News: Water from the tap, bottle or filtered: what is best to cook in Spain?

Water is water, but the taste and constituents of water are not always the same with different types and types of water.

You will notice that in Spain very clearly the taste and smell when drinking water. But what is the best water for cooking?

The moment you want to make pasta, rice or soup in Spain or even want to make coffee and tea, many people in Spain wonder which water is best to use.

The one does not difficult and just uses the potable tap water and says that there is nothing wrong with that. The other prefers to use filtered water or even mineral water from bottles for cooking. And then there is the modern saline seawater which is used in the preparation of seafood and fish.

Tap water

The water that comes out of the tap is just drinking water in practically all of Spain and there is nothing wrong with it besides the taste and the smell of chlorine. At the moment of cooking with water, most inhabitants of Spain also use tap water because according to them the smell and taste disappear during the cooking process.

However, water has to be distinguished from the tap (agua del grifo) in hard water (agua dura) and soft water (agua blanda) where many talk about different cooking times for the two types of tap water.

The difference is in the amount of lime and minerals, especially magnesium. In hard water they are more concentrated and leave more deposits, which means they also have a worse taste. Therefore, the hard water is seen as less suitable for cooking. In addition to a better taste and less limescale, cooking with soft water is also faster.

In general, the regions Madrid, the Basque Country, Galicia and Navarre (despite what the mineral water companies claim) have excellent soft water of good quality. In Catalonia, Comunidad de Valencia, Murcia and Canary Islands it is different and one has to deal with hard water of lesser quality. That does not mean that it is not drinking water, but the taste is different.

Bottled water

Those who prefer not to use tap water when cooking or making tea or coffee will in most cases switch to the mineral water from the bottles or jerry cans.

Especially in the areas of Spain where people are dealing with hard water, use is more often made of water from the bottle or jerrycan. There is obviously nothing wrong with that, but water from the bottle does mean that they have to be bought and all plastic is not really good for the environment.

Filtered water

Those who still want to use tap water but do not feel like carrying the bottles or jerry cans of water and do not want it because of the environmental pollution, can use various systems to filter the tap water.

This can be done by fixed filters that are connected to the faucets via a system or even have an extra tap of filtered water in the kitchen. It can also be done by means of movable filters such as the well-known systems of the brand Brita, to name just one.

Of course, the filters and the system used for filtering tap water also have costs that can sometimes be high. There are also many people who are not satisfied with the taste of filtered water.

Seawater

The use of seawater (agua del mar) is something that has been done along the coast for centuries in the preparation of fish, shellfish and soups. Nowadays, however, there are more and more chefs who also use seawater in the preparation of different dishes. Of course, one has to take into account that sea water is salt, so adding extra salt is not necessary. In addition, it must be purified seawater, so not directly from the sea.