How expensive can drinking water be? The reality is always beyond the perception of ordinary people.
The reporter of "Consumer Reports" searched in Tmall Mall and found that 80 barrels of 4L Linjian Qiuyue "Moyun" mountain spring water was as high as 2,428 yuan, with an average of about 30.4 yuan per barrel. "There is no most expensive, only more expensive". The average price of the brand's 4.5L "Qingyun" mountain spring water is 38.7 yuan/barrel, and the average price of 5L "Muyun" mountain spring water is 43.1 yuan/barrel.
Even after the discount deduction of Tmall New Year's Festival, the average price of the above-mentioned mountain spring water is 24.9 yuan/barrel, 31.7 yuan/barrel, and 35.4 yuan/barrel respectively. A contrasting reference is that at present, the small barreled drinking water of about 5L on the market is basically less than 10 yuan, and the Baisui Mountain, known as the "water aristocracy", is less than 20 yuan per barrel.
On the e-commerce platform, it is not uncommon to see a relatively niche drinking water brand with a high price like Lin Jian Qiuyue, such as a 4.8L box of Xianyushan selenium-rich mountain spring water (4 barrels) with a price of 130.97 yuan, with an average price of 32.7 yuan, a 1.8L bottle of Qianmushan drinking natural water is more expensive, with a price of 175 yuan for 6 bottles, and a 4L box of Tianyuan Snow drinking mountain spring water (4 barrels) with an original price of 520 yuan, and the current price after the coupon is as high as 360 yuan.
Zhu Danpeng, an analyst of China's food industry, told Consumer Reports that there is a lot of chaos on e-commerce platforms. Drinking water is a type of product with high homogeneity, and businesses are also taking advantage of information asymmetry. The popularization of drinking water needs to be further strengthened.
What is the high price of mountain spring water?
According to the information of the "Linjian Qiuyue" Tmall flagship store, its products are natural mountain spring water filled from the water source, which is divided into series such as "Moyun", "Qingyun" and "Muyun". Different series of teas suitable for brewing are different, "Moyun" is suitable for post-fermented old teas, such as aged Pu'er, old tangerine peel, black tea, etc., and "Qingyun" is suitable for lightly fermented high-aroma teas, such as green tea, oolong tea, etc. "Muyun" is a special water for Fuding white tea.
According to public information, unlike mineral water, mountain spring water may contain a certain amount of trace elements in addition to minerals, and the taste is usually sweeter and refreshing. In fact, "self-gushing spring water" and "mountain spring water" are also the main selling points of Lin Jian Qiuyue, saying that mountain spring water is the best choice in drinking water, and long-term drinking of natural mountain spring water can supplement the deficiency of trace elements such as calcium, magnesium, potassium, sodium, and strontium in the daily diet.
(Image source: "Lin Jian Qiuyue" Tmall flagship store)
As for the reason that it is higher than the common drinking water brands in the market, the reporter of "Consumer Reports" consulted the customer service of the "Lin Jian Qiuyue" Tmall flagship store as a buyer, and its brief reply said, "The tea is delicious." ”
However, a tea merchant in Nanping, Fujian Province, told Consumer Reports that water has a slight impact on tea soup, and it is good to use filtered tap water to make tea, and the trace elements in mountain spring water and mineral water may not be able to be absorbed, (the above publicity) is just a gimmick.
Still, there is a niche market for drinking water. According to the sales data of the "Linjian Qiuyue" Tmall flagship store, the price of 2 boxes of 4L (note: 2 barrels per box) of "Moyun" mountain spring water is 138 yuan, and the total sales volume exceeds 5,000 orders. There are also many other series of products with more than 1000 orders.
It is worth noting that the product standard number of Linjian Qiuyue series products is an enterprise standard, not a national food safety standard. "Moyun" is Q/WYQX 0001S, "Qingyun" is Q/FJJP 0001S-2018, and "Muyun" is Q/FJJP 0001S-2018. The customer service said that the enterprise standards used by it were stricter than the national standards.
However, the national standard "General Principles for Beverages" only has relevant indicators for drinking natural mineral water and bottled drinking purified water, and there is no national standard for drinking natural spring water, drinking natural water and other "other types of drinking water".
