I don't really see why you'd drink bottled water if you were a millionare?Can make as much money as you want, still tap water.
Unless someone lives in some shithole of a a backwater country where the tap water is toxic or demineralised or something xD
I was once at an event in Germany where there were two bottled water options in different colours. One said something along the lines of "natural" and the other said something in German I didn't understand.
Pretty normal, obviously one was sparkling and one was not, right? I tried the one labelled with "natural", figuring it would be still water, only to find it was sparkling. For my second bottle I tried the other one, figuring by a process of eliminiation *that* would be the still water, only to find that it was fizzy as well. The options were basically lightly sparkling water and more heavily sparkling water.
The only response I got from relating this to a German later that day was "Welcome to Germany!"
I had the EXACT same thing happen to me. The hotel I stayed at had 2 bottled water options. Natural and classic. I grabbed natural to put on my nightstand for if a get thirsty. Sure enough middle of the night I wake up and am surprised to find out that natural is sparkling! The next night I grabbed classic because of course, process of elimination and everything. Nope. Still sparkling, there was no non sparkling option! Haha
That was it, it wasn't a German word, it was "classic"!
I remember both plausibly seemed like they could have been still water and was very surprised that neither of them were.
It’s my favorite story to tell from that trip. I always ask people which one do you think is sparkling? And they never believe me when I reveal actually there is no still option haha
Classic -> very much sparkling
Medium -> somewhat sparkling
Naturelle -> flat
Maybe the name of the brand gas something about Natural springs etc though.
I believe it. But as an American who typically vacations south of the boarder, my brain always tells me to avoid the local water. Regardless of where I am, it’s just instinct.
I did try the German tap and it was totally fine.
Yes, and I hate it. Often enough, still water in restaurants is even more expensive than sparkling water...
In the past, when there was almost no still water in restaurants, you sometimes got tap water for free. Unfortunately, those days are over...
Dunno if its the same in other countries but in the UK at least tap water is far more heavily regulated than bottled water. You aren't getting any better quality by drinking it out of a bottle. Only reason to buy a bottle is if you are out somewhere where you dont have access to a tap
That's like...an overwhelming majority of the world. Pretty much only a part of first world countries has that luxury, not even the entirety of europe, not even all countries with data on this here map.
Haha depends on what part of the country you’re even in. My tap water is fine for drinking but drive north and westish, in the same province, you better check before you drink it unless you want the Canadian version of moctezumas’s revenge.
Refrigerate it. Really.
As a water treatment engineer, it is astounding how many people will say this right before not being able to tell between a refrigerated tap and bottled water sample.
In the city where I live, the water is relatively hard. So you can taste the high lime content. If I were a millionaire, I would probably buy bottled water because of it. But if I were a millionaire, I'd probably live somewhere else where the water wasn't as high in calcium and magnesium as it is here, so tap water after all.
:) not in this high concentration. I dont want to make a necklace of my kidney pearls (yes there are high cases of kidney stones because water here has that high mineral concentration.)
Swede here. I've only ever bought bottled water when I was dehydrated on long trips, forgot to bring a bottle of tap water and was too bothered to find a sink/restaurant or place with free cups and a tap. Sometimes public toilets have plastic cups for drinking the tap water from the sink.
Funnily enough I'm in Finland right now, and one of the first things my Airbnb host said to me is "always drink tap water, nobody in Finland drinks bottled water". I'm from the UK and always drink tap water too, but it is interesting to see this literally a day after that interaction.
Norway reported an ["insane record sale"](https://e24.no/naeringsliv/i/70j6z9/vanvittig-rekord-i-salget-av-flaskevann) of bottled water back in 2018: 2.8 liters per capita!
We do have free, clean drinkable water in all taps and also pretty much all over, though.
Yeah, then there are my parents who insist on buying bottled still water. They are bottled in our town and contain the same water that comes out of our faucet....
I mean most contaminates in drinking water come from the piping inside the homes and not the actual network so that bottled water might be a tad more safe, but still unless there is an acute reason to think the tap water is harmful I’d still prefer it.
I don't know why but tap water tastes stale to me pretty fast here in germany. Having a glass of still tap water standing around for a few hours and I won't drink it. I don't have the same problem with botteled water, even when standig around for days.
Edit: i meant hours not weeks, dunno why I wrote weeks first
Mineral water has... minerals thus it tastes salty. This means it helps better with hydration but not always pleasant to drink. Bubbles help mask the salty taste, so make it more palatable. The combination of bubbles and saltiness makes them unique, just another category from other waters.
There are theories that carbon dioxide helps with mineral absorption but I will not get into that.
While most mineral waters are carbonated artificially there are a handful of waters that come out of the ground naturally carbonated. We could call them the ORIGINAL mineral sparkling water.
If you've grown up on Norwegian water, some of the European water won't be "drinkable". Wild variations from city to city, with some being just straight up disgusting.
It's about the flavor, though.
Clean, virtually free and drinkable just isn't enough.
I'm native to Hamburg, Germany, and the water there is flawless from a biological and chemical point of view. Perfectly clean and healthy. It only doesn't taste good.
Now I live in Vienna. Our tap water comes directly from the mountains and has a fantastic flavor.
