MY GRADE: 
Something has gone terribly wrong.
When I was a kid I used to drink from a hose in the backyard. Now I won’t drink Arrowhead water because they don’t use the reverse osmosis process, they merely deionize. (And the last thing I want in my water are ions! Uch. Can you imagine, all the ions I foolishly ingested in my childhood?)
How did this happen? Why are we so touchy about water yet we’re willing to scarf down two dozen Chicken McNuggets without the least concern that they may be made of 90% chicken ass?
I even find myself scoffing at the “generic” bottled water sold at the supermarket. Because generic water isn’t specifically tasty enough, I guess?
Has there ever been a more brilliant marketing campaign than the one that convinced human beings to buy a product that not only comes out of you tap for free, but also covers two-thirds of the Earth?
And yet we can’t help ourselves. Some of us (whom I will charitably refer to as “really rich douchebags”) actually spent upwards of $33 for a 2 oz bottle of Hawaiian Deep Sea Water. Because nothing sounds quite as clean and refreshing as water that’s been pooped in by ugly fish at the bottom of the sea with lights on them: 
Bottled water companies have managed to plant imagery in my head I can’t shake. When I think of drinking from the tap, I imagine my water taking traveling a dark and murky path — through rusted, moldy pipes, past faulty sewage processing plants, through sulfurous tire factory backwash, up through the abandoned well that contains that scary girl from The Ring. Finally, a substance emerges from my faucet laden with enough deadly microscopic bacteria to make Jonas Salk shiver.
When I drink bottled water I think of nature’s purest nectar, cascading down the snow-capped mountains of Colorado, tricking into cool natural springs untouched by man, flocks of caribou frolicking along the riverbank.
Sigh.
(How do they bottle the water if the spring is untouched by man, you ask? How the hell do I know? Why do you have to ruin this for me???)
Fiji water is bottled in Fiji, which is across the international date line. So…it tastes like water from tomorrow, which makes it worth the premium for me.
Oh I agree w/ chillbidley. I find myself buying $3.50 bottles of Fiji every day on my way to the gym even though that square bottle doesn’t even fit in the cup holder! Fiji- It just tastes better!
I’m also a sucker for smart water. Do I really need electrolytes in my water?
My mom couldn’t get me to drink water as a kid because I didn’t like the taste. She always argued with me that water didn’t have a taste; I stood firm in my resolve that it did. What I was tasting was chlorine, and the city water where I live now is even worse. You know that smell that hits you when you open the door to an indoor pool? The one that instantly burns blisters into all your facial mucous tissue? Yeah. It’s like that.
So I bought a filter for my tap. Problem solved, and I don’t have to pay $33 for pooped-in-by-ugly-fish-at-the-bottom-of-the-sea-with-lights-on-them-Hawaii water.
I confess. I don’t practice what I blog most of the time. Tap water tends to smell like the bottom of a fish bowl. But the point is, I bet bottled water is no healthier.
Just posted a very interesting graphic about bottled water. Even though it doesn’t have scary photos of ugly deep sea fish with lights on their heads, it’s worth taking a look at. http://grandrants.wordpress.com/2009/12/14/dont-drink-the-water/
It’ll make you think twice about that Fiji water of tomorrow, I bet.
Hi, I’m from a third world country.
The tap water was priced at $0.25/m3, while the bottled water varied between $0.25 to $1.00/gallon.
But as everyone in my beloved city knows, it’s worth all the money to buy bottled water. Why, you ask? Because the tap water had the exact journey that Dave described above, only it’s for real. Nobody want to risk drinking it.
Stoutcat
fascinating chart. Thanks for sharing.