Is this the world's most expensive bottle of water?



How much would you pay for a bottle of water? A pound or two? Not if you're a Harrods customer.

The luxury Knightsbridge department store is soon to start selling bottles of Svalbardi 'luxury' water for an eye-popping £80 each.

The water is harvested from icebergs off the coast of Svalbard, a group of islands between northern Norway and the North Pole.

Only 13,000 750ml bottles of Svalbardi are produced at a time. An icebreaker collects 15 tons of ice per trip, which is then melted and bottled by hand. Two trips will be made a year.

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The water is almost entirely free of minerals, with no nitrates or pollutants, and is unprocessed, apart from being filtered and treated with UV light.

At £80 a bottle, the water costs more than most wines - and the company does its best to pitch the product in the same way.

"With an exceptionally light mouthfeel Svalbardi has a unique terroir, perfect for pairing with fine foods," it says. "The fine water is a sophisticated alternative to alcohol, and enriches culinary experiences."

The company was launched by Jamal Qureshi, a Norwegian-American former Wall Street businessman. After collecting some on a trip in 2013 as a present for his tea-drinking wife, he decided to set up a company and harvest it commercially.

"I know few will ever be able to visit, but with Svalbardi people can taste a piece of the ice at the top of the world," he says.

Well, people with that sort of money, that is.

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But the super-wealthy often seem to be prepared to pay eye-watering amounts for 'luxury' versions of ordinary foods and drinks. Earlier this month, for example, we reported on the high-end retailer in Hong Kong that's selling melons for £50 and bags of apples for £415.

Meanwhile, the Goldhorn Beefclub restaurant in Berlin sells steak for 4,000 euros a pop and the Hazev restaurant near Canary Wharf charges £925 for a kebab.

And high-end chocolate retailer Choccywoccydoodah last year launched the world's most expensive chocolate Easter eggs, costing £25,000.

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Svalbardi claims that there's nothing wrong with selling the water at this price, and says it donates a proportion of the profits to the Global Seed Vault, which stores every variety of seed in the world as insurance against the future.

However, with United Nations figures indicating that as many as 783 million people around the world lack access to any clean water at all, many people might see it as immoral.









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