Drink up!

A little something for you bottled water aficionados.

http://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/water/ ... -of-purity

I've never accepted the whole bottled water thing. The local tap water has always been perfectly fine with me. However, I have been in other areas where the local tap water had strange flavors.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfPAjUvvnIc

I love that Penn and Teller thing! Agua del coulo! Spider water!

BC is now banning the sale of bottled water in schools to the budding aesthetes.

I have hit a few areas where tap water sucks, but not that many. Barnum would have been delighted with all the people who think this crap is essential to their wellbeing.

Did the water tasters saying they could detect all sorts of differences (suggestible, moi?) remind anyone else of wine tasters at a non-blind tasting where they know what the wines are and may even have seen other reviewers scores?

I've done the same sort of bullshit tasting with wine by putting the wines into different bottles to see what the expectation factor entails, and it is huge! You don't need to buy Latour as long as you have a decent petit chateau and an empty Latour bottle.....

Thanks for costing me considerable time (and pleasure!) watching some of the Penn and Teller stuff on Youtube (we don't get Showtime so rarely see their material).

I thought this one on taste in food and wine resonated with the wine community too. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9J1b3MqiX8&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfPAjUvvnIc

I just love Penn Jillette.

But, what I really want to know is where I can buy these bags of sand and how much will they let me pay for them.

The only place I've lived where I used bottled water was Davis, CA. The water there is incredibly hard and it will wreck coffee makers and such in short order as well tasting pretty awful.

I also find that our water here takes on a rather nasty flavor after it sits for an hour or two. If I'm taking water with me somewhere (which happens about three times a year) I'll go with bottled water just for flavor. Otherwise, I don't see a purpose for it.

The only bottled water I ever buy is the fizzy stuff, like Pellegrino because I like the taste and now wonder if the same sloppy/none-rules apply to bottling it.
Most restos here now just bring tap water or ask if you want it or buy a bottle, most don't. Glad I don't have any shares in bottled water corps!

I have hit a few areas where tap water sucks, but not that many. Barnum would have been delighted with all the people who think this crap is essential to their wellbeing.

Not to mention that, because bottled water is largely devoid of fluoride, tooth decay rates are on the rise again (of course, the huge amount of HFCS consumed in every food here doesn't help, either). I do, however, eschew tap water in certain cities where I find the water supply "corked." Chicago and Indianapolis are two cases in point. I also do consume a fair amount of bottled water on the golf course, but at home it's filtered tap (incredibly hard natural aquifer).

Mark Lipton

In the South I used to fill a half-gallon sized water bottle at home (half ice, half water) and take it with me to the golf course.

I've done the same sort of bullshit tasting with wine by putting the wines into different bottles to see what the expectation factor entails, and it is huge! You don't need to buy Latour as long as you have a decent petit chateau and an empty Latour bottle.....

Yep. One of the reasons I largely avoid the liquid sections of this venue. I don't have any hip boots that are tall enough.

Amen.

I'll be the first to admit that in most cases bottled water (that including waters categorized as spring water, mineral water, filtered water, etc) are no better for our health and well being than the water in most of the cities in which we live.

The question to me is entirely one of taste and the problem here lies not so much in most Western cities with the water supply as with the pipes that run underground and in our buildings. Living in a building 35 or more years old almost guarantees rusty pipes and rust adds a not at all "happy" note to the taste of our water. Living in cities where the supply system consists of pipes that were laid 30-60 or more years ago, water is almost always "rusty". Filtering that water is, of course one option but filtration robs even the finest waters of much of their freshness.

Don't get me wrong.....when in a city where the water tastes good (e.g. Vienna), that's what I'll drink. When the water doesn't taste good though it's spring or mineral water for me. And yes, I do have favorites - in Europe when possible Badoit and in Israel, Mai Eden. When it comes to sparkling mineral water, with food I choose San Pelligrino, on its own or as citron presse, Perrier.

Ye faithful curmudgeon
Rogov

[David M. Bueker]

Our local water tastes mediocre at best and awful at worst, but the problem can be fixed with a filter pitcher. I do buy bottles for wine tastings and parties because the pitcher cannot keep up with demand.

[Jenise]

I have hit a few areas where tap water sucks, but not that many. Barnum would have been delighted with all the people who think this crap is essential to their wellbeing.

Did the water tasters saying they could detect all sorts of differences (suggestible, moi?) remind anyone else of wine tasters at a non-blind tasting where they know what the wines are and may even have seen other reviewers scores?

