Bottled water - why?

I LOVE my SodaStream - saves me buying plastic bottles. So nice for plain sparkly water or add some lemon or concentrate.

We have bottled water because DH says the taste is unacceptable, have to say you can smell the chlorine and it is even worse after boiling.

When my children were small we had a contaminated water incident where we lived and quite a few people got ill. After that I always boiled and cooled the water I used for the children's squash as I didn't trust the tap water's safety. It also tasted pretty bad too so I bought bottled to drink myself. When we moved I found the water tasted better so stopped buying bottled except on journeys if my refilled one runs out. The school I work in has machines giving out chilled water which pupils (and staff) can use to refill bottles, but still the canteen sells bottled water.

Witzend - maybe the person you saw had a water supply problem at the time.

As a child visiting relatives just outside Glasgow there was a separate tap in the kitchen for drinking water. Don't know if this is still the case.
I don't buy bottled water except when abroad where you are often advised that the different mineral content to the water at home can cause stomach upsets.

Thought I'd pass on this tip,which I needed when my dog decided puddles tasted better than tap water!
To get rid of the taste of chlorine in your water,leave a big jug of it,uncovered,in the fridge overnight.The chlorine evaporates and the water tastes much better.

Think yourself very lucky to have water on tap, you can always use a water filter which can be bought easy fro-many chemist to take away any taste. there re many countries who have to travel some distance to get water.
Sweden which is surrounded by sea water recycles 98% of its water and uses waste products into gas for fueling buses

Celtic Vale ?

OMG an ad for Celtic Water just leapt on to my screen.
We are controlled by algorithms ?

I think bottled water is a con and an affectation.
Imagine living without clean safe water in the developing world. Then appreciate the safe water we have on tap!

Bottled water can contain germs - bacteria - depending on how long it has been stored according to an article I read some time ago. We have excellent drinking water in this country - not bettered anywhere in the world.

Does anyone truly believe all that twaddle on the bottled water labels about "bottled at source from pure Highland/Alpine/Nordic streams"?

Well, do you? Ha!Ha!Ha! Very likely straight from the tap in a barn just outside of - say - Weston-Super-Mare......

I now drink bottled water regularly....used to be quite happy with the tap water for a long time. Then I got cancer and had chemotherapy as part of the treatment. The chemo altered my taste buds and my sense of smell with so many things. The tap water which I had drank quite happily before , tasted revolting and I still can,t drink it months later, nor tea or coffee or still eat certain foods which I had previously enjoyed. So until things return to normal ( hopefully) my main drink is bottled water.

To peaches

What a fascinating read!

I used to buy bottled water for the reasons mentioned here but found out that if you decant the water from the tap into a container, after a few hours the water doesn't smell or taste of chlorine at all. So I bought myself a bottle of Voss water (because it's 'posh') and keep it filled with tap water in the fridge. Perfick drinking water, try it!

I dont like to drink water, but ocasionally I drink sparkling water, we make ourselves in a Soda Stream machine.Buying bottled water is a waste of money.

I plead' guilty' to buying bottled water. Purely because I cannot stand the taste of the water that comes through my tap. My tap water is ok in tea or coffee and yes I have tried boiling tap water and letting it cool for drinking but it still as a 'taste'. Is it because I have never smoked as late DH who did smoke would say he did not find a problem drinking our water straight from the tap. My local council does collect items for recycling so I have no issue that my preference for bottled water is destroying the planet. I can't speak for others however.

The water where I live used to be lovely to drink, but since the addition of chlorine it smells of bleach and doesn't taste so good. Shame, but bottled water is my choice now.

I filter our water, sometimes I have to put it through the filter 2 or 3 times to make it palatable. Can't use it unfiltered for cooking as it taints the food with a chlorine taste. When you turn the tap on there is often a really strong smell as though you have just poured bleach down the sink. The water authority say just put it in a jug and leave it in the fridge for 24 hours! Apart from the fact that icy cold water gives me stomach cramps, my fridge isn't big enough to store enough water for cooking and drinking for a day, so filter I must regardless of the cost of the filters.

There is a wonderful, fairly old, episode of COME DINE WITH ME. In this, one of the 'contestants' is a very smug, self=opinionated wine 'expert'. Anyway, one of the other contestants was hosting her dinner party and had put out - as well as wines - bottled water. this ran out, and the guests asked for more. So she went into her kitchen (in front of the cameras), found an attractive empty decanter and filled that from her kitchen tap and took it out to her guests. the wine 'expert', tasted this and then asked what it was as he stated, it was one of the very best tasting water he had ever drunk!!!!!

Maybe it's a panic buy against the current CO2 impending shortage being put about.

.... whilst on the subject....is my granddaughters school the only one still to have a perfectly usable drinking water fountain in its playground. My little one uses it all the time but I've seen kids drinking bottles of water standing a yard away!!

There's an idiot scam in every generation..... bottled water is this generations scam!! I have on occasion bought a bottle of water if I've been out for a long while and am thirsty! Remember water fountains people??! I keep a couple of small bottles water in my fridge... and take them out and give them to visitors who say they drink " nothing but bottled" .... usually with a smug look. I don't tell them it's been decanted from my tap into old ( washed) bottle. I always 'unscrew' the top for them and they always say "how much better it tastes". Pillocks!!

Sorry...forgot to write that 23 waters were tasted, regional (8) and bottled still (15)