26/08/2026
🚰 A little travel moment that got us thinking...
While ordering at a restaurant in Germany, we noticed a line on the menu: "Due to hygiene standards, we do not serve tap water."
Naturally, we started wondering — wait, is German tap water not safe to drink?
Turns out, it's actually the opposite! German tap water is some of the cleanest and most strictly tested in all of Europe. So why the "hygiene" excuse?
The real reason has less to do with safety and more to do with business. Germany doesn't have a law requiring restaurants to serve free tap water (unlike France or the UK), so many simply choose not to — bottled water is more profitable, and "hygiene standards" is an easy line to fall back on.
It got us thinking about how many restaurants (and homes!) could skip that whole dilemma altogether with proper filtration — real, verified clean water on tap, no guesswork, no excuses needed. That's the gap we work on closing at SBM Water. 💧
Have you ever run into something like this while traveling? We'd love to hear your stories in the comments! 👇