I discovered recently and with surprise that over the years I have developed a water fetish. One by one, various water-imbibing implements have been added to our household hydration, until a fetishization seems to have manifested. Cold water, hot water---I've got to have it. I spend a great deal of the day studying, so I truly find it comforting to have a cup of something hot or cold nearby. It's a thinking aid, a brain relaxer, a mild distraction to allow a thought or vocabulary word to sink in. As the study I do usually demands much concentration and focus, I get hungry. The working brain gobbles energy---everyone knows that. So, in comes zero-calorie water to work beautifully as an appetite depressant. It curbs the urge to graze, to plunder the refrigerator. And of course, cold water from time to time does what it is meant to do, and quenches thirst.
First, the subject of obtaining cold water. Tap water is wonderfully clean in this country (except for Flint, Michigan, January 2016 (
see link). We could easily drink right from the faucet, and be content, but here at home we upgraded long ago with a Brita water filter system. A clumsy and obnoxious filter-in-pitcher system, this was happily replaced by filtered water pipelets that came out of both the kitchen sink
and a front section of the refrigerator. The taste of chlorine and other impurities mostly disappeared.
Next, the space-robbing freezer-burn-prone ice cube tray was replaced by the automatic dispenser, also on the front of the refrigerator. Not to give up entirely on the tray, I discovered a soft silicone giant ice cube "tray" at the addictive kitchen store Sur Le Table, which makes 2"X 2" squares. One per glass, and you're good for at least one refill, if not two. The silicone's squeezy consistency also allows easy removal of the cubes, which can then be put in a plastic bag for use.
Ice-cold flat water is great, but carbonated is even better. Enter the SodaStream, which is, at the outset, an admittedly over-priced water carbonation system. However, its CO2 cylinder makes 60 liters of fizzy water, and lasts us 3+ months. Flavors can be added or not. Together with all of the ice cube choices, comes cold water satisfaction.
The soda stream dispenser and a liter of fizzy water
The filtered water and ice dispenser and the giant ice cube tray
What about hot water? I started out with first the humble tea kettle, and then the much handier electric kettle. Electric kettles which turn off automatically when the water comes to a boil were on every kitchen counter in the London houses I visited in the 1980's. They gradually made their way to the U.S., and I used them for many years. Until I started to study Chinese. When I first arrived at the home of my beloved Chinese teacher, she asked if I'd like tea. Thinking of the cumbersome electric kettle, I nearly refused. However, a cup of hot tea materialized after ten seconds or so every time I went for a lesson, though I had no idea how. When I spent five weeks studying in Tainan, in the south of Taiwan, my kind landladies left for Cheng Kung University every morning, and I was alone in the flat to study. They had a marvelous device: a kettle which dispensed water kept constantly at a temperature near the boiling point. A true miracle, it let me choose from a great variety of teas, cafe con leche mixes, or just hot water whenever I wanted. Most of the Asians I know relish a cup of hot water in the winter, and I took up the habit, for a while at least. When I came home, I longed to have such a marvelous invention, and after a few months, there it was, a king of dispensers. It is a Japanese model, Zojirushi brand, holds 4 liters of water, and has three temperature settings: 208, 195, and 175 degrees F. (212 F is boiling.) All day long, I can have any hot drink I please.
The magical Zojirushi nearly-boiling water dispenser/life enhancer
Except for one: maté. Yerba maté is a sensitive beverage, and is best brewed at 180 degrees F. The dispenser water temperature is stubbornly maintained at 208 for making coffee and tea, but that near-boiling water makes the maté too hot to drink from the silver bombillo, or straw. Therefore, I need what the maté drinkers of Uruguay and Argentina lug around with them at all times: a thermos. I just ordered a two-liter midnight blue exemplar, so I too can lug the maté equipment around---at least to the upstairs library.
The marvelous thermos: water still mate-hot after 12 hours!
So, you'll be happy to know that my retirement studies are going extremely well, thanks to water variety. Do you have any other ideas to add to this repertoire? Suggestions are welcome in the comments section.
A path to the cars! Un senderito hasta los coches! 
