Miracle 'Water To Wine' Machine Is A (Well-Meaning) Hoax

The $500 'Miracle Machine' that recently took the internet by storm has, sadly and not that surprisingly, turned out to be a hoax.

The Miracle Machine, which allegedly turned water to wine, received media attention from an estimated 600 publications including Business Insider, TIME, and ABC News, is "just a lump of wood," the project's co-founders told NPR's The Salt.

If your blood is boiling over this bogus "breakthrough," just know that the whole hoax was in service of a charity that has brought clean water to 250,000 people in 17 countries so far. The machine's "creators," Philip James and Kevin Boyer teamed up with MSLGROUP, a PR company, to bring attention to Wine to Water, a non-profit organization that brings clean water to the developing world.

"If by lending our reputations, we could bring a broader reach [to Wine to Water] and save one life, we'd do it 10 times over again," Boyer told The Salt.

Last year, James, who does actually own a custom wine label-making company with Boyer, rode his motorcycle 17,000 miles to raise money for Wine to Water.

So there you have it: Water to Wine, the Miracle Machine, is utterly fake, but Wine to Water, the international clean water charity, is real. 

Karen Lo is an associate editor at The Daily Meal. Follow her on Twitter @appleplexy.