the WATER topic

[Rachel Perlow]

Well, I'm far from a connoisseur, but even I can tell the difference between seltzer and Pellegrino :).

You wouldn't be able to tell the difference if you just don't drink carbonated water at all. That's me. We even have this gadget (not the old fashioned kind) that carbonates water (for making Italian sodas). I took pure filtered water and carbonated it and tasted it. It tastes different than still water and I just don't like the taste. So much so that I can't even do a tasting to be able to appreciate the nuances between the brands. I have done a still water tasting though (when we were trying to decide which bottled water to have delivered), and was able to discern differences, which is why I know I prefer Poland Spring to many other brands. As for soda, I don't drink it that often either (gives me hiccups). I mostly just drink plain water - I don't even like too much ice in it.

[Suzanne F]

Re #7: Oh, you mean Should they list waters on the menu (wherever they list the other bar items/beverages)? Yes, absolutely. And with prices. I DO want to know ahead of time what things will cost me, and wish specials' prices would always be given.

I suppose if I really, really wanted fizzy water, I'd get bottled. Not every restaurant takes the best care of their guns, and the bartenders or servers don't always squirt out whatever was last served.

[foodie52]

A local guy here is bottling rainwater, filtering it and slapping a label on it. Our store carries it and I get a lot of requests for it....go figure. I kinda like the German waters: Gerolsteiner and Apollinaris. They are mineraly but a nice change. There's a still water called Music water which is pretty good. My favorite still is Mountain Valley, out of Arkansas.

[Kim WB]

My husband and I much prefer bottled sparkling water. Pelligrino has the finest bubbles, and we prefer that, but will order whatever they have. We ALWAYS order it, and it would affect our opinion of the place if they did not have large bottles. I personally feel that seltzer or club fromt he tap looses its fizz much quicker, but this might be just me. No, don't list them on the menu.

[jhlurie]

Fiji is another one that doesn't appeal to the snobbery in people because it's in a plastic bottle.

That's funny, 'cause Fiji is actually really good, as much as most bottled waters taste fairly identical.

[glenn]

That's funny, 'cause Fiji is actually really good, as much as most bottled waters taste fairly identical.

Everyone I talk to about Fiji seems to like it a lot. I still can't tell the difference.

Just to let y'all know, we decided to switch from Voss to Pellegrino and Panna for flat. And just to make y'all even more pissed, after shopping around, I got prices of $1.08/bottle for each of them. To compare, that's 40% cheaper than Voss and close to half what Evian costs [gulp]. And we're lowering our price from $8 to $6. [i voted for $5]

[Suzanne F]

You can get pissed on water??? Wish I'd known that years ago, would have saved a lot of money I've spent on bourbon.

[Stone]

My friend lives in NY and she used to drink out of bottles of Evian in her fridge. When I visit, I usually drank from the Evian bottles and filled them with tap water. Of course, she never knew the difference.

When I lived in Boston I often heard reports of contaminated ground water. I understand using bottled water there.

I think the water in St. Louis (and other places of course) tastes like it has a mild soap solution in it. I applaud the use of bottled water there.

I've never heard of reports of bad water in SF or in NY, nor is there any foul taste to the water (generally, don't complain to me about your particular pipes). Yet people insist on bringing bottled water into my home.

I think that whatever pittance of contaminants in the tap water can't reasonably be considered significant compared to what's inhaled and ingested by the body in everyday living. To me, it's on par with a person smoking a cigarette and complaining about pesticides on their food.

Do people think that absent specific threats/bad taste, it's worth spending $1.75 on a glass of water in the home?

[col klink]

If the local water supply fine, no. In Texas, where the water just tasts AWLFUL I got by with the standard water filter.

However at my parents cottage in Upper Michigan, we're on a lake and we have a well that's basically filled with lake water. Back in the 50's and 60's there was a lot of um, waste (not toxic, just human) and the water was unsafe to drink. Today everyone has a septic system and the water is much cleaner but we still have to go to town and get water. We just take our milk and water jugs and go to the fresh spring, tasty but a little metallic from all of the iron ore in the area.

[John Whiting]

Some people just aren't happy with what they eat and drink unless they've paid for it. In Hampstead Garden Suburb, where we live, most of the older houses had fruit trees in their gardens, as prescribed a century ago by the Suburb's founder, Dame Henrietta Barnet. Those trees that survive drop their wonderful fruit untended, to be gathered up as rubbish. Our next door neighbor has a splendid old apple tree. When asked why she didn't eat the fruit, she responded, "Oh I prefer *proper* fruit from the supermarket." Sigh

[Jaymes]

Supposedly, the water in El Paso contains a kind of natural lithium. And therefore, it's said, the residents are remarkedly laid back and mellow.

I understand there is not a particularly big market for bottled water.

[Fat Guy]

We've had a few bottled water threads in the past. Some people legitimately prefer the taste of bottled water, though probably not anybody who drinks Evian because it's pretty much the worst-tasting bottled spring water out there. A standard Brita filter should do the trick if you live in an area with clean water and the only issue you have is additives and such. I think the Brita-filtered water from my New York City tap tastes better than Evian, and as good as most bottled waters, though there are some premium brands that have excellent flavor and might be preferable with, say, a meal at Ducasse (though I always make a point of asking for tap water there, just to be difficult).

