SAINT-LAURENT FRAPPÉ

- "Something to drink?"

- "Just a St. Laurent Frappé, thanks!

Yep, it's a super casual Montréal thing. When someone offers you a "St. Laurent Frappé," they're basically asking if you're cool with tap water instead of some fancy bottled stuff. The weirdly cool part? Nobody really knows where the name came from. Rumor has it, the French in Europe call it "Château-la-Pompe," but I've never heard that one dropped in real life.

Now, here's the Montréal twist – it's not just any tap water, it's got some local flair.

You see, the water flowing out of our taps is basically a St. Lawrence River superstar. There are six plants on the island making sure we get our fill. The Atwater and Charles-J. Des Baillets plants, for example, team up to treat a whopping 88% of the water we gulp down. So, when we say we're sipping on a "St. Lawrence Frappé," we mean it quite literally.

Now, there's a bit of a water source variety show going on. Dorval, Lachine, Pierrefonds, and Pointe-Claire plants? They've got Lake Saint-Louis and Rivière des Prairies doing their hydration hustle (same water game, different spots and names).

The numbers are kinda wild – we're talking about treating an insane amount daily, like 1 cubic meter per islander. That's a cool 1000 liters! Just to put it in perspective, a 10-minute shower and three flushes later, and boom, 200 liters down the drain.

And here's where it gets impressive – they're all over keeping it top-notch. Every year, tens of thousands of samples get taken at every step, from the river to the tap, just to make sure our "St. Laurent Frappé" stays top-shelf quality. We sometimes forget, but having this Blue Gold flowing from our taps, reliable, clean, and wallet-friendly, is a bit of a privilege.

Feeling thirsty yet? Cheers!

Cheers to good ol' tap water! 🚰💙