Distilled, spring or tap water?? Which is best?

tap water is cheaper

it really depends on where you live. one thing is for sure most of the bottled water they sell is just tap water from a different source.

We have well water where I live, and it's delicious straight out of the tap! I refuse to pay for water when it tastes great out of my faucet!!

Frozen - in little cube form - surrounded by vodka or cider

I say tap water but I live in ny and we have great water.

Well, I've lived in Wisconsin and Chicago and although our tabwater was "ok", as a European I couldn't get used to it for a long time for the chlorine taste...

Now I live part-time in Vienna and since their tabwater comes directly from a spring, it supposedly one of the best in the world. And yes, it also tastes very good.

Over here, people are sometimes also big on energizing water with all kinds of dubious methods (stones, grander-water...). I lived in Würzburg where the tab water was terrible and tried that without thinking it would work, but what can I tell ya, it tasted a lot better with those stones (and it's not that I only thought that, but people asked me where I got my water from and would believe it was from tab...)

Tap water, + brita pitcher.

Do not drink distilled water. It isn't for drinking and can cause health problems.

I am love all the answers so far!
True water is different everywhere. But what is the PUREST one?

Here is a little info.. MORE TO COME!

Distilled Water
Distilled water is free from any contaminants. It is obtained by boiling water and then condensing the steam obtained in a clean container so as to leave most of the impurities behind. In the process of distillation, very less minerals remain in the water. It is easily available in the market for various uses and its consumption for drinking purposes is highly debated.

Spring Water
Basically, spring water is the water found flowing in springs. It is encountered in underground sources and is filtered over rocks, as it comes to the surface. It is full of dissolved minerals which imparts it a sweet tinge in taste. This is the main reason why many bottled water vending firms pack this water, after very basic purification techniques.

Tap Water
Tap water can come from surface water, such as lakes or rivers, or groundwater, which is obtained from drilled wells. Tap water is then filtered and treated, usually with chlorine, before consumption. Some municipal water supplies are filtered and purified to the extent that they are nearly indistinguishable from bottled water.

There's a couple more you missed (by definition at least)

Table water
Essentially, this is tap water in a bottle. Completely unregulated. I was aware of a natural mineral water company that also supplied 'table' water to some of it's supermarket brand customers - and just filled the bottles with the same natural mineral water through the same process! They don't do that anymore though...

Filtered Water

Essentially this is tap water put through a specific process potentially including chlorination, filtration, distillation etc. to produce a consistent result. I think Dasani (the Coke bottled water) is an example of this.

Natural Mineral Water.

Natural Mineral Water is similar to Spring Water however subject to further restrictions:
-It MUST be from a registered monitored source. To become a registered natural mineral water source the source must be proven to give consistent levels of mineral content for 2 years. The source is then monitored and checked annually to ensure that those levels have not changed.
-It MUST be bottled at source. If it's tankered up and bottled elsewhere it is downgraded to spring water.
-It MUST NOT be tampered with in any way other than the most basic filtration. It cannot be added to, flavoured, chlorinated etc. I think they can carbonate it though (i.e. make it fizzy. Sorry - sparkling - it's supposed to be posh water)
This means it's by no means pure water - it has been filtered through the ground taking in some cases between 40 and 100 years to get from where it fell as rain (or cow's urine?!) through to the well, and picks up its mineral content as it goes. One bottle of NMW can taste completely different to another, although two bottles from the same source should always taste exactly the same. it's probably more about consistency of flavour I guess, but I get that from my tap!


in terms of purity - I agree that distilled is probably the purest water. It's the only one where the process is intent on taking everything else out . I remember a cocktail manual suggesting that you should always use distilled water for your ice because it produces clearer ice cubes...

I live in Northern Michigan and my well is sand filtered water from Lake Michigan. It is pure and high in minerals. It's healthy for us but destroys coffeemakers. I use Brita for coffee but I love my drinking water right out of the tap.

Do not drink distilled water. It isn't for drinking and can cause health problems.

This is incorrect, unless you are talking about distilled water sold for batteries or irons marked "not for human consumption".

There are several manufactures that make distilled water systems for drinking and in several regions of the the world, distilled water is the only/best source of drinkable water.

However, in many places the local water is an important source of some mineral, going to distilled water will eliminate those and then one must get another source for the daily allowance of things like calcium, magnesium, etc...

I drink tap & bottled in Europe and the US and bottled or filtered when travelling.

The answer is Distilled water!!!!!

I normally drink tap water because after all I am cheap! But yesterday I decided to drink distilled water all day long. I can really taste a different it taste cleaner.

All water is good for you but Distilled water is the purest form!!!

Happy drinking

Distilled water on a regular basis is supposedly dangerous last time I heard.

That sounds like propaganda to me.

ETA: There is absolutely NOTHING dangerous about distilled water. It is simply water that has been boiled for at least 5 minutes. In fact sometimes if a water main breaks or something, a municipality will ORDER the population to boil the water to MAKE it safe.

The answer is Distilled water!!!!!

I normally drink tap water because after all I am cheap! But yesterday I decided to drink distilled water all day long. I can really taste a different it taste cleaner.

All water is good for you but Distilled water is the purest form!!!

Happy drinking

Distilled water on a regular basis is supposedly dangerous last time I heard.

That sounds like propaganda to me.

ETA: There is absolutely NOTHING dangerous about distilled water. It is simply water that has been boiled for at least 5 minutes. In fact sometimes if a water main breaks or something, a municipality will ORDER the population to boil the water to MAKE it safe.

This is also incorrected, boiled water is not distilled water. Distilled water is from a distillation process where water is boiled into steam leaving behind impurities, the steam is re-cooled to liquid form. Boiled water is boiled water - sterile but maintains impurities.

Blech. Tap water means that you are drinking someone else's medication/***** control etc.
No thanks!
And actually, for the person who talked about developing countries, supposedly South Africa has the best water filtering system world wide.