What kind of water do you drink?

Tap water ... just tap water.

 

I've been seeing more and more glass bottles around recently, as people worry about the plastic bottles eroding.

I generally try and drink rain water, when it's available (got a couple of water tanks around the house), however tap water is the second option. I hate paying for water in a bottle.

 

Tap water.

Dutch tap water is of very high quality and does not contain chlorine. Very few people use filters or buy bottled water (except for when travelling etc, but then, used bottles are often refilled with tap water)

 

Like MoN, I usually just drink tap water. It tastes just as good or sometimes better than bottled water. When I'm in the Netherlands. I go to Belgium on a regular basis, though, and I tend to drink bottled water or filter the tap water when I'm there as Belgium tap water tastes awful - lots of chlorine and lots of calcium as well.

Germany has more chlorine in the water as well, though it was tolerable when I spent a few months there for work. That was in the Hanover area, though, it may be different elsewhere. The funny thing I remember from that is that there was a natural spring nearby, where you'd see quite some people come over with big jerry cans to take the spring water home. I tried it too, and was surprised when it tasted just like dutch tapwater - good.

When I was in Australia, the tapwater was more or less tolerable in Sydney, but when I traveled up the coast, I eventually switched to bottled water when the chlorine levels just became too high for me to tolerate anymore.

In Russia tapwater is not really drinkable, at least where my in-laws live and by my sensibilities, but there's a natural spring nearby and we usually drink that when we come to visit - after boiling the water first. Normal tapwater is also boiled first, actually.

 

Firewater.

 

Tap I know city water is tested.

 

Having worked a job where I've seen the inside of domestic water pipes, I will only drink bottled water if I am drinking just water on its own. You would not believe what crap gets caught in your water pipes, because they never get cleaned... There's collections of dead spiders/flies other small creatures, dirt and grime other crap, and build ups of god knows what that your water has to pass through. I'll only have tap water in my tea/coffee when it's being boiled in the kettle first.

 

Ummm... Most bottled water comes from a public water source - even if it's called "spring water" or something like that. In fact, there were court cases in the US claiming false advertising for one company, but they said "Spring Water" was the name of the company - not what was in the bottle. So now, in the US companies are required to say it right on the bottle you drink. They use the acronym PWS, and it's the same water that goes to everyone else in the area. And it's not like the bottling company is situated within the water treatment plant. The water that goes in that bottle goes through the same pipes in the city that everyone else's does.

I tend to drink mostly tap water, although I do run it through a filtration system first. Now, to Tal's point, if I lived in a house with lead pipes, I wouldn't drink the tap water either. Yeah, my filter says it filters lead, but how would I know if it stopped working? But my house was built in 1984, long after they stopped using lead for pipes.

That said, I'm not too worried about PET in plastic bottles. I never was a huge bottled water drinker to begin with, but I did it because of the expense. Why pay $1.50 for a bottle of water, when the equivalent amount of water from my tap costs a fraction of a cent on my water bill. So the only time I drink bottled water is when I have to.

Today will be one such day. Typically I bring my lunch from home, and a thermos filled with water along with it. For some reason, on days where I don't bring my lunch and decide to purchase it, I don't bring the water thermos either. It doesn't really make any sense, because the place I almost always go to eat is the sandwich shop down the street, and I always get it to go. So I could still bring the thermos, and save myself the money purchasing the water - just get the sub.

 

Pretty much always filtered tap water from the either the dispenser on my fridge, or the filtered drinking water taps at work.

 

The bottled water I get is a small local company and I know exactly which spring it comes from. The rules about how you can name something are pretty tight around here.

 

Filtered tap water at work and home, regular tap water in restaurants.

 

I know a few folk who have a filter jug in the fridge with a few slices of lemon in and swear by it. I just buy bottled spring though. Drink that when I just need a drink, otherwise it's fresh orange juice of a coffee/tea. I've been well put off tap water though.

 

The water that Dave Matthews is talking about in "Don't Drink the Water."

I make Purple Drank with that.