Is dasani water in the US just bottled tap water?

40 comments

1. The only time I buy bottled water is when there isn’t an available alternative. Like getting stuck at an outdoor event and forgetting to bring my water bottle or something.

   Almost all bottled water is just tap water.

   Very few people buy bottled water because they have to. In most cases I question their judgement.

2. The only reason to buy bottled water at all is because the tap water where you are is too bad to want to drink it. So I guess that’s why. Tap water from another tap where the water tastes fine is better than nasty water.

3. Some people only drink bottled water and it’s strange to me. See my family for example. They buy a huge case every week.

   Many of my coworkers would rather spend 2 bucks at the vending machine for a bottle of water every day, while they ask me how I can fill up my reusable bottle from the break room sink like it’s some horrifying thing.

4. I’m pretty sure it’s just purified tap water (probably some reverse osmosis in the process). It’s not like from glaciers or some specific spring or anything.

   I think we buy bottled water mainly for convenience. Not because it comes from some magical spring.

   ETA: Some parts of the country have not great tasting tap water. My wife doesn’t like the taste of tap water when we travel to South Padre Island, TX, for example (the water is perfectly safe). So she buys bottled water when we visit there.

5. Bottled water basically originated in the US as an alternative to sodas, so that wherever you might take a bottle, like an event or picnic or road trip, or some place you wouldn’t have simple access to tap water, instead of taking/getting a soft drink, you could take water and be healthier. That was the whole marketing thing.

   And then it got a little weird for some people.

6. Pretty much all bottled water is just tap water, usually run through a filter for taste.

   People buy it for convenience or because their tap water has a disagreeable taste.

   Personally I haven’t bought bottled water in years and only when it is for convenience like I am on a road trip and I don’t have a water bottle. I almost always have a water bottle though.

7. In general most bottled waters are actually worse quality than a lot of tap water. This is because there are fewer restrictions on bottled water off and than municipal water. And then you have that water just sitting in plastic for months on end

8. Most bottled water is just tap water, maybe they filter again. I only keep it on hand during hurricane season in case the power goes out, otherwise I just drink tap water.

9. For what it’s worth, tap water in the US can vary from place to place. Well water versus city water was massively differently for me when I was growing up.

10. It’s bottle in Atlanta and tastes like Atlanta tap water (which is absolutely amazing btw).

11. Pretty much. It’s more so the convenience of having water anywhere without the need to bring a water bottle

12. Almost all bottled water is just tap water. You’re paying for the convenience of the bottle, not the water.

    Personally, I find Dasani to be the least offensive-tasting of most bottled water brands, not that I drink a lot of bottled water, unless I’m on a road trip or at the airport or something.

13. No, Dasani is not bottled tap water.

    It seems like a lot of people in this thread aren’t up to date on types of bottled water.

    Dasani is “purified water” which means that they filter the water and add tiny amounts of minerals to it. For Dasani, they say it makes it taste better.

    The common alternatives you will find in a grocery store are distilled water, which is water that has been distilled to purify it and remove minerals/etc, and spring water, which comes directly from a spring and is therefore not treated.

14. Italy, France, Germany, Belgium, and Austria all consume 2-3x as much bottled water per capita as the US.

    It’s sold simply as a convenience product. When you’re out and about and you stop at a convenient store, you can usually pay like $.10 for a cup of water, or you can pay $1.29 for a bottle with a lid. Most people just go with the bottle because it’s easier to carry around.

    My family has a water filter on the kitchen sink at home so we can get *better than tap* (but tap is fine) whenever we want, and we all carry double insulated water bottles with us most of the time. So, we never really buy it.

15. Filtered bottled tap water, but yes. Tap water

16. Some places the tap water is undrinkable (either literally or it smells/tastes so bad people just don’t).

    I have really nice tap water in my area so people buy it here mostly when they don’t want to drink other options (many stores don’t offer a tap option) or they don’t want/have a reusable bottle option (like some work environments).

17. Are there no brands of water in the UK that are simply “drinking water”? All of them are spring, distilled, mineral, etc? Is this by law or consumer choice or other?

18. I think all bottled water is.

    It’s not the water you’re paying for, it’s the convenience. I don’t always have the option of just getting water from a tap, unless that tap is in a gas station bathroom, which I’m not using lol

    Most people don’t buy bottled water unless they have a need for that convenience.

    We buy it if we are going on road trips, or if we are going to be out on a boat all day, or if we are going on a bike ride and forgot our own bottles, stuff like that.

19. Yeah its pretty much just filtered tap water. It’s mainly an alternative to bottled sodas for situations where immediate access to a glass of water or filling up a reusable bottle isn’t convenient – picnics, sports events, travelling etc

    As for people who choose to drink bottled water when clean tap water is already just as easily available? I can’t explain that.

20. Yeah pretty much. The only reason to buy it is if your tap water is unfilterably toxic, and that’s pretty rare.

21. Most bottled waters are “tap” water that has been filtered through one or more processes. So yes.

    Others have discussed why… people don’t have access to water they know is both safe and tasty (e.g., I’m on a road trip–I’m not going to fill up a water bottle from a convenience store bathroom); their local tap water is not tasty (and the purchaser is unwilling or unable to filter water at home); they *think* their water is not tasty (cognitive dissonance kind of thing); they *believe* that the bottled water is “healthier” somehow (success in marketing); or it’s otherwise not convenient (like a party, or an outdoor gathering without good access to a water source AND cups or other drinking vessels).

