Finlandia water bottles mark Earth Day

Left to right: “The Very Tired Rooster” representing the Midnight Sun, which shines for 73 days straight in the north of Finland; "Untouched Nature," represented by the Norse mythological red squirrel Ratatosk; six-row barley featuring “The Cranes” walking in the barley field; "Thiaridae” the freshwater snail, representing pure glacial spring water.

Today is the 40th Earth Day, which coincides with the 40th anniversary of the Finlandia vodka brand.

To mark both milestones, Finlandia is releasing limited edition charity water bottles featuring designs by Klaus Haapaniemi, a renowned Finnish graphic artist.

"As a Finnish artist and proud of my heritage, it was a pleasure to partner with Finlandia on this project to benefit so many great environmental charities," Haapaniemi said. "I hope my designs bring color and fantasy to Finlandia and glamorize the nature and the wildlife of Finland."

Each design represents one of Finlandia Vodka’s core elements: the Midnight Sun, untouched nature, six-row barley and pure glacial spring water.

The one-liter SIGG water bottles sell for $28. Finlandia will divide all profits among four global environmental projects selected to promote sustainability beyond the brand’s distillation footprint. This cause-marketing program is an early step in a new, concerted effort to explore sustainability and the brand’s harmony with nature.

The water bottles will be available beginning May 3 for purchase online. (The website will not be active until then.)

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Canajoharie entry wins NYS water competition

William M. Dowd photos

SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY -- Water, water, everywhere ... and plenty to drink, think about, consult over, run through valves and purification systems ... and so on.

That was the scene Wednesday at the Saratoga Hilton/City Center which was hosting the annual conference of the New York Section -- American Water Works Association (AWWA), a statewide organization of professionals involved in the drinking water industry -- water/wastewater plant operators, utilities, municipal officials, academics and consulting engineers.

It also was the spot where I joined three other judges from the industry to select the best drinking water in New York State, an honor that went to the Village of Canajoharie. Its water now moves on to the national AWWA competition, scheduled for June in Chicago.

Judges conducted a blind test, sampling a variety of waters from various parts of the state, looking for clarity, taste, smell, aftertaste, and scoring on a 5-point system for each category. While it may not seem at first glance that judging water samples would be much of a chore compared to judging, say, wines and spirits, having done all of those liquids I can attest to the fact that water judging has its difficulties. All the entries were top quality, no discolorations, funky odors or bad aftertaste. On my final scoresheet, I had one entry just two points ahead of a trio tied for second place. I retasted all four, knocking the leader down by one point but still keeping it at the top.

As it turned out, the total points awarded by the four judges wound up ranking the finishers in the same order I had picked them:

• 1st -- Village of Canajoharie, 107 points.
• 2nd through 4th -- Tie among Bethpage (Long Island) Water District, New York City and Greenlawn, 102 points each.
• 5th -- Village of Monroe, 95 points.
• 6th -- Monroe County, 91 points.

The other judges were Joseph Mantua, national president-elect of the AWWA; Manoj Ajmera, a consulting water engineer from the Capital Region, and Dr. Connie Schreppel of Utica, current chair and director of an upstate water distributor. The event was coordinated by Rochelle Cassella of Liverpool, executive director of the New York Section - AWWA.

SCENES FROM A CONVENTION




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