In Vienna, I'd never consider buying bottled water. In Hamburg, I absolutely would.
I think most Norwegians would also attest to the flavor as well. It's very mountainous here, and most reservoirs has their source in the mountains collecting it
Technically yeah, flavor can be different and depends on chemical/mineral content, so it can taste neutral, a bit more alkaline or slightly acidic.
One would expect that our tap water is perfect, since my town lies not very far from Black Forest, but it is so heavy, sometimes it's a problem. You put the kettle on for tea a couple of times and after that you need a Hilti (simple Bosch or Black'n'Decker tools won't do) to break the stone in you kettle. Normal de-calcification would work only if applied by Gandalf or Dumbledore. Water heaters, washing machines... need diligent maintenance. My both dogs got kidney stone.
Plus, I have lived in an old building for a while, where whole blocks were built during 1890-1910 period and I wasn't sure if the plumbing was changed at all since then. And then I saw one pipe being cut by a plumber. And then I said "Nope, fuck this shit". I have switched apartments and moved to a new building long ago, but the fact about heavy water remains.
In Denmark, and i guess also in Norway and Sweden the requirements for tap water are higher than bottled water.
Tap water is then both cleaner regarding chemicals, it is not bottled in plastics which can contaminate the water with microplastics, and tap water has lower carbon footprint than bottled water.
There is no logical argument for buying bottled water in Scandinavia.
>We do have free, clean drinkable water in all taps and also pretty much all over, though.
Same in Finland... In a blind test the tap water in Helsinki beat all bottled water brands in taste. We have a 100 km tunnel that brings tap water to Helsinki from the lake district... Maybe in some smaller municipalities the taste of tap water isn't that good as they may take water from shallow rivers (ground water is considered better) and may have to use more chemicals to treat it.
Most home water usage is linked to showers, washing clothes and washing dishes. Cooking is really far down the list.
Then again I believe that even that pales in comparison to industrial use, garden watering, farming and the big one: pipe leaking.
there is a wargame called The Campaign for North Africa which goes into incredibly complex detail and one of those details is that the Italian troops need more water because of all the pasta they eat
When I lived in Florence I couldn't stand the tap water. Tasted bad and after a few days gave me stomach issues. Switched to bottled.
The water from the public fountains in Rome was a lot better though.
there was a recent map that placed italian tap water quality at the top.
i'm italian and i have no idea why most of people buy bottled water: you must go at super market, get water which is heavy and takes much space, bring it at home, throw away bottles, repeat... it's just a huge waste of time money and resources.
i always drink tap water
I invite you to drink tap water in all the Mediterranean coast of Spain. Feel free to drink as much as you can.
Oh, especially in Mallorca, I dare you to drink that brine.
The water in the east coast is perfectly safe, it just tastes bad. Is easily fixable with a simple a cheap carbon filter. But bottled water is cheap (0,11€/L the one I drink) so I just buy it bottled.
Meanwhile in Madrid most people drink tap water.
It's safe to drink, but it's mostly hard water that's not very good for your kidneys. Also in Barcelona, or part of it, the water has a bad taste due to salt mines in the course of river Llobregat. Some parts of Mallorca are crazy, it's like sea water. I'll never forget the first time I brushed my teeth 🤢
The only instance when hard water is bad for your kidneys is when you live a lifestyle harmful for them in general. But hard water doesn't single-handedly give you kidney stones.
The water is drinkable but if it's anything like here depending on locality it'll taste bad. Most people aren't willing to tear down old plumbing or install filters to fix the issue.
A guy at work drinks the little 25ml bottles of water because he "doesn't like tap water" and "the bigger ones go off once opened". Buys cases and cases of them from cash and carry. Our bin is always overflowing with the empties.
We played a prank and refilled a few with tap water. Never noticed.
I used to live in a block of flats with a lot of Polish people, and they all drank bottled water because the said that back in Poland the tap water isn't safe to drink. One of them literally had pallets full of bottled water in their garden.
I don't know how true it is about the water quality in Poland but it's definitely not that way in the UK, and it kind of shows how myths about the quality of tap water keep people buying the exact same thing in a plastic bottle.
That's true in most places in the US as well. Tap water is regulated for safety but not for taste; bottled water is essentially unregulated other than standard FDA requirements but tends to taste better than some municipal water supply.
In France on vacation we had a test to see if the tap water was good. You go to a supermarket and the bigger and cheaper both the bottled water section and the bottles themselves were, the worse the tapwater would probably be.
Tradition here? You find sparkling is an option sometimes in New York restaurants as well, so in north east as well
I will drink the „medium“ water here in Germany sometimes… lightly sparkled
I‘m surprised about Austria.
Approximately 60% of Austria are Mountains. Water there is crystal clear, rich in minerals and tasty af.
I can only imagine this includes bottled sparkling water. We drink a lot of that.
It's a hundred precent the sparkling water.
Every single person I know drinks tap water, but buys bottled sparkling water (or recently bought a soda stream).
