We love it when things that seem counter-intuitive work. For example, we associate charcoal with burnt toast and barbecued meat. Who would have thought that putting a chunk of it in your drinking water not only purifies it but makes it taste better? Well, combine an age-old Asian practice with a beautiful Scandanavian design that utilizes white charcoal made from Japanese oak—which is actually black in color—and a sleek, mouth-blown glass bottle, and you've got a real life, aesthetically uplifting example in Sort of Coal's Bottle and Kishu Binchotan. (Watch our accompanying audio slideshow to see it all come together, and read about the designers' creative process in their profile link above.)
 
The water purification system, created in Copenhagen and curated by Stockholm-based tastemaker and publisher Peter Jäderberg, isn't just about good looks. Research shows that activated charcoal (or white charcoal as it's better known) is a natural purifier and odor eliminator. The glass-like, residue-free charcoal piece, which is 95% pure carbon and absorbs chlorine, also reduces unpleasant tastes and releases minerals into its aquatic surrounding, resulting in a balance very close to natural spring water (even if what you’re drinking—shhh—came from the tap). Suddenly, drinking those eight glasses a day feels much easier.