Monday 13 March 2023: Tap water or bottled?

I dislike the taste and mouthfeel of tap water (London, Chester, Durham, eastern Kent). I assume that my dislike stems from the chemicals used to sterilise the water. Consequently, I rarely drink unflavoured water. Whitsun 1973, I drank water from a hillside stream in West Yorkshire, between Malham and Kettlewell, hoping that there were no sheep carcases upstream. I have also drunk water from the copious public water fountains in Rome (1997). Mmm.

I do not much go in for bottled water. Partly I object to the use of plastic (containing plasticisers), partly to single-use plastic and this throw-away society,  and partly because very little bottled water tastes pleasant (variously ashy or of plasticisers). If I have to drink bottled water, then it has to be sparkling. If the weather is hot and I am out of the house without my tisane flask then I buy sparkling San Pellegrino water. It is ridiculously expensive, but does actually taste nice. Were I, for some inexplicable reason, to have to drink water all the time, and cost were no object, then this is the water that I would choose. When the weather is hot and I am working in the vegetable garden, then I might drink some cheap, sparkling bottled water from Tesco (Tesco own-label) in order to slake my thirst. I know that it is simply tap water put into a bottle, carbonated, marketed and sold. Mostly, however, my wife makes elderflower cordial from our elderflowers, and I dilute this with the cheap, sparkling bottled water. I have looked into buying a Sodastream machine, but the CO2 cannisters are very expensive. The cider I sometimes brew can be delightfully effervescent, and it is effervescence that makes cold drinks especially palatable.

If I have to drink water, then it has to be sparkling, and unless it is San Pellegrino, then I prefer it to be flavoured.