Anthony Ferrante wrote:
> About five months ago I switched to flavored bottled water and I love
> it. I used to drink from 1-2 two-liters of Coke or other non-diet pop,
> but I decided that was just becoming too much sugar everyday. I get
> one liter flavored waters for fifty cents. Plus, I love unflavored
> bottled waters as well. I just do not like diet pop at all (except
> maybe diet Dr. Pepper)
>
> My buddy in Cleveland started arguing with me that bottled water is
> the biggest rip-off ever and that people who buy it are nuts. I find
> that with most bottled water, even at room temp., there is no
> after-taste, something I cannot say about tap water. Sure, I will have
> an occasional drink from the faucet, but that is rare. He says
> Cleveland has the best tap water in America and there is no need to
> buy water when you can get good for free. Anyone from Cleveland here?
>
> My favorite waters are Absopure Distilled Drinking Water and while it
> is usually too expensive for me, I do enjoy an occasional Fiji bottled
> water. Oddly enough, I found Perrier to be quite lacking in taste, but
> the joint I bought it from was a dump and it was warm, so I may give
> it another try. The cheap flavored waters I love fall under a variety
> of names depending on where you get it, so I won't even begin to name
> those.
>
> Your thoughts and your favorites?
> Anthony

By law (in the US anyway) tap water has to meet certain health
standards, but those standards say nothing about taste. Some tap water
tastes good, and some tap water tastes bad. I'd guess the largest number
of bottled-water drinkers are in places with the worst water.
The water where I am is so hard, one cannot cook dry beans in it.
I buy distilled water in 70-cents-a-gallon jugs for that, as well as for
use in my drip coffee maker and my espresso maker. It prevents mineral
deposits from building up in the boilers.
For my drinking water, I fill a Brita pitcher from a Pur filter on my
kitchen tap. That does nothing about the minerals, but it removes the
off tastes.