It has to be said, so let me say it, give it some thought and then look at what the "real" costs of water are.
One of my favorite slogans, with a similar ideal, comes from a George Dickel ad; Water's for washing, Dickel's for drinking. Ice is a luxury reserved for few countries, and often not wasted in countries who could otherwise afford it.
When I was first introduced to the concept of ice free cold beverage dispensing, first as an idea, then some years later on a trip to Germany, I hadn't yet shaken the idea of chilling draught beverage with ice. I built my first jockey box in the late 70's. Golf was the calling of the day and my job was to "sit" at the intersection of two cart paths and offer to top off or fill a fresh glass for any golfers who passed and needed refreshment. It was Florida in the Spring, and a cold draught was what many playing the course were looking for. Cart girls? We weren't that advanced. Kegs in trash cans full of ice, a jockey box cooler full of ice and thirsty golfers playing in the charity tournament I was assisting with.
Always curious I began pursuing the idea of portable draught beverage systems and focused some of my attention on convenience. The steel coolers of the day gave way to plastic coolers in the 80's, thus saving a few pounds. The party ball, a plastic 5 gallon container in a cardboard box, with a plastic bag around the "ball" allowed one to dump a bag of ice in the bag liner and keep the ball cold. Skipping college classes and sit on the beach while waiting for the Space Shuttle to launch, or not, became a past time. A cold, frothy beverage just a few feet away, in the shade.
As the craft beer, microbrewery movement gained momentum for me first in the mid and late 80's, then again with a relocation to Colorado soon after the calendar clicked 1991, I found myself in a market needing portable, event draught experience and was asked to join the equipment team for the Great American Beer Festival as draught technician #2. 30 plus years later you'll find me participating with the Beer Service team, though team cocreator, I now let the younger backs do the heavy lifting and provide technical support for the team. GABF accomplishments are many, and highlighted else ware.
Throughout my time building, maintaining, selling and supporting draught beverage event equipment I also assisted local on-premise draught equipment resellers and installers as an experienced set of hands on their projects. From time to time I'd hear about these European dispensers that didn't need ice and as more information made its way to the Internet I gleaned as much as I could about this equipment. Since the electric power grid in the USA is different from most of the rest of the world, and these ice free machines were being built in Europe, then Asia, I learned as much as I could knowing that until a manufacturer made something compatible with the US power grid, these ethereal machines were just a dream for me.
Finally, a trip to Europe that was more beverage related than tourism. My time was now! While visiting a collegue outside of Munich I noticed that their event equipment was all types of dispensers, event trailers and keg packages that I'd studied, but not been able to put my hands on. I was in a Meca for me of new learning opportunities, and I took it all in.
And although I got hands on time with all kinds of draught equipment, the most valuable piece of information from the trip was one that helped me change perspective. In America, ice is almost everywhere, in Europe, not so much. I had bartended in tourist establishments in Florida and the "Pepsi, no ice" refrain was something I'd heard more times than I'll ever be able to count. And yet, it was a trip outside the US that put the pieces together with the statement from a friend that was "Bill, we have no ice culture here". Shazam, like a bolt of lightning it all made sense in a way I'd never really given thought to before. No corner store for ice. No bags of ice in the grocery stores. Drinks came cooler than room temp, but without ice. The refrain from tourists refusing ice in their drinks made sense.
Now with the answer to a long held question there was the "what am I going to do with this information" moment. And with that a renewed search for ice free cold beverage dispensing systems for the US. I now had the chicken and the egg. To be continued ....