Bottled Water

[tjkitsune]

As long as mcdonalds doesn't start serving holy water, I'm cool with it.

Good thing McDonald's mostly supplies Coke products then!

Oh, wait... McDonald's also sells Coke's water products too, don't they? ...crap. Well, then let's hope Coke doesn't bless their water!

[chefTENGU]

Their bottled water (Dasani) is just filtered municipal water (for that matter, so is Pepsi's brand, Aquafina). Nothing blessed about that.

[Killer_Man_]

It's why I advocate drinking tap water or making your own bottled water. Because most of the corporations could just be filtering tap water and selling it(Like 10 cents to make the bottle, 6 cents per gallon of water.) and selling tons and tons of bottles for like 1.50 a pop or even a 6 pack for like 8 bucks.

[Seegtease]

C'mon, you can tell the difference between good and bad water. I drink better water because I don't like our tap water. If they just got it from the tap and bottled it, people would notice, believe me.

Ok, this is off topic.

[Killer_Man_]

C'mon, you can tell the difference between good and bad water. I drink better water because I don't like our tap water. If they just got it from the tap and bottled it, people would notice, believe me.

Ok, this is off topic.


Not really, I can tell the difference between bottle and tap. The bottle one sucks, but even filtered tap tastes the same as bottled. Filtered and tasteless. I like the taste of well and tap water more.

And evne if you could tell the difference. There is no law in making bottled water companies reveal where, why or how they got their water. There is no, 'honest menu' law thingy. Much like if I say we make our chicken sandwhichs this way with these ingredients. It has to be that way, if it isn't and something goes wrong or someone has allergic reaction. I can be sued.

[Seegtease]

It really depends on your city's water supply. Sometimes it's rancid, sometimes it's great. Sometimes you need a filter. When I lived in a canyon, the water was better than bottled or filtered water - it was well water from the tap. But when I lived in Oregon City, it was disgusting, as our water here is as well.

Time for somebody to make a split thread.

[Bloodcinder]

Okay.

[chefTENGU]

C'mon, you can tell the difference between good and bad water. I drink better water because I don't like our tap water. If they just got it from the tap and bottled it, people would notice, believe me.
No, it's absolutely true. Unless the company specifically says it bottles water from a natural spring, odds are it's just recycled tap water, which is most of the bottled water in America.

Modern Marvels had an episode about the history of water that touched on the practice of bottling water for sale. In the nineteenth century, when city water supplies were terribly polluted, water was something you avoided drinking. However, some European got the idea of bottling clean water from springs and selling it. The rich latched on to this immediately, since by paying for water you proved that you had money to burn.

It caught on in America, too. Companies would sell bottles for $1.75 each (equivalent to $30 in today's money), and rich people bought it because it was fashionable.

Then the city of Philadelphia was the first to start treating its water supply by chlorination, and safe, potable tap water was suddenly available, causing the bottled water industry in the States to collapse as the idea caught on in cites all over the country.

Now that bottled water is fashionable again, and people have the notion that if they're paying for water it must taste better or be better for you, it's become big business again. Companies like Coke and Pepsi take municipal water, run it through reverse osmosis to separate water molecules from anything they don't want in it, then add minerals like calcium and fluoride for taste.

It's really no different than running your tap water through a filter at home. Thankfully, in Johnson County, KS, the tap water's good enough so that I don't have to bother with that.

[Gio Takahashi]

bottle waters have different taste, I prefer Zephyr Hills myself over other, and I have a filter for my tap as well, which is used to make my iced tea.

[chefTENGU]

Bottled waters that come from springs will have different taste. In fact, since no two springs are exactly alike, no two spring waters will taste exactly alike, either.

[Seegtease]

There's so many more factors than that, chef. Sure, they may use tap water in their bottled water (unless it says spring water), but they may have really good tap water where they got it. Like I said in my last post, some tap water is just dreadful. Even if you get a faucet filter (again a factor of quality of the filter), it still won't be as good as spring or fresh underground well-water, filtered by dirt and mountain bugs.

I've had water during a football game that I only drank because I was ridiculously thirsty (it IS football). It tasted like sulfur.

That being said, if I ever buy bottled water, I only go for spring. Usually, though, I'd rather just buy a jug of water for like a dollar. If it says spring. I prefer water without city-chemicals in it, if I can avoid it.

I've tasted so many types of water, and they all have distinct tastes. Generally, I have no problem with bottled water. I've yet to find one where I'd say "ew, this sucks" to.

[deathofcheese]

Most bottled water I get at least gives a hint as to where it was bottled. If it says that it came from a semi-large city, you can bet it's just tap water. They might have done a little something to it to clean it up a bit, but it's effectively every bit the same as tap water.

Even with some "spring water" bottling you can get municipal water. Like has been said before, there is no regulation on making bottled water companies not lie about where they got their water or the conditions of the water they bottled.

