Water filters

[strangeseraph]

Just a note about bottled water

I was concerned to see that people may use bottled water for their tea, despite fears of besphenol a. There are MORE reasons not to use bottled water, FOR ALL your water, please avoid it! Get a good filter and a reusable aluminum bottle for drinking!

Here's some links with all the dirty facts about bottled water that most consumers don't know!

http://www.bottledwaterblues.com/Bottle ... _Facts.cfm

http://www.webmd.com/food-recipes/featu ... tled-water

http://www.newdream.org/water/reasons.php

Just so you know, most bottled water is no different then tap. It comes with the tap, has a fancy brand label on, and costs more than if you just bought a proper filter for your tap.

Water is also less regulated than tap water, so a lot of bacteria can be passed onto you through bottled water, the bottled water companies aren't required to regulate it the way tap water is.

Filtered water is the way to go definitely. If you don't want the trouble of installing a filter on your taps, then a good brita, or I guess Adagios water pitcher (darn I want one!) might just be what is needed here. Brita even has a recycling program for their filters!

Edit: I just actually read the thread and saw that people use brita. ^^ Sorry, for above rant. I can be a little bit of an eco-fascist when it comes to things like this. ^^

[edkrueger]

Reasons to drink bottled water:
*)Most bottled water IS safer than tap because it IS purified tap water.
*)Many municipal water sources FAIL to meet the FDA minimum requirements. Most all bottled water comes from sources that pass.
*)Unlike tap water, which is usually provided by a monopoly, bottled water is subject to competition. If one brand is bad then it will go under.
*)IT COMES IN BOTTLES!

[gingkoseto]

"A draft risk assessment for bisphenol A (BPA) concludes the chemical does not disrupt hormonal processes even at levels thousands of times higher than humans typically encounter (http://www.junkscience.com/consumer/consumer_index.html)."

Thanks for the information. Now I feel a little released. But I did use a lot of plastic bottles and plastic lunch boxes. Not sure how it is accumulated in my body

[gingkoseto]

Regarding letting water sit:

I have very good tap water, and the chlorine content is small (0,4 - 0,5 g/m³) - you don't really notice it, like with the tap water I had in Tokyo which smelled like a swimming pool.
But since I started to let my tea water sit in covered pitchers for some hours or over night, I do in fact think the taste of the water and the tea is a little better (no filtering).

Ginkgo: I sometimes keep an uncovered glass of water next to my bed, and if this is left for one or two days, it can have a little musty smell. My guess is that this is caused by dust, and maybe other particles or bacteriae floating around in the air and falling down in the water.

Thanks! Then next time I will try letting water sit WITH a cover!
I feel I am spoiled by our own tap water. Now when I travel to cities where water used to be ok to me, I could taste something in their water During my thanksgiving travel, I will try to let the water sit for a day and see if that helps

[gingkoseto]

Just a note about bottled water

I was concerned to see that people may use bottled water for their tea, despite fears of besphenol a. There are MORE reasons not to use bottled water, FOR ALL your water, please avoid it! Get a good filter and a reusable aluminum bottle for drinking!

Here's some links with all the dirty facts about bottled water that most consumers don't know!

http://www.bottledwaterblues.com/Bottle ... _Facts.cfm

http://www.webmd.com/food-recipes/featu ... tled-water

http://www.newdream.org/water/reasons.php

Thanks for collecting these links and posting the info. It is a big issue! Besides permanent garbage left behind, bottled water is a big waste of energy, thinking of all the fuels used to make and transport bottled water. I believe our society has a lot to do in this aspect (such as building reliable community water purification system beyond tap water system). Besides, in areas with great water source (such as ours), many people still go for bottled water simply due to established routine. I bought bottled water were when I traveled to areas where tap water has weird taste. I understand in such cases, local residents are left very limited options besides bottled water. Even though it's hard to expect many people to suddenly switch their water choice, calling on awareness is the first step!

[wyardley]

I don't drink bottled water that's filtered tap water (which does usually taste pretty gross). Bottled spring water is actually fairly regulated, and I don't think (in the US, at least) that you can call something spring water when it's not, though you can still name you product something like "glacier springs" or whatever.

