Bottled water started when some French company filled up an elegant bottle with water the convinced the world that it was in their best interest to pay for it. That company would be Perrier. Since then a lot of companies joined the bottled water bandwagon. It would seem that we've been getting conned for years and years and also in the coming years. Bottled water is almost like branding. Hell it is branding. (hmmmm... another hub idea). 24.5 Liters of Perrier costs $28.00 in Amazon. How many liters of gasoline can you get for that price? So it has become a multi billion dollar industry.

I remember once in laboratory experiment in college a project where we were asked to compare tap water and several brands of bottled water (3 of the top brands). This was in Los Baños, Laguna Philippines. We conducted interviews, asked people to rate the water samples and analyzed the water samples for trace chemicals and E.Coli. Well the results were quite amazing.

In the analysis for E.Coli, all water samples had the same results. We have been led to believe by the bottled water companies and bottled delivery services that bottled water is cleaner than tap water. The analysis says otherwise. Tap water goes through a water treatment process... a case most people don't know or just take for granted.

The interviews were a lot fun. When asked: Which do you prefer Bottled Water or Tap water? And Why. Almost all of them answered bottled water? Why? They say it tastes much better and is much cleaner. Our experiments on the purity of water says otherwise. So we also got to rank the four sample of water according to taste and their preference. All samples had the same chilled temperature and the same glass tumbler. Mind you, just by looking at them, I can see no difference at all.

Results were pretty amazing. Tap water came in second. One leading brand got the top spot. We performed a mineral content check on the top leading brand and compared it with that of tap water. The leading brand had a marginally greater mineral content than tap water. Is bottled water better than tap then? My opinion is they are about the same.One

One of lab group members had a mother who collected different water bottles from her travels to different countries. We borrowed three bottles after much begging on our knees. Filled two with the top bottled water from the earlier set of experiments and the other with tap water. Now we had an Evian, a Perrier and a Fiji. The Tap water was in the Evian bottle. Guess what? Evian came out to be the best tasting bottled water.

Is bottled water better? Should you fire your bottled water delivery service? Or do you feel educated in the cons of bottled water?

I'd suggest to have your own water filtration system. These systems can easily be acquired these days. Here is a list of the ones available in Amazon. We actually have the Crystal quest. But my Mom still goes to a bottled water delivery service for our drink water supply. Why? Well nobody understands a mother. Even mothers don't understand themselves. And because they are mothers they are entitled to their own perks. :-)