This may not be a revelation to many of you but natural spring water can taste really, really good. We and my wife's parents have recently begun stopping off at a natural spring just off of Route 55 near the Virginia-West Virginia border. We had made a number of trips before that and we always saw people stopped there, so we figured that it must be worth it to fill up.
The spring is quite a bit away from both of our homes, so we've invested in a few reasonably large (7-gallon) water containers, and transport them whenever we travel to make a visit.
We didn't do any investigation of the spring or tested the water before consuming it. I guess that's a danger of natural water sources, but I guess if it were badly polluted we would be able to smell it at room temperature. (EDIT: That's not true. Giardia doesn't announce itself like this. Boiling the water for a minute or, for higher altitudes, boiling and treating it will help to kill off these.) But so far the water has been more than just all right. After a couple of cold days the water froze in the containers and as it was melting it was probably the most refreshing drink I've had in a long time.
Anyway, I've gushed and bubbled enough, so spring forth and pick up some very liquid natural assets. 😉
Unfortunately, it's not just pollution that you have to worry about in water from untreated sources. Ever had giardiasis? It's the most common waterborne disease in the US, and one of the transmission vectors is ingesting Giardia cysts. Since these cysts can live in cold water for months, and Giardia is endemic to all parts of the US, any untreated source of water should be viewed with suspicion.
(http://www.medicinenet.com/giardia_lamblia/article.htm)
Yes, that water tastes good by itself, but you really need to boil, chemically treat, or filter it before drinking or cooking with it. Getting sick from your free water is not a very frugal choice.
My parents used to live on the island of Fiji because of my dad's assignment there. I visited a few times and discovered that Fiji Water is indeed collected and bottled in Fiji (it's big there). However, despite it's remote and island paradise image, the water tastes pretty much the same as any purified bottled water brand. I really can't tell!
-Raymond
I think I'll just stay with tap water. It's subject to higher standards than spring water whether it's the free kind of the bottled kind.