Also, I could be wrong, but I believe the big bottles often use a different type of plastic than the one they're talking about for small, "disposable" bottles.

I use filtered water for my drinking and cooking water, however I use bottled spring water (NOT bottled filtered water) a lot of the time for tea, generally one that's bottled locally. If I could get spring water in a more eco-friendly way (using refillable containers), I would, but all the places that sell bulk water are usually just selling filtered.

[cupioneer]

Just a note about bottled water

I was concerned to see that people may use bottled water for their tea, despite fears of besphenol a. There are MORE reasons not to use bottled water, FOR ALL your water, please avoid it! Get a good filter and a reusable aluminum bottle for drinking!

Here's some links with all the dirty facts about bottled water that most consumers don't know!

http://www.bottledwaterblues.com/Bottle ... _Facts.cfm

http://www.webmd.com/food-recipes/featu ... tled-water

http://www.newdream.org/water/reasons.php

Just so you know, most bottled water is no different then tap. It comes with the tap, has a fancy brand label on, and costs more than if you just bought a proper filter for your tap.

Water is also less regulated than tap water, so a lot of bacteria can be passed onto you through bottled water, the bottled water companies aren't required to regulate it the way tap water is.

Filtered water is the way to go definitely. If you don't want the trouble of installing a filter on your taps, then a good brita, or I guess Adagios water pitcher (darn I want one!) might just be what is needed here. Brita even has a recycling program for their filters!

Edit: I just actually read the thread and saw that people use brita. ^^ Sorry, for above rant. I can be a little bit of an eco-fascist when it comes to things like this. ^^

I am more concerned about you propagating lies and misinformation than people consuming bottled water.

Bisphenol A (I'm assuming that's what you meant when you wrote "besphenol a") is not found in the plastics typically used in bottled water (PET and HDPE). As long as you're not pouring boiling water into Nalgene bottles, I'm pretty sure you're not going to come into contact with bisphenol A during tea consumption.

You first say that "most bottled water is no different than tap. It comes with the tap, has a fancy brand label on, and costs more than if you just bought a proper filter for your tap."

So I gather that part of your problem with bottled water is that it's basically tap water. Fine. But then you inexplicably say "Water is also less regulated than tap water, so a lot of bacteria can be passed onto you through bottled water, the bottled water companies aren't required to regulate it the way tap water is."

That makes absolutely no sense. If bottled water is tap water, which you claim is "regulated", then wouldn't it follow that bottled tap water would be ok to drink?

You also failed to mention that bottled water is relatively well-labeled. If it's from a tap, it will always say "from a municipal source" or something similar. Spring water will also be appropriately labeled.

If you are against bottled water for environmental reasons, that's fine, but don't try to trick people by scaring them into thinking there's phantom bacteria or bisphenol a in bottled water.

[Jack_teachat]

That said, if you can't taste the difference between filtered water and tap water by itself, you probably won't notice much difference when the two are used to make tea.

I think this is only true to an extent in the case of certain teas. The main reason I use a Brita is to soften the hard tap water in my area, mostly due to the fact that I drink a lot of Japanese green which really need softer water to taste good. From my experience so far, black teas do not seem as susceptible to turning out bad when brewed with harder water, but I still use my filter anyway when brewing them.

[Bubba_tea]

I'll add on for the brita recommendation. There are several blog posts out there regarding using bamboo charcoal to benefit the tea, and this seems like a decent approximation IMO.

We have spring water for drinking at the office, but after using it in my kettle... I switched to the brita and tap water. I think the kettle would have been full of scale within 2 weeks and there was nasty floaties on the water with the straight spring water. I have no idea what the massive scale was all about, but I assume it was high in salts being spring water.

[tjkoko_off]

Just installed my new Brita faucet filter. Compared to tap water here, the Brita produces a product beyond comparison. Way more flavorful, if you will, than the scaley stuff coming out of my faucet here in southeast Georgia where scale, after one year, is starting to coat my glassware. So the Brita system will be worth the cost, at 14 cents a gallon it can't be beat - at least in MY AREA of residence.

[Oni]

In most teahouses they use reverse osmosis filters, but the water from them will never match a volcanic mountain spring soft water, check out bottled soft water from your region that has under 100 water hardness.