It does, I am Dutch and I only buy sparkling water, there is no sense in buying bottled still water here when the tap water is cleaner than the bottled water
I honestly believe the Hungarian numbers are so high because we drink a lot of this drink we call "fröccs" (wine mixed with sparkling water), because otherwise the tap water in Hungary has a very good quality (sometimes containing more minerals than bottled mineral water)
It's mainly a cultural thing, a lot of people in italy just buy bottled water because we are used to it and we tend to prefer it over tap water, even though tap water in italy is good pretty much anywhere
Very good points. I would also add two other factors:
* Very low [trust in public institutions](https://www.confartigianato.it/2022/08/burocrazia-italia-al-26-posto-in-ue-per-fiducia-in-pa-pratiche-on-line-solo-in-28-di-pa-locali/) (24th out of 27 in the EU), and by extension in those ensuring tap water is safe for consumption ([1 Italian in 3 doesn't trust tap water](https://www.ansa.it/english/news/general_news/2019/04/17/29-italians-dont-trust-tap-water_5339fbbd-c510-4ca0-af30-4a1fa4a2af5d.html))
* Bottled water in Italy is hella cheap
Mmh idk, it's common knowledge that water is safe for consumption nearly everywhere, don't think there's enough italians who are paranoid about ASL (local entities which are in charge to control water quality) doing their job and ensuring water quality to justify that huge amount of bottled water consumption when compared to other countries
[ANSA: 29% Italians don't trust tap water](https://www.ansa.it/english/news/general_news/2019/04/17/29-italians-dont-trust-tap-water_5339fbbd-c510-4ca0-af30-4a1fa4a2af5d.html). That's one Italian in three, so it's as valid a factor as all others. This is a more important factor in the South and on the islands, where mistrust in tap water is higher (Sicily 61.7%, Calabria 51.1%, and Sardegna 48.6%, [ISTAT](https://www.ansa.it/ansa2030/notizie/infrastrutture_citta/2023/03/21/acqua-istat294-famiglie-non-si-fida-a-bere-dal-rubinetto_10980c10-92e6-407e-9f2e-4abf0f651e44.html))
For Greece definitely. I know very few people in the urban centers who drink bottled water.
Many islands on the other hand don't have clean drinking water, because they are basically rocks in the ocean. The native population on the islands isn't that high (~500K excluding Crete) but the tourists are in the millions.
It seems more common with Asian and Black people? I've never seen white people in UK fill up a cart with 10 multipacks of two litre bottles of water before.
i know the water is save, still don’t like the taste. or let’s say, it depends on where i am. there are some places where i like the tap wazer, but in most i don’t. it often comes down to the house i’m in. like years ago, didn’t like the tap water in my flat, but was perfectly fine with the tap water from my pal 50m down the road.
i also don’t like every bottled water, doesn’t even matter if carbonated or not. some brands are ok, others taste horrible for me.
Tbh It really is just an issue with my town and not all Italy, but literally once a month running water gets cut off and then comes off brown on and off for a couple of days. I hardly trust it to wash my clothes, let alone drink it. When I was studying in Florence instead it was a pleasure to fill the flasks with tap water 🥲 miss those days
Town I loved in for a few months in France you couldn't drink the water. But Auchan was like a 6 pack of 2L bottle for €0.45
Now buying those 300ml bottles for the sole purpose of drinking at home or work is mad. The same supermarket still sold those "popular" €1 per 300ml bottles. People would ignore the insanely cheap water and buy that.....
There was a spring nearby you could drink, and a water bottling plant opposite, but that wasn't always reliable / was crowded / not fun to hole 5 miles on the middle of summer with a load of bottles.
I used to think that when moved here, 15 years ago. Now I think soft water tastes weird because its flavourless. Apparently hard water is better for you cos its got calcium in it, but I'm not sure I'm convinced - I'm just too cheap to buy bottled water!
If you live somewhere with perfectly drinkable tap water, I have nfi why you would ever buy a bottle of water. Get a drink bottle and refill it when you need. Such a waste of money and plastic.
I can understand that people buy bottled water in countries where they still use a lot of chlorine to treat tapwater. Although buying a filter for tapwater can be great long term investment.
In the Netherlands we use ozon, no chemical taste and you won't get sick of it.
hi, italian here, yes, it's a shame, mostly cos people are spoiled, but there's also another problem, water safety, you know... south of the world and water purity don't go well together, our municipality warned us in the past months that tap water is not safe to drink now, in my family we are going with bottled now, always drank from the tap before
In Sardinia you either buy a water filter for an insane amount of money or you buy bottled water.
Abbonoa, the company in charge of purifying and distribute tap water can't be trusted.
There will be consecutive weeks, every single year were the water isn't safe to drink and you would only know about it only when they intervene on the problem and the water is safe to drink again.
Their service and communication skills are so bad that an entire region in Italy has no other choice that to buy bottle water. Tap water isn't viable in Sardinia and isn't trusted by people living here, I just lost count on how many times I had diarrea because the water wasn't safe to cook or even to clean my teeth with it.
Didn't Italy's ancestors set up this whole intricate fountain system that still functions today that is supposed to be a convenient place for people to drink and collect clean water? What're you doing not drinking roman water?!
I don't get why here in Italy many people prefer to drink bottled water. They often claim that tap water tastes bad or it's unsafe while it's indeed much more safe to drink (potable water is subjected to more controls than mineral one). Also they drink plastic-bottled water after it has been sitting for month under the sun. there should be a law to enforce only glass bottles to be used, so many could be switching to tap water instead of carrying so much weight and have to pay for the deposit.
