Well, we know how the Nobel Committee would vote!

Woah. Al Gore wins the 2007 Nobel Prize for Peace.

I'm addicted.

So, I have this substance abuse problem. It mostly manifests itself at work. Omaha's never seen me take this stuff, nor have any of the kids.

It's Perrier.

Wait, I hear you cry. The bubbly French water that Robin Williams so aptly ridiculed in his 1982 classic Throbbing Python of Love when he did the mock-voiceover, "Whenever I blow a dollar on a bottle of water, I buy Perrier?" (Funny how people now blow $1.50 on bottled tap water, and perhaps more if the water is certified organic!) How can Perrier be classified as a problem?

I try with a little more attention than, I suspect, the average grocery store walker, to try and buy local stuffs. Omaha has us signed up to a "organic and local if we can, organic if we can't" grocery delivery service, and recently I've been trying my best to find wines, beers and other luxury food items made in my region. I do make allowances, of course: I understand that chocolate and coffee just don't grow in my region.

I mean, seriously. I should just go to the tap, right? Well yeah, I should. Often, I do. But recently I've been trying to drop pop from my diet, and more or less succeeding. Some days I backslide but usually I manage. Depending upon how I'm feeling, I might get a coffee, but more often I go to the company cafe' and grab a Perrier. The soft carbonation is just enough to satisfy the sensation that's missing from my lack of pop consumption. And to be honest, Perrier is far less nasty than any of the carbonated water alternatives on the shelves. And my company provides it for free in the pop machines.

But grief, the stuff has obscene food-miles. It's water, shipped across the Atlantic from freakin' France, then driven or railed all the way across the country. In glass. Little 330ml bottles. It's insane.

I used to do Talking Rain, but the company doesn't get it anymore and it was never quite so preferable and gentle on the palate.

Does anyone have any locally bottled bubbly water that they like?

[Hat tip to voudou_chile for the certified organic water pic]