If you want to be ahead of the curve, though, buy something like a Brita water filter. Regardless of where you live, it will always make the water tastier and cleaner, then you can always pack it in a heavy-duty water jug (like a Nalgene or something) and take it anywhere you want. Sure beats paying for someone's bottled water and it definitely isn't drinking just tap water. If you're really paranoid about drinking tap water, you can get a water still (my dad found one for less than $200 on eBay) that you can fill five-gallon jugs with and use as your water supply at home. Dad rigged ours into the water line directly, so all we have to do when we need more water is to flip a switch and set an empty jug at its outlet. In two hours or less, we've got a five-gallon jug of distilled water that we just stick in the fridge and use at our leisure.

[Jasmin Jaquine]

I'm with Gio here on this one about the Zephyr Hills water, as that's what we drink down here.

Up north, I never drank bottled water because we had some great filtration plants that made the water just fine for drinking, and it tasted great. Only time I can remember bottled water as a kid was the spring/summer when we had a water warning (where you have to boil all of your water... so annoying), but other than that one time, it was just tap water.

Now down here in Florida, it's recommended to not drink the tap water (lord only knows why), but considering you can buy the huge bottle jugs of water (the 5 gallon ones), it's only $1.50 for 5 gallons, which is great.

[chefTENGU]

There's so many more factors than that, chef. Sure, they may use tap water in their bottled water (unless it says spring water), but they may have really good tap water where they got it. Like I said in my last post, some tap water is just dreadful. Even if you get a faucet filter (again a factor of quality of the filter), it still won't be as good as spring or fresh underground well-water, filtered by dirt and mountain bugs.
That's not really applicable, though. See, water is water is water... two hydrogen atoms joined to an oxygen.

What makes water taste different from city to city (and spring to spring) is the mineral content. Reverse osmosis, which companies like Dasani and Aquafina use to filter their water, eliminates everything from the water except for the water molecules.

In fact, they have to add minerals to their water, like flouride, calcium, and others, because pure water tends not to taste very good.

No matter where you get that water from, even from the foulest, most fetid pit imaginable, the filtering process will render it pure eventually. Putting water from various locations across the globe will always yield water that tastes the same, as long as they're subjected to the same process.

[Seegtease]

But they aren't all subjected to the same process. Every city, pretty much, has a different filtering process for their water. Most bottling companies also have their own unique process.

And that being said, in my life's experience, I can only recall one place where the tap water was my preference over bottled water.

I don't know how you can say pure water doesn't taste very good. Like you said, Dasani and Aquafina water removes everything but the water molecules and I think that stuff tastes good.

[Bloodcinder]

Pure water is flavorless, dear.

[deathofcheese]

I don't know how you can say pure water doesn't taste very good. Like you said, Dasani and Aquafina water removes everything but the water molecules and I think that stuff tastes good.Right after that, he said that they go back and add minerals to enhance the taste and nutritional value.

[Seegtease]

Oh, I thought he was talking about tap water for some reason.

If I wanted to get some pure water, where would I find it?

[Bloodcinder]

In a laboratory.

[Gareth]

If it's ice cold (or you are drunk) then you could throw in sulfiric asshole and idontgiveafuk and it would still taste decent.

[chefTENGU]

But they aren't all subjected to the same process. Every city, pretty much, has a different filtering process for their water. Most bottling companies also have their own unique process.
I'm not disputing that. But within a company, all the water is treated exactly the same. So, if Dasani took some water from your hometown, and some water from Washington, DC, they would both end up tasting exactly the same and be completely indiscernible down to the molecular level.

What I was originally getting at, I think, was that the water you get in bottles from companies like Aquafina and Dasani, companies that merely filter municipal water, has no health benefit or anything aside from the taste (possibly) over whatever comes out of your tap.

Someone could probably get nearly the same result with a tap filter, or a pitcher filter, at home. In fact, it would probably save them a ton of money (and save them from having to throw out all those empty bottles).

And the pure water thing comes not from personal experience, but rather one of the bottling companies' representatives. He said something to the effect that it feels rough against the tongue.

[Seegtease]

We actually have a tap filter.

I never meant to imply the water was healthier, just that it tastes better. The more I enjoy water, the more I drink. The more I drink, the healthier I am (since otherwise I'm drinking sugary stuff).

[chefTENGU]

Unless you drink to the point of water intoxication.

Ok, I didn't know you had a tap filter. Has it been replaced recently, or have you been using it for a long time?

[Seegtease]

I change the filter in it as needed.

[chefTENGU]

Yeah, then I guess the thing probably isn't as effective as a bottling plant's process. Go figure. Oh well. I'm lucky that Johnson Co., Kansas has yummy tap water.

[Seegtease]

I miss mah spring water.

[chefTENGU]

In Ellsworth, ME, the municipal water supply IS spring water.

I'm not sure if it's like that for everybody, but when we go up to my grandparents' cabin for vacation, we definitely need to use it. They own a cabin on Branch Lake, and Ellsworth is the nearest town (though it takes almost an hour to get there, at least the way my grandmother drives). In the cabin, the tap water comes directly from the lake itself, so it's not potable.

One of the first things we need to do when arriving is head into town and fill up all our canisters with delicious free public spring water.

[Killer_Man_]

We get our water from Lake Michigan but it's treated quite well. I just like tap and well water too much.