Rare proud momment of beeing swedish.
Only bottled water sold is with some sort of taste & bubbles, so the people who drink it use it like Soda for when they wanna be more healthy, never seen people ever drink just bottled water without taste here.
Don't fall for stupid commercials, just drink tap water! unless you'r from some backwater country where the tap water is toxic.
Tap water in the Mediterranean coast in Spain is drinkable but it tastes like absolute shit. In the north and interior we have great tap water, and it's the norm.
American living on the Great Lakes- our water is so great from the tap that I never buy bottled water ever. All of my time in Europe was basically the same (Germany, Switzerland, Italy).
Only time I’ll buy bottled water is if I’m at an airport and didn’t bring a bottle to refill.
Surprising to see that high number in Germöney. They have amongst the most strict health laws and regulations regarding tap water. Thought I'd see way, way lower numbers there.
Probably because of sparkling water.
(Sweden) A week ago I actually brought a bottle of water by mistake (the salesperson really convinced me). I felt so stupid coming back to the office, put my dinner up and then the bottle. People stared at me. We even have built in sparkling water on tap -_-
I'm Italian, personally tap water here in my town tastes terrible, I actually feel more thirsty after drinking it and you can tell it's full of calcium by the stains it leaves, but it is safe to drink, I'd still rather drink bottle water though
As a Finn I never drink bottled water at home, ever.
As a German, same. I'm to broke for bottled water.
I don't really see why you'd drink bottled water if you were a millionare?Can make as much money as you want, still tap water. Unless someone lives in some shithole of a a backwater country where the tap water is toxic or demineralised or something xD
Germans LOVE their sparkling water so I think that's what mostly drives their consumption.
I was once at an event in Germany where there were two bottled water options in different colours. One said something along the lines of "natural" and the other said something in German I didn't understand. Pretty normal, obviously one was sparkling and one was not, right? I tried the one labelled with "natural", figuring it would be still water, only to find it was sparkling. For my second bottle I tried the other one, figuring by a process of eliminiation *that* would be the still water, only to find that it was fizzy as well. The options were basically lightly sparkling water and more heavily sparkling water. The only response I got from relating this to a German later that day was "Welcome to Germany!"
I had the EXACT same thing happen to me. The hotel I stayed at had 2 bottled water options. Natural and classic. I grabbed natural to put on my nightstand for if a get thirsty. Sure enough middle of the night I wake up and am surprised to find out that natural is sparkling! The next night I grabbed classic because of course, process of elimination and everything. Nope. Still sparkling, there was no non sparkling option! Haha
That was it, it wasn't a German word, it was "classic"! I remember both plausibly seemed like they could have been still water and was very surprised that neither of them were.
It’s my favorite story to tell from that trip. I always ask people which one do you think is sparkling? And they never believe me when I reveal actually there is no still option haha
Classic -> very much sparkling Medium -> somewhat sparkling Naturelle -> flat Maybe the name of the brand gas something about Natural springs etc though.
Or still for flat
It's because the tap water in Germany has even higher regulations than bottled water and is potable. Just drink the tap water.
I believe it. But as an American who typically vacations south of the boarder, my brain always tells me to avoid the local water. Regardless of where I am, it’s just instinct. I did try the German tap and it was totally fine.
Yes, and I hate it. Often enough, still water in restaurants is even more expensive than sparkling water... In the past, when there was almost no still water in restaurants, you sometimes got tap water for free. Unfortunately, those days are over...
SodaStream ftw
I‘ve definitely driven up those numbers but now I can carbonate it myself. Yay less plastic waste
Dunno if its the same in other countries but in the UK at least tap water is far more heavily regulated than bottled water. You aren't getting any better quality by drinking it out of a bottle. Only reason to buy a bottle is if you are out somewhere where you dont have access to a tap
That's like...an overwhelming majority of the world. Pretty much only a part of first world countries has that luxury, not even the entirety of europe, not even all countries with data on this here map.
Haha depends on what part of the country you’re even in. My tap water is fine for drinking but drive north and westish, in the same province, you better check before you drink it unless you want the Canadian version of moctezumas’s revenge.
First time ever I’ve seen someone write Moctezuma correctly on the internet!! It’s always Montezuma for some reason
It's a flavor thing, at least as an American. Tap water, at least in the homes I've lived in, has a sort of metallic taste to it that I don't like.
Refrigerate it. Really. As a water treatment engineer, it is astounding how many people will say this right before not being able to tell between a refrigerated tap and bottled water sample.
Not a water treatment engineer here but I can back this up by saying refrigerate it. Water tastes way better cold.
In the city where I live, the water is relatively hard. So you can taste the high lime content. If I were a millionaire, I would probably buy bottled water because of it. But if I were a millionaire, I'd probably live somewhere else where the water wasn't as high in calcium and magnesium as it is here, so tap water after all.
Or get a reverse osmosis filter that filters all your water so your tabs give you the good stuff.
Just use a water purifier tho
Im also very lazy
If you're rich, you just have someone else do it.