In Alaska, our tap water tasted good and made clear tea. No need for bottled water. Then we moved to Huntington Beach, where the water often tasted of chlorine, had visible particulates, and made cloudy, vegetal/cardboard-tasting tea that foamed, so we lived on bottled water. However, some bottled water is as dirty as tap water can be, Arrowhead brand, one of the two biggest brands in Southern California for instance, produced teas as cloudy and cardboardy as the tap water. By comparison it's competitor, Sparkletts, was consistently good.

Now in Birch Bay, tap water tastes of natural springwater and tea is clear, so we use tap water.

NYC has splendid tap water, but it does occasionally reek of chlorine. (I am told the immuno-suppressed people cannot use tap water because they cannot tolerate even the low level of microbes that are permissible in municipal water supplies.)

[Jenise]

NYC has splendid tap water, but it does occasionally reek of chlorine. (I am told the immuno-suppressed people cannot use tap water because they cannot tolerate even the low level of microbes that are permissible in municipal water supplies.)

There are also people with chlorine allergies. Though I don't seem to be affected by it now, as an asthmatic kid chlorine was such a major problem for me (all those pools in Southern California full of chlorine...) that the smell still invokes fear.

NYC has splendid tap water, but it does occasionally reek of chlorine. (I am told the immuno-suppressed people cannot use tap water because they cannot tolerate even the low level of microbes that are permissible in municipal water supplies.)

The requirements are not as stringent for bottled water as for tap water. And bottled water is "inspected" by the FDA not the EPA. The FDA is woefully short on inspectors.

In the South I used to fill a half-gallon sized water bottle at home (half ice, half water) and take it with me to the golf course.

First off Joseph, I am shocked to learn that you do, or once did, enjoy a game of golf. Don't know why I am shocked, but I never would of thunk it. I have used that trick myself many mane times. I would take a half gallon milk (plastic) jug, fill it 3/4 full and freeze it. If I wrapped it in a towel, it would stay cold all the way through even in the Texas heat.

And for the ice geeks...

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/10/fashion/10ice.html?_r=2&ref=dining&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

In the South I used to fill a half-gallon sized water bottle at home (half ice, half water) and take it with me to the golf course.

First off Joseph, I am shocked to learn that you do, or once did, enjoy a game of golf. Don't know why I am shocked, but I never would of thunk it. I have used that trick myself many mane times. I would take a half gallon milk (plastic) jug, fill it 3/4 full and freeze it. If I wrapped it in a towel, it would stay cold all the way through even in the Texas heat.

Well, guys, that works well for those who ride, but I walk the course and a half gallon jug ain't gonna find its way into my bag any time soon.

Mark Lipton

Well, guys, that works well for those who ride, but I walk the course and a half gallon jug ain't gonna find its way into my bag any time soon.

Mark Lipton

At that time I walked the course too Mark, but I devised a way of putting the jug on my pull cart. The military courses I played usually had water on the course, but many muni's did not, and when temp got up to 104 or more the water was a good thing.

Well, guys, that works well for those who ride, but I walk the course and a half gallon jug ain't gonna find its way into my bag any time soon.

Mark Lipton

At that time I walked the course too Mark, but I devised a way of putting the jug on my pull cart. The military courses I played usually had water on the course, but many muni's did not, and when temp got up to 104 or more the water was a good thing.

I walk most of the time when I'm on the east coast. Just last week was playing in MA and had a 16oz bottle that I had frozen. As it melts, I just top it off at the various watering stations. It all stays nice and cool and is small enough to slip into the drink holder on my bag. One of the women I played with said she used to do the same thing, but did I know that when you freeze a bottle of water, it leaches some kind of bacteria from the plastic, and can be toxic??? Well, it sounded a little fishy to me, so I searched it on snopes and of course found it was an Internet hoax. To think this she had given up drinking cold water on the golf course because of some stupid rumor...

I have hit a few areas where tap water sucks, but not that many. Barnum would have been delighted with all the people who think this crap is essential to their wellbeing.

Not to mention that, because bottled water is largely devoid of fluoride, tooth decay rates are on the rise again (of course, the huge amount of HFCS consumed in every food here doesn't help, either). I do, however, eschew tap water in certain cities where I find the water supply "corked." Chicago and Indianapolis are two cases in point. I also do consume a fair amount of bottled water on the golf course, but at home it's filtered tap (incredibly hard natural aquifer).

Mark Lipton

I've encountered "corky" water at hotels and restaurants, and every time I've said so whomever was with me thought I was making a joke.