The quality of tap water varies widely around this nation. New Orleans, for example, has long struggled with toxins in their water supply from all the pollution in the Mississippi River, where they get their water. New York City, a heavily populated place, has fabulous tap water - probably due to diligent and expensive efforts to make it pure. Appleton, like New York City, has excellent tap water. I think it's because of an advanced and relatively expensive process used by Appleton to purify the water that is taken in from Lake Winnebago. You can read about the ultrafiltration process and the history of the Appleton Water Works system at FoxValleyMemory.com. With this process, Appleton's water tastes great, but some other nearby communities just aren't as lucky. Water in Menasha and Kaukauna, for example, just tastes different and is not as good.

Water in Appleton is fluoridated. For adults who don't want added fluoride in their bodies, bottled water is an alternative, though I'm not sure it's really needed. But if you do prefer bottled water - something I've been trying lately - there are quite a few good choices in this area. My favorite is Ice Mountain, a Midwest brand of spring water product made by Nestle Waters North America. One thing you have to realize when you buy bottled water is that some products are just tap water that have been filtered, but may still have fluoride and chlorinated compounds. I recommend using spring water.

Not all spring water is equal. The worst bottled water I've ever tasted is spring water packaged by Premium Waters of Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, and sold by Wal-Mart in 1-gallon plastic jugs, the same cheap plastic jugs used for milk. Though it claims to be spring water, the flavor of the plastic dominates - tastes like a heavy dose of petrochemicals in every drop. Appalling! But it's only about 62 cents per gallon, so it's the cheapest bottled water around. Maybe good for watering plants you don't like all that much, or for emergency storage.

On the other hand, I really like the flavor of Ice Mountain, and am impressed with the company. I called customer service to find out about fluoride levels in the water ("no fluoride"), and was pleased with how kind and responsive the service people were. Even sent me a nice packet of information about the impressive processes they use to ensure the water comes from clean, safe sources and is pure and delicious.