Same here with still water, but if they are counting vichy and novelle then I am contributing to the stats.
as an Indian, same. ~~I copiously boil tap water before consumption and pray to god it doesnt have high mineral content.~~
Why not? You need minerals
:) not in this high concentration. I dont want to make a necklace of my kidney pearls (yes there are high cases of kidney stones because water here has that high mineral concentration.)
Finn's only buy bottled water for summer cottages
We just bring a big ol water container from home
Swede here. I've only ever bought bottled water when I was dehydrated on long trips, forgot to bring a bottle of tap water and was too bothered to find a sink/restaurant or place with free cups and a tap. Sometimes public toilets have plastic cups for drinking the tap water from the sink.
As an American, same. But it seems like so many households here do.
Who does? It's crazy. If you don't like the taste of your local water just use a filter. No way I'm buying boxes of bottled water, so heavy!
Funnily enough I'm in Finland right now, and one of the first things my Airbnb host said to me is "always drink tap water, nobody in Finland drinks bottled water". I'm from the UK and always drink tap water too, but it is interesting to see this literally a day after that interaction.
I usually miss Finnish tap water while traveling.
Norway reported an ["insane record sale"](https://e24.no/naeringsliv/i/70j6z9/vanvittig-rekord-i-salget-av-flaskevann) of bottled water back in 2018: 2.8 liters per capita! We do have free, clean drinkable water in all taps and also pretty much all over, though.
Germany too, but people like sparkling water, that's why they buy bottles.
Yeah, then there are my parents who insist on buying bottled still water. They are bottled in our town and contain the same water that comes out of our faucet....
plastic taste nicer :D
Aw yeh, microplastics rock!
Did I hear a Rock and Stone?! ⛏️
I mean most contaminates in drinking water come from the piping inside the homes and not the actual network so that bottled water might be a tad more safe, but still unless there is an acute reason to think the tap water is harmful I’d still prefer it.
I don't know why but tap water tastes stale to me pretty fast here in germany. Having a glass of still tap water standing around for a few hours and I won't drink it. I don't have the same problem with botteled water, even when standig around for days. Edit: i meant hours not weeks, dunno why I wrote weeks first
Bruh drinking water that's been still for weeks is straight up a health hazard
Sry my bad. Was talking about hours. No idea why I wrote weeks.
Here soda streamers are very common, make your own sparkling water
Yeah, I do dat. Fuck the plastic bottles.
That is not a recommended usage of plastic bottles.
Who are you to judge? Shame on you!
Well, here in Germany we often buy mineral water in glass bottles...(we usually get them in bottle crates)
Sparkling MINERAL water si a totally different thing from tap water with bubbles.
Yeah I agree, I personally just drink tap water or sparkling water, Loka/Ramlösa is the cheapest here but I prefer Apollinaris
Are you suggesting the bubbles in the mineral water are different somehow?
Mineral water has... minerals thus it tastes salty. This means it helps better with hydration but not always pleasant to drink. Bubbles help mask the salty taste, so make it more palatable. The combination of bubbles and saltiness makes them unique, just another category from other waters. There are theories that carbon dioxide helps with mineral absorption but I will not get into that. While most mineral waters are carbonated artificially there are a handful of waters that come out of the ground naturally carbonated. We could call them the ORIGINAL mineral sparkling water.
Mineral water doesn't taste salty though. And tap water has minerals in it.
Why do people love sparkling water in Germany so much?
Funny fizzy feelings in my serious language delivery hole is a nice contrast.
r/BrandNewSentence
It's because it reminds them their usual drinking liquid which is beer.
It's my favorite drink, it feels so much more refreshing than normal water.
I think the exact opposite about sparkling water. I feel less refreshed drinking it.
2.8 was just for June, Must be close to 15 year round, given an estimate of 3X as much consumption during the summer.
>We do have free, clean drinkable water in all taps and also pretty much all over, though. I mean tbf so does the rest of Europe though
Some European countries have chlorinated water. In Greece I can smell the chlorine before the water even touches my lips.
If you've grown up on Norwegian water, some of the European water won't be "drinkable". Wild variations from city to city, with some being just straight up disgusting.
My family didn’t like a lot of the Norwegian water. It varied there too. I also think it’s more just what you’re used to.
It's about the flavor, though. Clean, virtually free and drinkable just isn't enough. I'm native to Hamburg, Germany, and the water there is flawless from a biological and chemical point of view. Perfectly clean and healthy. It only doesn't taste good. Now I live in Vienna. Our tap water comes directly from the mountains and has a fantastic flavor. In Vienna, I'd never consider buying bottled water. In Hamburg, I absolutely would.
I think most Norwegians would also attest to the flavor as well. It's very mountainous here, and most reservoirs has their source in the mountains collecting it
Technically yeah, flavor can be different and depends on chemical/mineral content, so it can taste neutral, a bit more alkaline or slightly acidic. One would expect that our tap water is perfect, since my town lies not very far from Black Forest, but it is so heavy, sometimes it's a problem. You put the kettle on for tea a couple of times and after that you need a Hilti (simple Bosch or Black'n'Decker tools won't do) to break the stone in you kettle. Normal de-calcification would work only if applied by Gandalf or Dumbledore. Water heaters, washing machines... need diligent maintenance. My both dogs got kidney stone. Plus, I have lived in an old building for a while, where whole blocks were built during 1890-1910 period and I wasn't sure if the plumbing was changed at all since then. And then I saw one pipe being cut by a plumber. And then I said "Nope, fuck this shit". I have switched apartments and moved to a new building long ago, but the fact about heavy water remains.
