It's so hot outside I'm glad I'm not a Christian. But today seems like a good day to talk about water.
This is a contentious issue. Not on par with the president's performance, of course, but a good argument-starter nonetheless.
So, is it tap or bottle?
Some people say that ordinary tap water is great to drink. I see their point. It's subjected to strict sanitary standards, it's cheap, and it doesn't leave behind a stupid empty plastic container. However, having said that, I must add that the quality and taste of tap water differs substantially depending upon where you live. It's like air quality. Does everyone in America breathe the same air? Hack, cough cough! Yer askin somone who lives in Joisy?
If your tap water comes from underground aquifers, or you live in a region that lies atop sand (for example, Daytona Beach), you need never in your life buy a bottle of water. Better yet, buy one high end bottle of water and keep filling it from your tap. You'll be treated like a Republican without actually having to be one.
Steer clear of this stuff. It's tap water, the same tap water used in soft drinks. Yeah, it's safe and filtered, but gulp gulp, and you've got an empty plastic bottle.
Don't be fooled into thinking that all water is the same. Sadly, the best water in the world comes from Macedonia, Bosnia, Tasmania, and New Zealand. If you don't live near those places, go right ahead and boil up that water from the pond behind your house. It is better never to have tried Antipodes than to have tasted it and now have to be without it. Trust me. It tastes better than any other water. Really.
Finally, steer way clear of this stuff. It is bogus, bogus, bogus! If you want to taste it without shelling out $50 bucks a bottle, buy a portion of Stone Clear Springs water, chug it, and bling bling! (That's where Bling gets its water. The bottle must have been designed by Ann Coulter.)
Anne Johnson's last piece of free advice: That 8 glasses of water a day rot? OH PLEEEEZE! Drink when you're thirsty. Drink until you feel less thirsty. Stop drinking.
Aren't you glad you read this blog? Shouldn't everybody? Tee hee.
Beannachd leat,
THE MERLIN OF BERKELEY SPRINGS
7 comments:
I get bottles of Aquafina (or whatever) at meetings when they set them out) and then I refill them as long as they hold up. I'm a cheapskate.
One of my biggest problems with tapwater is the taste of chlorine and whatever else they use to purify it that's usually left.
My parents are fortunate in that they own property with springs. So all of their drinking water is springwater without having to pay for it. Heck, they don't even pay extra for the family of frogs they occasionally find swimming in the pool. ;)
You didn't say where your parents live......???
The tap water here (Tacoma WA) is intolerable without filtering.
The amount of chlorine they put in it is sickening.
The company I work for (a member owned co-op that takes environmental and social responsibility seriously) does not give us bottled water at meetings. We get water bottles.
OMG... Do I have way too many water bottles.
So do my friends.
I have one of these:
http://shopping.beloblog.com/archives/nhg_28crock.JPG
It makes Philly tap water taste like actual water. I love it.
Suggestion for those who dislike the taste of chlorine in your water (and who doesn't?):
Get two of those great big, 3 gallon or so, containers of bottled water--the ones that have a spigot in the bottom, are are made to go on a shelf in your refrigerator. These are the things that are roughly box-shaped. Not one of those huge 5 gallon things for a water cooler--just a big jug of bottled water with a spigot in it. (Or, actually, for reasons I will make plain in a moment-two such bottles. You with me so far?)
Now put them in the fridge, chill them down, and drink them. They're pricey enough, so you might as well get your money's worth, but DON'T WORRY. You will never need to buy another container of water again.
Once each container is empty, take a very sharp knife or box-cutter. Carefully cut out as big a rectangle or square of hdpe plastic as you can from just the TOP of the container--that's the top when it's in the fridge. Got it? Now then... hold the big hole under your tap and fill it with the tap water you have. (YES, I know... that yucky, chlorine-tasting stuff--be patient! we're going to fix that!)
Put the bottle back in the fridge to cool down. Wait 6--8 hours, max... then try the water that comes out the spigot.
It will have lost the chlorine taste, and be chilled, delicious water. Why? Because the chlorine will have outgassed from the water into the air of your fridge. (Don't worry--you not only won't be poisoned by it, you won't even smell it. Promise!)
The reason to have two bottles is so that one will already by cool and sweet while the second is cooling and outgassing.
I've done this for many years, since moving to a typically over-chlorinated urban water district from a delicious deep well of my own. Works great. (Note--this won't eliminate tastes of clay and sulpher, like you have in Ohio and other places with terrible, undrinkable hard water, and it's useless against serious contaminants. But it WILL WORK with chlorine, and at minimal environmental impact, too.)
Bottled water is a waste of money -- most of the time. I live in a NE city and the water is fine. No gross taste, and because it's municipal, it's as safe as anything else you're going to get. I think all these plastic bottles are wasteful, and I believe that local municipal works need to revisit how they maintain public fountains and bubblers. If people can just fill up at a fountain, why would they go buy the same thing?
There is one exception I can think of: Tampa. When I lived there, the water tasted so much of rotten eggs that I couldn't drink it. I used a Brita, which only made it palatable. Desalinization may be the culprit here.
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