#My info could be wrong - outdated - misremembered - and/or misunderstood

[ailithnight]

In fairness, water can have tastes and different waters (even different tap waters) can taste different. The tap where I live now tastes drastically different from the tap in Nashville where I grew up. Bottled water is the same. Both different brands and different localities of the same brand since most bottling places actually get their water local.

Interestingly, I hated the tap in Nashville. Although, there where other factors in my life at the time that steered me more often to sweet and caffeine, so... Anyway. The tap where I live now is tolerable. Don't love it, but I'll drink it when I'm thirsty. We didn't get much bottled water growing up (grandmother just didn't buy it often), so I don't really have a comparison there. But there's pretty much always bottled water here. And to my tastes, it's good water. Perfectly agreeable taste. And guess what! I drink a lot more water now than I ever did before.

Now before you say 'filter' at me like I'm dense. If I understand correctly, there are three primary factors (outside of an individuals plumbing situation) that affect how water tastes. Source, treatment, additives.

Even clean water can and usually does have trace minerals. Since water itself doesn't really have a flavor, what you are tasting is going to be that mineral profile.

It should come as no surprise that where exactly water comes from is going to affect what trace minerals are in it and how much of them there are.

Different localities also tend to have very slightly different treatment standards and processes. Which, again, will have different affects on that mineral composition. But the basics are the same. Disinfect and filter the water several times to remove impurities until it meets water purity standards.

The addition of things like chlorine and fluoride is once more going to add things which have a flavor to the otherwise flavorless water. And again, different places, slightly different practices. Additionally, bottled water companies like Dasani actually add trace minerals (after filtration) to try to keep a mostly consistent flavor around the world.

So; Source, Treatment, Additives. Now, an at home filter like a Brita is basically a secondary treatment process. So take a wild fuckin guess what running water through your filters is going to do.

(BTW, did you know that the chlorine added to water dissipates on it's own in an open container? That's why chlorine pools have to keep adding more. And also why my grandmother insisted on letting the water she watered her plants with sit in a pitcher for half an hour before dumping it on her flowers.)

All in all, water tastes like where it's from and what's been done to make it potable. Some people notice happen to notice this.

I wanna respect everyone’s preferences and I DO but there is a difference between Respecting and Understanding and that is where I am at with people who actively dislike Drinking Water. I know you exist. My brother is one of you. The Fuck do you mean “it tastes bad” it has the least amount of taste a thing can have. Fucking Air Scented LaCroix. “It tastes bad” fucking WINDEX tastes bad COW SHIT tastes bad. what the hell are you talking about