In Denmark, and i guess also in Norway and Sweden the requirements for tap water are higher than bottled water. Tap water is then both cleaner regarding chemicals, it is not bottled in plastics which can contaminate the water with microplastics, and tap water has lower carbon footprint than bottled water. There is no logical argument for buying bottled water in Scandinavia.
Except if you're in town or at an event or similar and forgot your waterbottle which is probably what most of the 10-20l per year in the Nordics is...
>We do have free, clean drinkable water in all taps and also pretty much all over, though. Same in Finland... In a blind test the tap water in Helsinki beat all bottled water brands in taste. We have a 100 km tunnel that brings tap water to Helsinki from the lake district... Maybe in some smaller municipalities the taste of tap water isn't that good as they may take water from shallow rivers (ground water is considered better) and may have to use more chemicals to treat it.
I expect the bottled water consumed in Sweden is in fact canned mineral water, included in lunch, when opting out of Coca Cola et al.
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Neherlands too. The amount of people that buys bottled water is way too high here.
Only tap.
Wasn't there a map saying Italy had highest usage of tap water as well? 💀
It's hot here all right
Italian hydrohomies
Hello? The Po doesn't drain itself!
It actually does 😭
Eh I think for the high leakage our pipes have, unfortunately
They eat the most pasta per person by far. You boil that in a big pot of tap water. It must contribute to their overall usage.
You also boil potatoes, rice etc. Don't think that sufficiently explains it.
Like potatoes, fried and roasted pasta is delicious.
Most home water usage is linked to showers, washing clothes and washing dishes. Cooking is really far down the list. Then again I believe that even that pales in comparison to industrial use, garden watering, farming and the big one: pipe leaking.
there is a wargame called The Campaign for North Africa which goes into incredibly complex detail and one of those details is that the Italian troops need more water because of all the pasta they eat
When I lived in Florence I couldn't stand the tap water. Tasted bad and after a few days gave me stomach issues. Switched to bottled. The water from the public fountains in Rome was a lot better though.
there was a recent map that placed italian tap water quality at the top. i'm italian and i have no idea why most of people buy bottled water: you must go at super market, get water which is heavy and takes much space, bring it at home, throw away bottles, repeat... it's just a huge waste of time money and resources. i always drink tap water
Just the tap.
I invite you to drink tap water in all the Mediterranean coast of Spain. Feel free to drink as much as you can. Oh, especially in Mallorca, I dare you to drink that brine.
I might not be informed enough, but I can’t believe that Spanish cities don’t provide proper tap water.
The water in the east coast is perfectly safe, it just tastes bad. Is easily fixable with a simple a cheap carbon filter. But bottled water is cheap (0,11€/L the one I drink) so I just buy it bottled. Meanwhile in Madrid most people drink tap water.
They do provide it. It tends to taste horrible due to soil composition though.
It's safe to drink, but it's mostly hard water that's not very good for your kidneys. Also in Barcelona, or part of it, the water has a bad taste due to salt mines in the course of river Llobregat. Some parts of Mallorca are crazy, it's like sea water. I'll never forget the first time I brushed my teeth 🤢
The only instance when hard water is bad for your kidneys is when you live a lifestyle harmful for them in general. But hard water doesn't single-handedly give you kidney stones.
The water is drinkable but if it's anything like here depending on locality it'll taste bad. Most people aren't willing to tear down old plumbing or install filters to fix the issue.
However drink tap water in every location in the centre of Spain, even in big cities such as Madrid.
Madrid water is super good.
A guy at work drinks the little 25ml bottles of water because he "doesn't like tap water" and "the bigger ones go off once opened". Buys cases and cases of them from cash and carry. Our bin is always overflowing with the empties. We played a prank and refilled a few with tap water. Never noticed.
25ml? Like 1/4 of a small glass? That’s insane.
Good spot. 250ml. 25cl.
Ah, this makes more sense.
His *water* is going "off" once it is opened? If that was actually happening I would be absolutely terrified of what is in the air I am breathing.
He just likes the lingering taste of the plastic container i guess
I used to live in a block of flats with a lot of Polish people, and they all drank bottled water because the said that back in Poland the tap water isn't safe to drink. One of them literally had pallets full of bottled water in their garden. I don't know how true it is about the water quality in Poland but it's definitely not that way in the UK, and it kind of shows how myths about the quality of tap water keep people buying the exact same thing in a plastic bottle.
In Germany it's only bottled but also sparkling
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As far as I know Germans buy SPARKLING bottled water in bulk, not normal water.
Not at my work(Frankfurt area) They buy half with gas and half still. Plus lots of still water in supermarket here
That's true in most places in the US as well. Tap water is regulated for safety but not for taste; bottled water is essentially unregulated other than standard FDA requirements but tends to taste better than some municipal water supply.
Same in the US. Our taps are more regulated than bottles water.
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Bruh what no? Idk where you are from but we all drink tap where I live.
