# pepsi sells tap water **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 6, 2007, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pepsi-sells-tap-water/414679 "2007-08-06T22:50:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Pleonast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pleonast/32/1183_2.png) [@Pleonast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pleonast)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2007, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pepsi-sells-tap-water/414679/21 "2007-08-07T20:09:57Z")
[QUOTE=Trunk] I recommend to anyone who thinks their tap water tastes like ass to blind taste-test it. Put some tap in the fridge with your bottled water until they’re the same temperature, and get a friend to pour them both and let you sample. They might be slightly different colors, so don’t look. And if you get it right the first time, try again tomorrow. You probably just got lucky. [/QUOTE] Actually, I have done the blind taste test. We wanted to see if the expense of bottled water was justified. We buy Arrowhead Spring Water in the 2.5 gallon boxes. One person served the water to other, to keep it single-blind. We tested at both room temperature and chilled, so temperature controlled. Appearance of the waters was indistinguishable. I could 100% distinguish tap water from the bottled water. We even tested again the next weekend. Conclusion: we keep buying bottled water. It’s good to keep several boxes around anyway for our disaster emergency kit. ---
**Author:** ![gonzomax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e8c25b/32.png) [@gonzomax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzomax)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2007, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pepsi-sells-tap-water/414679/22 "2007-08-07T22:25:20Z")
[QUOTE=iluvurmom] Aquafina’s water is not exactly tap water - it goes through what sounds like an intense purification process (I think 7-steps) to get rid of chemicals and particles. And like mentioned before by Loach, they did not mislead consumers as to where their bottled water came from. The labels always stated that it is purified water. Now they are just clarifying it further. I have been trying to cut back on my bottled water usage but it’s very hard. My tap water at home is pretty tasty so I will drink that. But if I’m out on the go and do not have water with me I’ll buy a bottle - so convenient! I will recycle it though. [/QUOTE] The article states that in many cases the so called purification system resulted in bromides being added to the water. It is a carcinogen. The water regulation is better for the muni water. It does not require purification, specially one that makes it less safe to drink. ---
**Author:** ![vetbridge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b5e925/32.png) [@vetbridge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vetbridge)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2007, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pepsi-sells-tap-water/414679/23 "2007-08-07T23:04:34Z")
Anybody hear the story on NPR about NYC tap water? It is (according to the NY water people) extremely good water, but people are hesitant to drink it. > **[New Yorkers Urged to Drink Tap Water](https://www.npr.org/2007/07/09/11797409/new-yorkers-urged-to-drink-tap-water)** > > City officials say that in an era of bottled water, a lot of New Yorkers don't appreciate how good their municipal water is. So they've recently launched a campaign to get people to rediscover the benefits of tap water. ---
**Author:** ![CairoCarol](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cairocarol/32/3825_2.png) [@CairoCarol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CairoCarol)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2007, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pepsi-sells-tap-water/414679/24 "2007-08-08T02:19:34Z")
Unfortunately in most places we’ve lived (Micronesia, Indonesia, Mozambique, Egypt) the tap water is not necessarily safe. Problems range from erratic purification procedures to old pipes that leach heavy metals. Mozambique was especially depressing. We were told be sure our dishes, washed with tap water, were COMPLETELY dry before we used them, because cholera outbreaks were not out of the question. Drying the nooks and crannies of my son’s sippy cups with a cotton swab, I felt like I was living a Barbara Kingsolver novel. We didn’t drink bottled water, though, because we couldn’t get it. Instead, we boiled all our water for 20 minutes, then ran it through a filtering system whose filters needed frequent replacement. (We boiled but didn’t filter in Micronesia). In Egypt, as we did in Jakarta, we drink bottled water but we get it in water-cooler sized jugs and pour it into small, reuseable containers to take to school and work. The large jugs are returned empty for refilling. So it is possible to be legitimately wary of tap water, yet attempt to find solutions that aren’t environmentally reckless. At our home in Hawaii, where I am now, the tap water is delicious – sweet and wonderful. I’m drinking it now. ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2007, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pepsi-sells-tap-water/414679/25 "2007-08-08T13:21:50Z")
[QUOTE=Pleonast] Actually, I have done the blind taste test. We wanted to see if the expense of bottled water was justified. We buy Arrowhead Spring Water in the 2.5 gallon boxes. One person served the water to other, to keep it single-blind. We tested at both room temperature and chilled, so temperature controlled. Appearance of the waters was indistinguishable. I could 100% distinguish tap water from the bottled water. We even tested again the next weekend. Conclusion: we keep buying bottled water. It’s good to keep several boxes around anyway for our disaster emergency kit. [/QUOTE] The point is that you can filter it yourself much more cheaply. It’s bad enough that plastic soda bottles are littered all over the place; IIRC, the production of the bottles itself contaminates the environment. I’ve done a blind taste test too, and I could tell the difference also. But I just use Brita. I can’t believe it when I see someone at work put a dollar into a vending machine to get a bottle of Dasani. The 2.5 gallon boxes are much more reasonable, though. ---
