Good Morning America
Bottled Water vs. Tap Taste Test

And the winner is... NEW YORK CITY TAP!!!!

The goal of the taste test was to see which water tastes better and whether people could tell the difference between expensive water (bottled water) and tap water. The waters in the Good Morning America studio audience taste test included: New York City tap water, 02 oxygenated water, and two bottled brands, Perrier's Poland Spring and Evian.

The results of this taste test were very telling. Of the participants, 45% chose New York City tap water over the bottled and oxygenated water. This clearly indicates that the expensive water (bottled water) does not taste better than New York City tap water. Here are the final results:

#1 New York City tap received 45%
#2 Poland Spring received 24%
#3 02 oxygenated water received 19%
#4 Evian received 12%

According to a study by Switzerland-based World Wildlife Fund International, "Bottled water is no safer or healthier than what you get when you turn on your kitchen faucet. There are more standards regulating tap water in Europe and the United States than there are in the bottled water industry."

--From CCNews

Other tests, other tastes

Results of recent "blind" water taste tests prove to be the best educator when it comes to making a taster's choice list, and [bottled] spring water sinks to the bottom.

As it was reported in the February issue of CCNews, the Wisconsin Stewardship Network conducted a blind water taste test between municipal water, filtered tap water, and a Perrier brand of bottled spring water. 75 people took the test. The results regarding the preference of taste were: 30 people chose the filtered municipal tap water; 28 people could not tell any difference; 17 chose the bottled spring water.

Several people that learned they chose the bottled spring water later commented, "It was colder, not necessarily better."

This proved to be an enlightening and educating experience. Could all of the hype that follows the bottled spring water craze be just that, hype?

On April 22 in honor of Earth Day, Concerned Citizens of Newport and Waterkeepers of Wisconsin attended and had a booth at the Rock Springs Earth Day celebration. One of the most popular exhibits was our blind water taste test. People had no idea which cup held what water and the results were kept secret until the booth closed at the end of the day. The water was kept in the same type of containers and the same type of cups was used for all of the samples. Water samples were all kept at room temperature.

One hundred people took part throughout the day. Out of those 100 people: 42 chose private well water taken from a farm; 27 chose Wisconsin Dells municipal water; 16 chose Perrier Ice Mountain brand; and 15 stated no preference. Since the results are based on 100 people, the results give you the percentages. Just another way of saying that 16% chose Perrier Ice Mountain bottled water, and 84% did not choose the bottled water as the best tasting water.

A groundwater presentation was held by Arlene Kanno of Concerned Citizens of Newport at Williams Bay (Lake Geneva) for an Elderhostel group. Mrs. Kanno performed the blind water taste test on 12 participants. All water was refrigerated to the same temperature and people were asked to vote on the one "they preferred."

Out of 12 people, only one preferred Perrier Ice Mountain brand spring water, three preferred tap water, and eight people didn't have any preference. Mrs. Kanno commented that the hardest part of performing the taste was buying bottled water!

The next time you see someone drinking bottled spring water, ask them why; then tell them what you already know: it's a money-making gimmick!

--From CCNews