Sparkling or still water? What happened to tap?

[Mayhaw Man]

I drink this water.

Come to think of it, I wash my car, flush my toilet, and water the lawn with it too.

It would get a bit expensive and tiresome if I had to open bottles to do all of that. Thankfully it comes out of the tap (at least when the well is working right).

[stdonova]

Chicago Magazine's review of Spiaggia mentioned the dubious habit the servers had of pouring several bottles of pricey bottled water without mentioning the cost to the diner as "Mag Mile trickery". After the review was published, Spiaggia decided they would offer bottled water as a choice of sparkling or still to their guests, but not charge for it at all.

I heard that when the surgeon general ate there, he requested tap water.

[andiesenji]

I bring water from home in to my office. I have a very deep well (1500 ft) which taps the Mojave aquifer and the water is very "sweet" in fact it is better than any bottled water I have ever tasted.

My well has to be inspected and certified every two years (there has never been any industrial or farming activity right in this area and my well is not what is considered a "surface" well which have to be inspected every six months to a year).

As far as I know, mine is the only deep well in my immediate area. In the Agua Dulce area most of the wells produce very good water (Agua Dulce means sweet water) but a few miles further west and the well water is very poor and since there has been a fair amount of mining and industrial activity some of the wells are not potable.

Certain parts of Los Angeles have pretty good water and in other parts it is ghastly. For a while the water at the office had a smell like mildew and we had the water district out to test it. They said they only had to make sure there were no pathogens or dangerous chemicals, they didn't have to make it taste or smell good. Blech!

I try and keep up with the news on the water quality competitions. I remember when New York City water won the best in the USA competition.

I also think Evian is vastly over rated.

Crystal Geyser and Arrowhead are good and I got Arrowhead in big tanks when the well casing had to be repaired after the earthquake in '94. Fortunately it was in January and my garden did not need watering at the time.

I simply will not buy water in restaurants. If they won't give me tap water, I decide I no not need to eat there and if I am with a group I simply order coffee (they never have good tea).

I am perfectly willing to sit there with my coffee while the rest of my party eats.

It is funny how quickly they find that yes, they do indeed have tap water and will even put ice in it - - - no charge!

[robyn]

I simply will not buy water in restaurants. If they won't give me tap water, I decide I no not need to eat there and if I am with a group I simply order coffee (they never have good tea).

I am perfectly willing to sit there with my coffee while the rest of my party eats.

It is funny how quickly they find that yes, they do indeed have tap water and will even put ice in it - - - no charge!

I've been to a few places where the tap water simply isn't potable (and if you use it to make things like coffee - all you get is really lousy coffee).

Note that these are places pretty close to home - where the well water has huge amounts of sulfur (and smells like rotten eggs). Robyn