>I remember many years ago when bottled water was still sort of a yuppy thing, there was a test shown on TV (done by 20-20 maybe?). They did blind tests on water. first they got the tasters to sign up saying what bottled waters they preferred, and then did the blind tests. The water that won the test was LA Tap water, IIRC. What was really funny though was that so many of the tasters wrote truly derogatory comments about what were supposedly their favourite waters. It was pretty much of a joke.

One very good episode of Penn & Teller's series BS on Showtime (all available on video) does this. They set up an actor as a waiter in an expensive restaurant and he tells all customers that they are conducting a bottled water test for these new brands from Europe. He then proceeds to bring one of them, then another, and ask for comparison. What he does in between is go out back and fill each and every bottle from a garden hose. People comment on how this brand is better than the other and so on.


>The other thing that confuses me a little is the Britta purifier and others like it. My mother has one, but I've never been able to convince myself that a $30.00 Britta will do anything more or better than the multi-million dollar purifying system the city uses.

I see a change in color and taste at home. I buy a box of 4 Britta filters and it lasts me for a year, changing them about quarterly when their indicator reaches the limit.