The Reason Some Water Tastes Better Than Others

Have you ever had a glass of water at a friend's house in a different state or city and noticed their water tasted different than what you're used to? Perhaps it had a milky or salty taste, or perhaps you noticed an odd smell like rotten eggs or mud. The taste of water — yes, there is a taste — depends on a lot of things that happen as water makes its way from its original source and into our homes. And, because how we get our water varies from place to place, your water could taste completely different from that of someone living right next door.

One of the biggest influences on how water tastes is the minerals it picks up from the ground. These minerals not only come from the original source — likely a reservoir, river, well, or spring — but are also picked up as the water travels to our pipes or a bottling facility. As a result, water often has a salty, milky, or bitter taste depending on whether or not there is more sodium, calcium, or magnesium, respectively, in the ground near your water source. It also picks up some elements from your pipes, which can give your water a metallic taste, or, if you get water from a well, you might get a chalky taste from limestone below ground.

Water may also be treated differently from town to town and home to home. For example, to keep our water safe from harmful microbes, most of the water in the United States is chlorinated. Although there is a set limit for how much chlorine can be used, communities use different levels of the chemical depending on the area's source of water, potential for contamination, availability of various filtration systems, and the use of other disinfectants. Although higher levels of chlorine in tap water are still safe, it may leave tap water in some areas tasting like bleach. 

The taste of tap water also depends on how filtered the water is before it hits your glass. Not only do communities use their own filtration systems, people often have filtration systems set up in their homes or use personal filtration systems, such as the Brita UltraMax. Makers of filtration systems claim the water has a cleaner, more neutral taste. And remember, the type of water you have doesn't just affect the way your water tastes, it also affects the taste of anything you make with it. For example, water can affect the taste of your coffee.

You may also have noticed that some bottled waters taste better than others. Bottled water, like tap water, comes from different sources and is treated differently depending on the source and on the bottlers' preferences. 

There are also different kinds of bottled water, including distilled water, which has anything that can be dissolved in it removed so it has little taste, and alkaline water, which is less acidic than typical water because it has a higher pH level. Mineral water on the other hand, according to U.S. Food and Drug Administration rules, tastes the way it does since it must contain a minimum level of minerals and trace elements from the water's source. And sometimes, bottled water is repackaged tap water, albeit often purified and fortified with electrolytes. Water may be a commodity, but there is more nuance to it than you may think.