[John Whiting]

If one's only objection to tap water is the taste of chlorine, this will evaporate if left overnight in a loosly covered bottle or pitcher.

[Stone]

We've had a few bottled water threads in the past.

Really? I did a search and didn't find one. Never mind.

[spqr]

Where I live, a small (pop = 4200), rural, west central IL town. our tap water comes from the local manmade lake. Every year it seems the water from the lake violates EPA standards in one way or another. But the one thing that made me switch to bottled water is the fishing exhibition at our yearly summer fair. There's a big tank filled with fish from the lake and periodically some Mighty Big Fisherman throws in a baited hook to demonstrate superior fishing technique (and how to bring a little misery into the lives of those poor fish). The problem is that all of the fish in the tank exhibit all kind s of boils and welts and other deformaties that obviously come from the poluted water. Ever since I first saw this I don't do anything but wash my dishes in tap water. All water I imbibe is bottled.

[Jason Perlow]

There are certain parts of the country were water is just plain DANGEROUS to drink, like on Eastern Long Island, where there's a lot of contamination from radioactive chemicals and all sorts of other nasty compounds. Or in Tom's River NJ, one of the biggest cancer clusters in the nation.

The water here in Tenafly is not bad but its got a bit of a chlorinated flavor to it. We get Poland Spring delivery and pay a pretty penny for it. When our kitchen is finished, we're going to test out the filter in our KitchenAid fridge and see how well it works -- otherwise I suppose we will just get some Culligan thing. I suppose we could use a Brita filter (we used to use a PUR hooked up to our sink in our old condo in Morristown) but we are too damn lazy to fill it up all the time.

NYC and Westchester County has some of the best water in the entire country, and I'm not sure why people who live there wouldn't want to drink tap, it tastes perfectly ok to me.

[tommy]

Do people think that absent specific threats/bad taste, it's worth spending $1.75 on a glass of water in the home?

for no bad taste it's worth it. poland spring, for a case of 24 bottles, costs less than 50 cents per bottle, making it worth it even more.

and i'm just not happy unless i'm drinking something i paid for. of course.

[Marlene]

Right now, we have a water cooler at home and we use the bottled water for everything more or less. In our new kitchen design, we are going to install the Moen Pure touch faucet with a button for filtered water, and we'll give up the water cooler. I got the water cooler when I joined weight watchers and had to drink all that water every day. I quickly grew to love drinking water. Filtered or bottled water to me anyway, tastes much better, and makes coffee taste better too.

[Stone]

I generally find that temperature is the most important factor. I think real cold tap water is indistinguishable from most bottled waters I've tried, but I haven't tried many bottled water.

I'm off to try bagel beer, though.

[Stone]

Never thought to search for bottle or water. That probably would have been better than . . . . Kidding. Odd that these didn't show up.

Chowhound.

[jhlurie]

NYC and Westchester County has some of the best water in the entire country, and I'm not sure why people who live there wouldn't want to drink tap, it tastes perfectly ok to me.

Only one legit reason, ever.

Old pipes.

[Fat Guy]

My opinion of New York City water has declined during the time I've observed such things. Right now the chemical levels seem quite high. As I understand it the water destined for Manhattan has to be treated such that the people at the bottom of the island still get sufficient levels of chemicals to protect them against whatever these chemicals protect against. And apparently as the water travels it loses chemicals, however that works. Therefore, the uptown people like me get more of these chemicals than we need. I'm definitely noticing that the water out of my tap has much less of that crystal-clear New York water appeal than it used to. That's why I'm using the Brita for most of my drinking water. It seems to turn back the clock on my New York water, and I like water at refrigerator temperature anyway so it's no extra work since I'd be filling a pitcher and refrigerating it anyway.

[tommy]

To me, it's on par with a person smoking a cigarette and complaining about pesticides on their food.

Your position could lead one to the conclusion that every person should focus on every problem that affects their health, rather than dealing with what they can and when they can.

[Rachel Perlow]

Never thought to search for bottle or water.  That probably would have been better than . . . .  Kidding.  Odd that these didn't show up.

Chowhound.

I searched for "bottled water" (without the quotes), any category, any forum, titles only, any date. Here's a link to the results: http://forums.egullet.org/ibf/index.php?s=...e=bottled+water. Four threads showed up, including this one (i.e. no time delay to compile a database to search). Everything that is posted is available to be searched immediately, our search engine kicks ass! What did you search for that it didn't come up? Also, what was the significance of using Chowhound as a sentence?

[Fat Guy]

The search I used was just "water" in the title. There are threads covering bottled water that are called things like "favorite water." Always best to start with a very general search and narrow it if you get too many results. I also tried a full-text search for "bottled water" but it yielded too many results to get through easily. I'm looking forward to the post-level view in the 1.1 upgrade. For a short thread the current system is fine, but just giving a 14-page thread as a result to a search query isn't all that helpful.

The search engine is also to some extent a victim of its features. There are several choices in terms of date range, which forums to search, etc., and you have to select what you want or your search will be incomplete or over-inclusive. I get several messages a week from users who can't find something with the search engine and I ask "Did you search all topics all dates?" and they haven't. I've been tempted to default to a full-text search of all topics all dates, and maybe we'll do that on the next upgrade.