**Author:** ![VunderBob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/839c29/32.png) [@VunderBob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VunderBob)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2007, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pepsi-sells-tap-water/414679/26 "2007-08-08T13:42:26Z")
The attraction to bottled water for me is that it’s usually nice and cold, and it’s convenient. I drink it when I’m driving, or at a fire. Finding available water at a gas station soda fountain is quite rare, since there’s no profit in it. At home, in a restaraunt, etc., I drink the tap water. When I buy bottled water, it’s usually the biggest bottle of the cheapest stuff in the cooler. After all, I know it’s a scam… ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2007, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pepsi-sells-tap-water/414679/27 "2007-08-08T13:49:48Z")
[QUOTE=Least Original User Name Ever] Coke’s been doing it. Their brand is Dasani. [/QUOTE] [Take a read](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dasani#United_Kingdom) about their spectacular failure with Dasani in the UK. It’s almost too good to be true. ---
**Author:** ![Least\_Original\_User\_Name\_Ever](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e480ec/32.png) [@Least\_Original\_User\_Name\_Ever](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Least_Original_User_Name_Ever)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2007, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pepsi-sells-tap-water/414679/28 "2007-08-08T13:56:33Z")
Ha. “Spunk water”. How disgusting! ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2007, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pepsi-sells-tap-water/414679/29 "2007-08-08T16:07:55Z")
This is the really expensive stuff, which usually is bottled "at the source’-a mineral spring. Unforunately, a LOT of this stuff is loaded with really unpleasant tasting minerals-Pellegrino water smells like rotten eggs. Some of the other waters have a lot of dissolved magnesium (tastes like soap), and iron (really nasty). So, the best tasting water is usually the one with the least mineral content. So the filtered stuff is OK. And-since water is neither destroyed or created (every drop we drink has been endlessly recycled), can it be said that we are drinking “Caeser Water” or “Pharoah water”? Might be a good advertising campaign! ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2007, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pepsi-sells-tap-water/414679/30 "2007-08-08T16:48:46Z")
Yes, Penn and Teller tell me my drinking water is safe and tasty. Because, after all, it’s made by the government. The same government that brought us peace in Iraq? Nope, the same government that makes life at the DMV such an efficient and pleasant thing. How long has it been since this benign government has inspected the pipes in my apartment building? My guess is that it’s not been since 1938. As it turns out, the tap water in my apartment is perfectly fine. But you can’t pay me enough to drink the tap water at work. When you can smell it from a distance, you know your tax dollars are as hard at work as you’ve come to expect them to be. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2007, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pepsi-sells-tap-water/414679/31 "2007-08-08T17:01:46Z")
**CairoCarol** , you make a valid point about water conditions elsewhere, but in North America, there are very few places where the tap water quality is not strictly controlled, and North America is (I suspect) where most of the convenient little bottles of water drinkers live. As for the taste of tap water, I don’t need a taste test. I have a very sensitive sense of taste, and our municipal tap water tastes better than anything I’ve ever had out of a bottle. Bottled water tastes dead to me. The only time I don’t like the taste of tap water is when I have a glass of it in a bar, and somehow they always manage to get a hint of celery salt in their water. 😕 You want to hear something even funnier? Bottled water advertises itself as glacier fresh and all that crap - well, Calgary’s water comes straight off, you guessed it, a glacier. We have fancy high quality glacier water coming out of our taps, and people here are buying bottled water that is bottled god only knows where, but chances are good it isn’t as good as our tap water. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2007, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pepsi-sells-tap-water/414679/32 "2007-08-08T17:09:47Z")
I might add that while I concede that I fully trust my local government in matters of my personal health, I can’t blame the good folks of Hinkley, CA or Woburn, MA for being a little skeptical. ---
**Author:** ![phouka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c5a1d2/32.png) [@phouka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phouka)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2007, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pepsi-sells-tap-water/414679/33 "2007-08-08T18:51:08Z")
When I gave up my soda habit, I picked up a bottled water habit. Not because it tastes better - though there are a couple of locations where the bottled tasted better than the tap - but for convenience sake. I prefer my water cold and portable. Considering the ecological burden of all those bottles, though, I’ve switched over to carrying my own bottle with a flip top spout made out of that new fangled plastic you can pour boiling water into. The only time I’ve really looked askance at bottle water was when I bought a bottle of Fiji (there was nothing else available, and I was parched), read the label, and learned that the water really did come from the island of Fiji in the southern Pacific. Because the Fijians don’t need their artesian springs for their own use. And nobody minds the carbon burden of flying tons of _water_ over the Pacific ocean to be sold on another continent that has its own perfectly good water. I really did hope they were lying, and that they had gotten it out of a local tap. It would have made me feel better. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2007, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pepsi-sells-tap-water/414679/34 "2007-08-08T19:18:24Z")
[QUOTE=Voyager] Penn & Teller had a good episode on this. In one bit, they set up a restaurant selling special bottled water from all over the world - all filled from the garden hose outside. People fell for it, of course. I’ve got a big water bottle at work I fill from the filtered water tap. Cold and free. [/QUOTE] And the best brand name was “Pis Du Chat”, (say it with a french accent) loosely translated as cat pee. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2007, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pepsi-sells-tap-water/414679/35 "2007-08-08T20:47:30Z")
[QUOTE=phouka] And nobody minds the carbon burden of flying tons of _water_ over the Pacific ocean to be sold on another continent that has its own perfectly good water. [/QUOTE] If it makes you feel any better, it probably came by boat. Which used even more fuel, of course. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pepsi-sells-tap-water/414679.md?page=1)