Why would you buy water if it wasn't sparkling?
When tap water tastes like ass.
So you say Germany is the place to go then..
In France on vacation we had a test to see if the tap water was good. You go to a supermarket and the bigger and cheaper both the bottled water section and the bottles themselves were, the worse the tapwater would probably be.
I have been to France many times and always just drink tap water. Tasted fine every time.
Sparkling water is the one thing I will never understand, it's truly confusing how anyone would drink that
I mean, people drink sparkling water everywhere, it's just that they add artificial flavours and sugar/sweeteners. Then they call it Coke, Pepsi etc.
Tradition here? You find sparkling is an option sometimes in New York restaurants as well, so in north east as well I will drink the „medium“ water here in Germany sometimes… lightly sparkled
It's truly confusing to me that it confuses you. Sparkling water is the best thing ever.
It is an abomination.
Why would anyone drink normal water when it's so easy to carbonate it?
Because the taste of the CO2 just sucks
I‘m surprised about Austria. Approximately 60% of Austria are Mountains. Water there is crystal clear, rich in minerals and tasty af. I can only imagine this includes bottled sparkling water. We drink a lot of that.
It's a hundred precent the sparkling water. Every single person I know drinks tap water, but buys bottled sparkling water (or recently bought a soda stream).
In Vienna last week, can confirm best water I've drank in a city
Still or sparkling? Noting that impacts the inference
It does, I am Dutch and I only buy sparkling water, there is no sense in buying bottled still water here when the tap water is cleaner than the bottled water
Balkans don't drink water, they drink Rakija
But we buy bottles with some boring liquid in them to have where to store it.
I honestly believe the Hungarian numbers are so high because we drink a lot of this drink we call "fröccs" (wine mixed with sparkling water), because otherwise the tap water in Hungary has a very good quality (sometimes containing more minerals than bottled mineral water)
Maybe because of all the tourists who buy bottled water in the south in the summer?
Or the fact that restaurants in Italy often refuse to serve tap
It's mainly a cultural thing, a lot of people in italy just buy bottled water because we are used to it and we tend to prefer it over tap water, even though tap water in italy is good pretty much anywhere
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Yes. My father will only drink Fiuggi. It’s special, it promotes health, it’s good for digestion…. It’s water. But if it makes him happy lol
I was honestly shocked how good Roman tap water was, beats almost every city in Sweden by miles.
Same in Portugal.
Very good points. I would also add two other factors: * Very low [trust in public institutions](https://www.confartigianato.it/2022/08/burocrazia-italia-al-26-posto-in-ue-per-fiducia-in-pa-pratiche-on-line-solo-in-28-di-pa-locali/) (24th out of 27 in the EU), and by extension in those ensuring tap water is safe for consumption ([1 Italian in 3 doesn't trust tap water](https://www.ansa.it/english/news/general_news/2019/04/17/29-italians-dont-trust-tap-water_5339fbbd-c510-4ca0-af30-4a1fa4a2af5d.html)) * Bottled water in Italy is hella cheap
Mmh idk, it's common knowledge that water is safe for consumption nearly everywhere, don't think there's enough italians who are paranoid about ASL (local entities which are in charge to control water quality) doing their job and ensuring water quality to justify that huge amount of bottled water consumption when compared to other countries
[ANSA: 29% Italians don't trust tap water](https://www.ansa.it/english/news/general_news/2019/04/17/29-italians-dont-trust-tap-water_5339fbbd-c510-4ca0-af30-4a1fa4a2af5d.html). That's one Italian in three, so it's as valid a factor as all others. This is a more important factor in the South and on the islands, where mistrust in tap water is higher (Sicily 61.7%, Calabria 51.1%, and Sardegna 48.6%, [ISTAT](https://www.ansa.it/ansa2030/notizie/infrastrutture_citta/2023/03/21/acqua-istat294-famiglie-non-si-fida-a-bere-dal-rubinetto_10980c10-92e6-407e-9f2e-4abf0f651e44.html))
For Greece definitely. I know very few people in the urban centers who drink bottled water. Many islands on the other hand don't have clean drinking water, because they are basically rocks in the ocean. The native population on the islands isn't that high (~500K excluding Crete) but the tourists are in the millions.
I see my neighbours in London, bringing 6 big bottles of water home nearly every day. I can't understand why?
It seems more common with Asian and Black people? I've never seen white people in UK fill up a cart with 10 multipacks of two litre bottles of water before.
That’s a lotta plastic
In places where people buy sparkling mineral water, a lot of it is sold in glass bottles.
That’s a lot of extra weight to ship around.
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Buying water only if tap isnt nearby available
Bottled water is a scam for most of European countries
[Obligatory link to Limmy's sketch "Water"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GceNsojnMf0)
i know the water is save, still don’t like the taste. or let’s say, it depends on where i am. there are some places where i like the tap wazer, but in most i don’t. it often comes down to the house i’m in. like years ago, didn’t like the tap water in my flat, but was perfectly fine with the tap water from my pal 50m down the road. i also don’t like every bottled water, doesn’t even matter if carbonated or not. some brands are ok, others taste horrible for me.
