Home Bread-Bakers v106.n025.1
[Advanced]

Re: Bottled water

Lorna Campbell <lcampbell@ecosse.net>
Sat, 17 Jun 2006 10:46:34 +0100
v106.n025.1
"bryan carmenati" <bryancar@greenhills.net> wrote:
>There are way too many 'acceptable' elements such as lime, calcium, 
>chlorine, etc. in U. S. tap water that will change the texture, 
>taste, baking qualities of a good bread.  Bottled water is 'pure' 
>water without all the chemicals added

Bryan,

I'm going to respectfully disagree here.  "pure" water as you 
describe it, without any chemicals in it, is known as "distilled 
water".  It is completely tasteless, and most people don't enjoy it at all.

Tap water, and most bottled waters too, do have chlorine added to 
reduce the risk of our picking up nasty bugs from drinking it.  The 
chemicals in the water, far from being added, are there at source, 
dissolved in the water.  Most European bottled water has a list of 
the dry content, and the taste of the water depends very much on 
where it comes from.

Unless you live in an area with water so hard that your tea comes out 
black and scummy (Northern France is a good example) then I doubt 
you'd notice any difference in your baking.  And frankly, even then I 
doubt it would make that much difference!

You might be surprised to investigate the contents of your bottled 
water vs. tap water.  Here in the UK research suggests that tap water 
is generally more "pure" than the bottled stuff, as the regulations 
are more stringent.

HTH.
Lorna