Students expressed a mixture of indignation and apathy concerning the recent revelation that Dartmouth Spring Water is bottled by a subsidiary of Coca-Cola and that the pop-up caps have been changed to flat, twist-off caps.
With an image of Baker Tower on its label and promises of New Hampshire springs, the Dartmouth Spring Water bottles appear to be produced locally. The actual bottling processes does commence in New Hampshire, but the connection to Cola-Cola rids it of its local flavor, some students said.
Some students previously chose Dartmouth Spring Water over Dasani, the other option sold at the College, because they did not support Coca-Cola.
"I didn't drink Coke for a while because I didn't like the company," Mike Murov '07 said. "I avoided Dasani and drank Dartmouth Spring water. I'm not really outraged, though."
Other students, however, expressed much stronger concern.
"I feel used about the changed caps and the possibly misleading attempts of Coca-Cola to deceive the consumer," Heather Luntz '07 said, referencing the other change to Dartmouth Spring Water, which involves the caps.
On Dartmouth Spring Water's label, Cornucopia Beverages is listed as the distributor of the water. Cornucopia is a subsidiary of Coca-Cola of Northern New England.
Since Coca-Cola essentially owns Dartmouth Spring Water, interviewed students were confused why Coke's name was not clearly printed on the bottles.
"Because it's just a different product line apart from Coca-Cola products, we have it under this Cornucopia umbrella," said Susannah Smith, a representative of Coca-Cola of Northern New England.
Some students also said they felt a false sense of choice before understanding Dartmouth Spring Water's derivation. But Smith firmly stated that no efforts were being made to hoodwink students.
Dartmouth Spring Water is also undergoing a physical change. As Luntz noted, the water bottles have surprisingly started turning up in the Dartmouth Dining Services cafeterias no longer with pop-up caps, but with twist-off ones.
At press time, representatives for Coca-Cola or Cornucopia were not available for comment about the changed caps.
Other students expressed dissenting views from Luntz's opinion.
"It's easier to reuse the new type [of water bottle]," Ayesha Appa '07 said.
But Luntz remained steadfast.
"The new tops are completely impractical," she said. "If I wanted a Dasani Water bottle [flat top], I'd buy one, thank you very much."
Overall, the arguments varied and depended on student preferences, including taste, convenience and price. Many surveyed believed Dasani tasted better, despite not coming from a spring water source.
Dartmouth Spring Water goes through a long process that originates at a spring in Alton, N.H. From there, the water is transported to a bottling company in Nashua, N.H. where it is bottled by the Twin Mountain Spring Water corporation, a smaller company that is part of the larger American Beverage corporation.
From Nashua, the bottled water is distributed by Cornucopia Beverages, the company actually printed on the bottle's label. The water is then transported to Dartmouth for consumers.
"My understanding is it can only come out of a spring," Dave McFadden, marketing manager at American Beverage Corporation said in reference to the definition of "spring water."
McFadden called bottled waters such as Dasani and Aquafina, owned by Coca-Cola and Pepsi-Cola, respectively, "just purified, basically city water."
Dasani's website states that the water comes from a "local water supply" and is then purified "using a state-of-the-art process called reverse osmosis."
Lingley told The Dartmouth she would be more interested in Dartmouth Spring Water after learning its source appears to be more natural. However, she said she had previously preferred the taste of Dasani.
The overall popularity of Dasani versus Dartmouth Spring Water was varied, with Dartmouth Dining Services cashiers indicating that more spring water than other beverages was purchased in total.
Levi Fioravanti, a cashier at Food Court, said that he saw more people purchase Dasani at Food Court. However, he speculated that this preference was a result of Dartmouth Spring Water's placement in a corner of the dining hall.
"I think over here at Homeplate, they buy more Dartmouth Spring Water than Dasani," said Erin Cleaves, a cashier there.
Dartmouth Spring Water is available at all main cafeterias: Courtyard Cafe, Collis Cafe, Food Court and Homeplate. Dasani is not available at Collis.
