analysis.
Engraved content — 4 faces
Every face of the bottle carries a different layer of the water's story. Together the four sides form a complete document — equal parts laboratory report, political manifesto, chemistry textbook, and sensory guide.
A
Analysis
Full 68-compound laboratory results. Physical parameters → minerals → heavy metals → pharmaceuticals → illegal drug metabolites → microbiological → microplastics → PFAS. Values in μg/L, mg/L, or CFU/100mL. Status indicators: safe · trace · warn · alert · nd. Batch ID, test date, laboratory accreditation code.
B
Memory
Geological history of the water source. Political score (A–F) with failures and demands. Cultural memory — what this water has passed through, who drank it before, what the city owes it.
C
Chemistry
Water chemistry explained: how hardness forms, what each compound means, why lead appears at 0.0008 μg/L in one city and 4.2 in another. Myth and science side by side. The periodic table of this specific bottle.
D
Taste
Taste profile in wine notation: mouthfeel category, mineral notes, finish length, pairing suggestions. Hardness category (soft / medium / hard / very hard). What the chemistry actually does to your palate.
All bottles: Bormioli Rocco Swing (bygelstängning) series · borosilicate glass · swing-top closure with 316L stainless steel wire bail, ceramic stopper, NBR rubber gasket · food-safe, dishwasher-safe · sourced from glasoflaskor.se · manufactured in Parma, Italy · suitable for repeated sanitisation and refill · engraving by sandblasting through adhesive mask — permanent, scratch-resistant, food-contact safe.