Re: What is the difference between bottled water and distilled water?

Pure is a tough description to tackle because every water is different but I can help you with the difference between the types of water you described.

Distilled water is water that has been recondensed from steam. Water is heated to boiling and the water vapor (steam) is collected and condensed back into a pure liquid. Any impurities like minerals, stay as a residue in the original liquid, separate from the distilled water. Distilled is probably considered the most pure.

Bottled water is tougher because it takes many forms: spring, purified, and mineral are the most common but there is also sparkling, artesian, etc. Spring water, like Evian, comes from groundwater that rises to the surface naturally. The composition of this water is not allowed to be changed before it is bottled. Mineral water is water naturally containing not less than 250 parts per million total dissolved solids. Note: a lot of people think Dasani is mineral water but it isn't. Dasani is purified water that has had minerals added back. Purified water is basically tap water that has gone through additional treatment processes like filtration, reverse osmosis and/or ozonation to remove more impurities and make the water taste better. It is almost always more pure than your tap water.

If you'd like more information about bottled water, visit the International Bottled Water Association. There is also more information about bottled water in our MadSci archives - like this question about which is healthier.

But, to get back to your question, distilled water is more pure than bottled but bottled definitely tastes better. And now I am very thirsty...

Enjoy!

Kieran