I used to use bottled water for drinking and cooking, until I purchased this jug. Overall I am very pleased with the purchase. The design is good, it looks elegant, and you don't need to open the lid to fill the water which is convenient. However, I agree with previous customer reviews that it leaks from the handle if filled to the top (hence 4 stars). I can definitely taste the difference between filtered water and tap water, it's got rid of the bleachy smell of tap water, and gives the water a slightly sweet/pure taste.
There's a BRITA Meter in the lid, which is "the first intelligent cartridge exchange indicator with 3 Way measurement of water quality". This is somewhat convenient because it tells you when to change the cartridge. However I'm not too sure whether this actually gives an accurate measurement of the water quality, or it's just another posh version of the 'Memo' indicator found on some other BRITA jugs, which typically tells you to change after 1 month. This speculation initially came up as I saw the metering pins were actually in contact with the unfiltered water at the top part of the jug (i.e., not yet being filtered through the cartridge), so measuring the quality of unfiltered water is pointless in my opinion, and I can't justify the quality of unfiltered tap water changing from 100% to 0% over a matter of weeks. Well, I could be wrong, perhaps I haven't quite grasped the measuring mechanism of it yet. Anyway the other evidence was that, I went on a 1-week trip during which I obviously didn't use the jug, but the indicator still prompted me to change new cartridge after about 1 month of use (I didn't use it heavily in the other 3 weeks either). Having said that, even if it's just another version of 'memo' indicator which promps you to change the cartridge after 1 month, it's still better than not having it at all.