Mineral water, purified water, and natural water are also the three major schools in the domestic packaged drinking water market. Mineral water refers to water that naturally gushes out from deep underground or is collected from drilling wells and contains a certain amount of minerals, trace elements or other components, purified water refers to water that does not contain any impurities, bacteria and trace elements, and natural water refers to surface water that requires minimal treatment or spring water, mineral water, artesian well water, etc.
There is a view that most of the natural water series production enterprises are reluctant to label "other drinking water", and can indicate the name of the source of natural aquatic products, and can also indicate the content range of the main cations such as potassium (K+), sodium (Na+), calcium (Ca2+) and other minerals in the quality of drinking natural aquatic products. In practice, some water enterprises have classified mountain spring water as "packaged drinking water" in accordance with the relevant requirements of the National Food Safety Standard for Packaged Drinking Water (GB 19298-2014).
Water source "gimmick"
In recent years, the bottled water industry has grown rapidly, and the involution is also accelerating, and high-quality water sources have become a golden signboard for mineral water companies and a "sharp blade" to create differentiation. According to the 2022 JD Supermarket Mineral Water Consumption Trend Report, the source of mineral water has become the key to consumers' purchase decisions, and more and more brands are adding the logo of the source source to their products.
For example, Evergrande Ice Spring, which was once nicknamed "local tyrant water", was far more expensive than similar products when it was first launched, and the water source was its important marketing gimmick. In public publicity, the water source of Evergrande Ice Spring is Changbai Mountain in Jilin Province, which is recognized as the world's three major golden water sources. The water source is a deep volcanic rock cold see, the water quality is pure, zero pollution, and the mineral composition and content are relatively stable.
The water source is already the "strength endorsement" of mineral water enterprises. In the water industry, obtaining the mineral water "mining license" is a sign of getting a really good water source, but the development of natural mineral water is expensive, lasts for a long time, and is difficult to make a profit in the short term, which is also the reason why many water companies are reluctant to develop mineral water.
And pure water and drinking water companies also play the gimmick of water sources. In the promotion of the above-mentioned niche drinking water brands, they are rich in a variety of mineral elements and the natural ecological environment of the water source are the core selling points that they particularly emphasize.
For example, the "Moyun" and "Qingyun" series of water sources in the autumn moon of Linjian are the main peak of Wuyi Mountain, Huanggang Mountain, and the Modao Hongyan Mountain of Wuyi Mountains, and the "Muyun" series of water sources are in the South Yandang Mountains. According to the merchants, the spring water is rich in a variety of natural minerals and trace elements required by the human body after being filtered by rock formations.
The spring water of Xianyu Mountain comes from Dashan Village, Shitai County, Anhui Province, a natural selenium-rich water source and one of the three major selenium-rich longevity villages in China, and the water source of Qianmu Mountain is the Qiandao Lake Grand Canyon Reserve, saying that "every drop comes from the self-gushing spring of the alpine rock mass, with an annual output of less than 100,000 tons". Tianyuan Snow Water Source is located in Jigong Mountain in Xinyang, Henan Province, and the spring water is rich in metasilicic acid, calcium, strontium and other trace elements.
In addition to common high-quality water sources such as Changbai Mountain, Kunlun Mountain, and Wudalianchi in Heilongjiang, mountain and river water sources with unique water quality and environmental characteristics are also favored by water companies, such as VOSS, a Norwegian high-end drinking water brand that entered the Chinese market in 2016, and the west foot of Shennongjia is its second water source in the world, and the mineral water is taken from the natural self-gushing spring in the middle of Danxia Mountain in Zhuxi County.
The competition between drinking water and beverage giants to expand production capacity and find water sources has also become fierce, and many companies have accelerated the construction of factories in water sources to build competitive barriers in order to seize more high-quality water sources. At the same time, more and more drinking water brands are focusing on the "natural brand" and making a big fuss about the promotion of water sources.
However, a good water source environment may not directly prove the "high-end" of drinking water. Qiu Xiangrong, a water expert and professor-level senior engineer at the Guangdong Provincial Institute of Environmental Geology, pointed out in an interview with Nanfang Daily that good water does not come out of pure places. "Most people generally agree that the more pristine and untouched the water, the better. But in fact, the quality of water can be affected by multiple factors: including the conditions of underground transportation, the degree of water-rock reaction, etc. ”