If you have been convinced through vigorous advertisement campaigns by bottled water manufacturers that indicate that their water comes from cool mountain springs or from mineral-rich water from lakes or mountain peaks, then you could be mistaken. It is important for you to know in bottled water which brands are tap water so as to make an informed choice.
You might have noticed an increasing number of brands being sold in stores and would have found it difficult to make up your mind. Most people stick to buying bottled water from companies that are known to them or those that have advertised aggressively. However, regulations governing the manufacture, advertising and sale of bottled water are quite hazy and this gives most manufacturers, even the well-known ones a chance to mislead consumers. Some bottled water manufacturers show photos of snow-capped mountains while others show mountain springs flowing past on labels. However, the water that is inside those bottles is simply derived from tap water.
Major well-known brands that sell water that is merely taken from municipal sources and then filtered again are Aquafina made by Pepsico and Dasani made by Coke. These companies take water that has already been purified by local authorities and then pass it through their own filtration plants before bottling them again and selling it to consumers including you. There are many other smaller brands that also use the same process. Bottles that indicate purified water or even simply drinking water on their labels could be derived from tap water. This water is sure to have almost all contaminants removed but in some cases, companies insert vital minerals and nutrients back into that water so as to promote it as a cleaner and healthier drink. Most advertisements also try to indicate that in a battle between bottled water versus tap water, it is the former that is much safer to drink, although some brands have taken out too many nutrients from the water to make it nutritious in the long run while others have not even filtered the water as per the required safety standards.
The bottles too require a lot of crude oil to produce and pose a problem while being disposed. A cost-effective and environmentally helpful option would be to simply use a full-size water dispenser that connects to your tap or uses the inverted 3 or 5 gallon water bottle. You could now get access to hot and cold water or use a smaller dispenser-cum-purifier to get pure drinking water that could be kept in the fridge to be chilled. You could easily get safe drinking water with this method or choose some of the delicious flavors available in the market to make chilled and tasty flavored water. If you must drink bottled water, then stick to drinking natural bottled water, but only after confirming that it has been actually derived from mountain springs that are really rich in providing minerals and other nutrients.
With regulations regarding bottled water not being very effective, you could simply be drinking bottled water that is taken from a tap instead of the fancy mountain peak or spring that the label denotes. There might not be any special benefits in drinking bottled water if it is just tap water that has been re-purified or even simply re-packed. It is vital for you to realize in bottled water which brands are tap water so that you do not end up paying more money for a bottle of water instead of just drinking a glass of tap water that costs thousand of times less.