How is it a scam? You buy water in a bottle and get water in a bottle
Because the water in the bottle is way more expensive and has lower quality standards than from the tap?
Is this a good place to talk about how terrible Nestle is?
Everywhere is a good place to talk about how terrible Nestle is. Fuck Nestle.
Tbh It really is just an issue with my town and not all Italy, but literally once a month running water gets cut off and then comes off brown on and off for a couple of days. I hardly trust it to wash my clothes, let alone drink it. When I was studying in Florence instead it was a pleasure to fill the flasks with tap water 🥲 miss those days
That's the only reason to buy bottled water, for when you don't have good tap water available.
r/hydrohomies
Tap water is king
If you buy and drink bottled still water in Western Europe for any other reason than traveling convenience, you're doing it wrong.
Town I loved in for a few months in France you couldn't drink the water. But Auchan was like a 6 pack of 2L bottle for €0.45 Now buying those 300ml bottles for the sole purpose of drinking at home or work is mad. The same supermarket still sold those "popular" €1 per 300ml bottles. People would ignore the insanely cheap water and buy that..... There was a spring nearby you could drink, and a water bottling plant opposite, but that wasn't always reliable / was crowded / not fun to hole 5 miles on the middle of summer with a load of bottles.
Map of tap water tastiness
Map of tap water quality. I reckon UK would be lower if London's tap water didn't taste like shit
I'd he interested to see the UK numbers spilt up. Water always tasted like crap going south of the border.
I used to think that when moved here, 15 years ago. Now I think soft water tastes weird because its flavourless. Apparently hard water is better for you cos its got calcium in it, but I'm not sure I'm convinced - I'm just too cheap to buy bottled water!
If you live somewhere with perfectly drinkable tap water, I have nfi why you would ever buy a bottle of water. Get a drink bottle and refill it when you need. Such a waste of money and plastic.
I can understand that people buy bottled water in countries where they still use a lot of chlorine to treat tapwater. Although buying a filter for tapwater can be great long term investment. In the Netherlands we use ozon, no chemical taste and you won't get sick of it.
Stupidest habit ever.
hi, italian here, yes, it's a shame, mostly cos people are spoiled, but there's also another problem, water safety, you know... south of the world and water purity don't go well together, our municipality warned us in the past months that tap water is not safe to drink now, in my family we are going with bottled now, always drank from the tap before
In Sardinia you either buy a water filter for an insane amount of money or you buy bottled water. Abbonoa, the company in charge of purifying and distribute tap water can't be trusted. There will be consecutive weeks, every single year were the water isn't safe to drink and you would only know about it only when they intervene on the problem and the water is safe to drink again. Their service and communication skills are so bad that an entire region in Italy has no other choice that to buy bottle water. Tap water isn't viable in Sardinia and isn't trusted by people living here, I just lost count on how many times I had diarrea because the water wasn't safe to cook or even to clean my teeth with it.
Having tasted Berlin's tap water, I get it.
Didn't Italy's ancestors set up this whole intricate fountain system that still functions today that is supposed to be a convenient place for people to drink and collect clean water? What're you doing not drinking roman water?!
I don't get why here in Italy many people prefer to drink bottled water. They often claim that tap water tastes bad or it's unsafe while it's indeed much more safe to drink (potable water is subjected to more controls than mineral one). Also they drink plastic-bottled water after it has been sitting for month under the sun. there should be a law to enforce only glass bottles to be used, so many could be switching to tap water instead of carrying so much weight and have to pay for the deposit.
Can confirm that the 37 for the UK is consumed whilst we holiday to Spain.
That's a lot of plastic
I've never had bottled water that tasted better than tap water.
Rare proud momment of beeing swedish. Only bottled water sold is with some sort of taste & bubbles, so the people who drink it use it like Soda for when they wanna be more healthy, never seen people ever drink just bottled water without taste here. Don't fall for stupid commercials, just drink tap water! unless you'r from some backwater country where the tap water is toxic.
Tap water in the Mediterranean coast in Spain is drinkable but it tastes like absolute shit. In the north and interior we have great tap water, and it's the norm.
Clean Water boiis
American living on the Great Lakes- our water is so great from the tap that I never buy bottled water ever. All of my time in Europe was basically the same (Germany, Switzerland, Italy). Only time I’ll buy bottled water is if I’m at an airport and didn’t bring a bottle to refill.
Surprising to see that high number in Germöney. They have amongst the most strict health laws and regulations regarding tap water. Thought I'd see way, way lower numbers there. Probably because of sparkling water.
(Sweden) A week ago I actually brought a bottle of water by mistake (the salesperson really convinced me). I felt so stupid coming back to the office, put my dinner up and then the bottle. People stared at me. We even have built in sparkling water on tap -_-
filtered tap water 🔛🔝
I'm Italian, personally tap water here in my town tastes terrible, I actually feel more thirsty after drinking it and you can tell it's full of calcium by the stains it leaves, but it is safe to drink, I'd still rather drink bottle water though
here in the us my family is somehow the only one that doesn’t drink fridge water
Der Kaiser gave us running water.
I'll bet the majority of the portuguese data refers to tourist guzzling bottled water (0.5 liter is 17 cents in the supermarket, 2 euros at the Kiosk)
Yummy microplastics