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I really like Pellegrino sparkling water - it tastes good! Mildly carbonated but not harshly so.

Our tap water is also bad ... we get large 5 gallon carboys of water from a local "water store" (sounds weird but that's all they sell!) and use it for coffee, tea and in cooking -- although not for such things as boiling pasta or veggies. But whenever water is an ingredient. We reuse the bottles and it is better water than what comes from the tap.

What about buying a permanent water bottle (like a nalgene or other plastic bottle), and a brita water filter. That way, you get the portability of bottled water, and the taste of purified water, all the while producing less waste.

PerkyMac, I think this whole American "sodium is bad" is a crock. "Low sodium" has been marketed to death, by companies capitalizing on false nutrition fears, in order to make a buck.

There's nothing wrong with sodium in water.

There's everything wrong with sodium in pre-processed American food that is so cheerfully marketed.

Mineral water -- sparkling or otherwise -- is always good for you.

If that doesn't work -- due to availability or cost, can you install a system between well and tap to improve your water taste?

I do use a Brita water filter for drinking a glass of water. I use and prefer bottled water (Crystal Springs or Poland Springs if I can't find it) for gallons of iced tea and lemonade, soups. I like it in coffee, too. I'm just curious what you like best. I'm also interested in trying a carbonated water to see if I could use it to replace cola - if it has that throat feel that I think is what makes me like the soda, even more than the taste or the sweetness. There are so many choices, and I'd rather have a recommendation. I'm curious about the ones that are flavored if anyone has any experience with them.

I'm moving soon, so I won't be installing anything.

Perky Mac, when I kicked the soda habit, I still craved the bubbles, too. I like Calistoga and Crystal Geyser sparkling mineral water. They have big bubbles that mimic soda and also give you that throat feel your looking for. Also you can get water delivery that will sell you CO2 systems to carbonate your own water.

I hadn't heard that bottle water is not PC; it it because of the environmental impact?

I made myself give up bottled water because of the bottles, but thought that was just me. The water here is so hard it practically chips, and tastes faintly like pond-water, but it's perfectly safe to drink (I checked); given that, I felt badly about unnecessarily buying water in bottles (even if they're recyclable). It took a while to get used to it, but it can be done. My parents use a Brita filter , and that works a charm. Don't know how the environmental impact of those stacks up in comparison to buying in bottles.

Unless you have a condition that makes you particularly sensitive to sodium, the levels you'll find in most tap water (filtered or not) should be safe for you to drink.

I think it's ridiculous that Americans have been duped into buying their everyday drinking water in plastic bottles. It is not only unnecessary, but it is incredibly wasteful in terms of both your personal spending as well as for the greater good. There is so much plastic in landfills and these plastic water bottles are adding up quickly in landfills. Even if you recycle, it takes energy to recycle things and that energy could be better used.

Many of you have mentioned that your water isn't of the best quality. Stop for a few seconds and think about the water that people in rural India or Zimbabwe have to drink and then get back to me about the quality of your water. At least you HAVE clean drinking water available from your tap in your home. You don't have to walk 3 miles to a well to fetch a container of water that isn't even all that clean.

Get yourself a Brita filter or install a filtration system into your sink so you have a separate spout for filtered water, and get a reusable plastic bottle such as a Nalgene bottle (it is dishwasher safe and virtually unbreakable). If you replace your filters regularly your water should be purified quite well. I live in Baltimore, city of rusty old pipes, and I wouldn't dare drink the tap water straight from the tap (it's not that our water is bad, it's that the pipes are old). However, a trip through the Brita filter fixes it up and removes whatever trace metals may be in the water as well as chlorine. The water tastes fine, and, while it's no NYC water from the Catskills, it's infinitely better than straight tap water.

It boggles my mind that so many Americans spend so much money on bottled water because their tap water tastes less than perfect when there are millions of people around the world who have very limited access to clean water. Save your money on bottled water - in fact, take the money you spend on your bottled water habit and send it to those people in the world who don't even have clean drinking water. If ever there was an example of Americans being spoiled and wasteful, this is it.

(Getting off my soapbox now.)

Buying water was never PC, per se, but it was endemic of american fad culture and rampant consumerism. It's bad for the environment not only because of the bottles, but because the weight of the water itself requires trucks to be loaded half-full. Worse still, we're transporting ship-loads of water from one part of the world to another, and generally not from a part of the world with enough water to support itself, or to a part of the world that needs supplemental water sourcing. The water itself is mostly just filtered tap, so it's water you've already paid for in municipal water fees, it's just had the fluoride you paid to have added to it removed.

And no, just because you recycle your bottles doesn't mitigate their effect on the environment. There are no known organisms that break down plastic, so every piece of plastic ever produced is still with us on this earth. Buying more plastic, especially routinely, should be avoided when possible.

"Many of you have mentioned that your water isn't of the best quality. Stop for a few seconds and think about the water that people in rural India or Zimbabwe have to drink and then get back to me about the quality of your water. At least you HAVE clean drinking water available from your tap in your home. You don't have to walk 3 miles to a well to fetch a container of water that isn't even all that clean."

I am with you for the most part, charm city - it drives me crazy that people buy bottled water here in NYC, where the tap water is so great! But my folks out in central California have water that is so bad it actually makes my mom sick! - even when filtered with their Pur tap-filter. (Growing up with this terrible water makes me extra-irritated with those who don't appreciate the good stuff.) Obviously most don't have such an extreme situation. But when water tastes bad because of e.g. high chlorine content, it's hard for people who care about their health to want to drink it.

Bottled water is a huge problem for all the reasons mentioned above so even though it's less convenient, I am strongly in the camp of filter installation - or, if that's not possible, delivery from Poland Spring or Calistoga or whoever your local water delivery company is - they reuse those bottles and they're less likely to be leaching chemicals into your water than the soft plastic of individual water bottles. Also, they are really, really inexpensive compared to the cost of buying a bottle (or several) every day.

I live in Florida. I will stop drinking bottled water when they pry the bottle from my cold dead fingers.

What about if you got a water cooler? I think a lot of places do home delivery, and I can't imagine it's that much more expensive than buying individual bottles of water. I'm guessing they also reuse the big bottles that go on top. So rather than recycling and putting the waste into the environment it simply gets used again. Then go buy a good water bottle - I like Sigg, and use your cooler to refill it.

There is a county park with a beautiful lake less than 1/4 mile from my home. They have dredged the lake twice and can't find the source of contamination. There is a lovely beach and they used to let people swim there. That is no longer permitted. If you can't swim in it, I'm not about to drink it.

(This is kind of OT - I miss Poland Spring flavored sparkling water and Polar seltzer - esp. black cherry! - so much since leaving Boston.)

Back on topic, we use a Brita pitcher and it is totally fine. And before I moved out of the States, I had the same one for about ten years, changing filters of course.