22. I like it when I’m away from Atlanta because it tastes like home (it’s Atlanta tapwater).

    But yeah usually I drink when traveling or if I don’t have access to water for some reason.

23. Most bottled water – everywhere, not just the US – is just bottled tap water.

    Some people just have a strong taste preference for some tap water over other tap water, which is bizarre to me, because dude its **water**.

24. We keep a case of bottled water in the basement, because for whatever reason my town likes to flush the hydrants or something every month (meaning my water is brown for a few hours).

25. Most bottled water is just tap water unless they specifically say it’s spring water.

    But Desani gets a bad rap because they put salt in it.

26. It’s normal tap water that’s been filtered. Reverse osmosis, I think. It’s not spring water, which is what I think some people expect. Same thing with Aquafina. Arrowhead *is* spring water.

    Lots of places in the US have excellent water out of the tap. Almost all have *safe* water, but some places (COUGHphoenix) uses wayyyyyy too much chlorine, and it tastes like shit.

27. I really don’t understand a lot of why people do things. I rarely drink bottled water. Here in Chicagoland most of us get water from Lake Michigan (treated, of course). The town I lived in was one the holdouts on municipal wells, and that water came from the Lake Superior aquifer (very deep wells) and it had a good amount of iron but tasted fantastic. The water quality is excellent. To me, it’s a fool’s errand most of the time. Most issues can be cured with a filter pitcher and a reusable cooler bottle.
    That said, my better half buys bottled water for work, because despite the school having filtered bottle filling stations he’s seen kids stick their mouths in there to get a drink. (“Better to buy bottles than catch ebola from one of those suckers”).

28. So, your question is itself flawed, because it wasn’t just tap water. Tap water was the source.

    At every Coke and Pepsi factory in the world, the factory takes in tap water from the municipal supply. It’s periodically tested, and then ran through a reverse osmosis filtration system.

    To make soda, they then add the syrup and carbonation.

    To make bottled water, they return some of the lost minerals.

    Then it’s bottled.

    There’s a video (Tom Scott I think?) Where the LA Coke bottler was the first to alert the city that something was wrong with the water, when their tests came back with unsafe chemical levels. So they filled the reservoir with plastic balls.

    So, is it made the same way here as it was then? Mostly, they did alter the minerals to suit the expected taste by the UK public. Is it just tap water? No, it’s gone through more processing than that.

29. Yes, it is just bottled tap water. I’m not sure why they buy it. If I’m going to pay for water, though, it’s going to at least be spring water.

30. Where does locally bottled UK water come from if not from local water lines or local water sources used by the local water system? Do y’all import special water bottles from some other location exclusively?

31. Yeah, it basically is… I think it may get run through an industrial sized Britta-type filter. The main reason it exists is convenience.

32. Dasani is basically coca cola without the flavoring syrup added. Filtered tap water. If your tap tastes bad, first try running it for ten seconds before tasting. Then if it’s still bad, buy a Brita filter and reusable bottle.

33. That’s bottled water in a nutshell. I don’t care much for bottled water, I mostly drink it when I’m at work because the water from the fountains has a weird taste that my stomach doesn’t like. When I’m at home, we got a Brita pitcher filter

34. What else are we supposed to drink 4 hours in to an 8 hour drive?

    I usually try to bring my own tap water with me if I’ll be away from home for more than 30 minutes, but sometimes I don’t bring enough. For the record I don’t like Dasani I prefer Aquafina or whatever is cheapest.

35. It’s bottled tap water that’s filtered so that it doesn’t taste chlorinated. All US tap water is potable, but that doesn’t mean it tastes good.

36. >Dasani bottled water was a flop in the UK because it came out it was just tap water that literally everyone can get at home.

    Are we ignoring that the UK has many water brands, many of which is just tap, that sells millions a year.

    [https://www.statista.com/statistics/1272201/top-bottled-water-brands-uk/](https://www.statista.com/statistics/1272201/top-bottled-water-brands-uk/)

    Volvic, Evlan, Highland Spring, Buxton and Pure Life has millions of sales in the UK.

37. It is sort of but we buy it for the convenience of having quick cold water that we can dispose of when it’s empty. It also lasts a long time if you don’t open it so it is good for emergencies

38. Dasani probably also flopped because it sucks. As far as bottled water goes, Dasani is dry and bitter with a hint of plastic. Other brands are usually refreshing or at least neutral in their mineral/filtered taste.

39. Dasani is the bottled water brand sold by Coca-Cola. It is made from municipal water, much like Coca-Cola itself.

    One reason to buy bottled water I haven’t yet seen mentioned is that it is shelf-stable, unlike water from the tap. I usually buy a few large jugs (usually store brand, and altogether about 40 l) to keep in a closet through hurricane season.

40. It’s actually worse than tap water