Sparkling water? Mineral water? What's a GOOD TASTING thirst quencher for normal down time?

[Major Nikon]

37. All of the things you describe are carbonated water

Carbonation can occur either naturally or artificially. Natural sources aren't necessarily better, but they do tend to be more expensive and they can be easily replicated by matching the mineral content and the same level of carbonation. People in Europe much more commonly drink plain carbonated water than those in the Americas. I love plain carbonated water after a good coffee.

Unless you are drinking true reverse osmosis or distilled water, all water you drink carbonated or not has some mineral content. You wouldn't want to drink either of the former anyway because it would taste very flat and be much less palatable. So all drinking water has minerals that are either naturally occurring or are added after the naturally occurring ones are removed.

I suppose if certain mineral contents were too high, it could cause health problems, but with pretty much all commercial drinking water, carbonated or not, this isn't a problem.