@daniel - Regarding the edit: the term mineral water can locally refer to different products -- water with minerals in it, or sparkling water ("soda water") and perhaps others. If you leave a bottle of mineral water … The main difference is the mineral content. Because people in Europe who buy bottled water developed a taste for this, they tend to expect bottled water to be mineral water, and for it to be naturally carbonated … The sparkling water you encountered in Europe is not soda water, which is carbonated tap water, but mineral water, carbonated water from thermal springs. I presume that the edit was targeted at a more specific description of the water… As carbonated waters became popular all over Europe, it became the norm for bottled water . Why do Europeans drink sparkling water? Again a generalization about “Europeans like this/that” … Ppl outside Europe need to understand that Europe is not a homogeneous continent so generalizations about Europeans are incorrect since everything in European … (Germans can be particular about anything they set their minds to.) Tap water was used for cleaning, washing and things of that nature, and carbonated water … For the most part, in Europe when you buy a bottle of water, what you're getting is the water from that spring as it naturally comes out. Though German tap water is among the safest and best-tasting in Europe, most Germans prefer bottled water, in mineral, sparkling, and … By the time tap water became healthy enough for Europeans to drink , they were already somewhat set in their preferences.