What’s the Best Bottled Water in Tampa & the Surrounding Area?
Great question! If you’ve ever thought about what’s in the water in Central Florida, you might have also wondered what’s in the bottled water at the store and what are the best bottled water brands to drink. Let’s talk about the reasons behind drinking bottled water vs the water you already have at home and then dig into things to look for when purchasing the best bottled water brands and alternative options you may not have considered before. Bottled Water vs. Tap Water Most of us in the United States have running water in our homes. We’ve grown up bathing in it, cleaning with it, drinking it, cooking with it, washing our clothes and dishes with it, etc. without giving it another thought. We know the water goes to a water treatment plant (if you’re on city water) to make our water “safe” and then back to our homes to use. Types of Tap Water City Water If you’re on city water, the water treatment plant takes out all of the harsh chemicals and minerals we shouldn’t consume, right? We hate to break it to you, but that’s not necessarily the case. Water treatment plants are only required to test the water for certain types of contaminants and minerals and control the levels of those contaminants to a certain extent. They also add some chemicals back to the water – sometimes fluoride (to help reduce tooth decay), coagulation, and flocculation (to trap impurities). After they’ve taken things out and added things back in, the water is then held in a storage tank or underground aquifer where it waits to travel through miles of piping, finally arriving at your place of residency. Can you imagine how old some of the pipes are leading back to your house? The cracks in the pipes and rust allow minerals and contaminants to get right back in your water stream on the way back to your house. Yikes! So what about well water? That’s just water, right? Water from a well isn’t always the safest water to drink either. Just like city water, contaminants, heavy metals, and harsh/natural minerals can also come into the well water supply. That’s why it’s always a good idea to get your well water tested (and you can have that done for free!). Well water can be unpredictable and what’s in it can change from day to day. Water Problems A lot of people know their water isn’t safe to drink. That may be why you’re reading this article in the first place. Maybe you have orange or brown-tinged water, bad tasting water/bitter taste (or it just doesn’t have the smooth or crisp taste you prefer), water that dries out your skin or makes it itchy, or maybe your water smells bad and you’re trying to find a solution. Keep in mind that water should look like nothing, taste like nothing, and smell like nothing. So if the water at home is not safe to consume, what are my options, you ask? First, let’s dive in deeper with bottled waters and talk about determining factors in finding the best bottled water brands and then let’s talk about water filters and reverse osmosis systems, so you can consider all of your options. Bottled Water Brands At your local bottled water supplier (ie. gas stations and grocery stores), you can usually find a pretty wide variety of bottled waters to choose from including Evian, Mountain Valley Spring Water, Fiji Natural Artesian Water (Fiji Water), Ice Mountain, Deer Park Natural Spring Water, Mountain Valley, & Pure Life Purified Water. Some of them are naturally filtered (running over volcanic rock, lava rock, or “ancient rock”) and some of them are purified, while others are just spring water. What’s the difference? Make sure you read the labels While some people claim that bottled water flat out provides better-tasting water, a blind taste test can show that at home RO water can taste just as good, if not better (and without all the contaminants and plastic that typically come with bottled water brands). Make sure you’re not just grabbing whatever label looks best. You need to know the contents of your water and check out all of the specifications. Types of Bottled Waters Filtered Naturally/Purified Naturally Naturally filtered water can mean a variety of things but typically involves the water running over some sort of volcanic rock. While volcanic purified water can remove some contaminants, it’s still ground water that hasn’t been fully filtered. Some of these water bottle brands include Waiakea Hawaiian and 420 Volcanic. Filtered Water Filtering water does not remove all of the contaminants that may be present, though a water filter can reduce the amount of sediment and contaminants in the water via a water filtration process. It also cannot completely remove chemicals such as fluoride or chlorine without a drinking water system. Simply put, it doesn’t necessarily make water safe enough to drink, even though it tends to make our conscience feel better about drinking it. Dasani is a well-known brand of filtered bottled water brand. The U.K. removed Dasani from all of the stores in its country, because of the amount of bromate found in their bottled water. Bromate is known to increase cancer risk. Now, Dasani claims to use reverse osmosis for their water with minerals added to it for taste. Purified Water Purified water by definition is water that has been mechanically filtered to remove impurities and make it suitable for use. Suitable for use is the key phrase here and can mean a variety of things to different brands with different marketing goals. It doesn’t necessarily mean that all impurities have been filtered out, it just means they filtered out whichever impurities they wanted to filter out. Mineral Water/ Naturally Occurring Minerals/ Naturally Carbonated Water Mineral water is water from a mineral spring that contains various minerals, such as salts and sulfur compounds. Mineral water may be still