Welcome to part 4 of 6 on our water choices. (Check out Part 1, 2, and 3).

It’s time to talk taste, cuz the only thing worse than skunked water is skunked beer.

Most people cannot taste the difference in bottled waters or even high quality tap waters. I’ve conducted a number of water taste tests through the years. While individuals may have some preferences, over a large group there tends to be nothing that stands out.

The first questions…should water have a taste? I believe in this crazy thing called evolution…as humans we grew up on water that either bubbled to the surface or from a river/stream. All of those sources would naturally contain minerals from local sources (Ca, Mg, etc.). Those minerals impart taste, so yes water should taste like something.

But let’s focus on the negative, what exactly makes water taste “bad”?

Here is a rough list and some potential causes for that “bad” taste:
Note: In SF, we use chloramine instead of chlorine. I’ll go over that issue in my next post.

• Chlorine smell - smell w/o taste is an odd situation. It generally means not enough chlorine is in the water. What you are smelling is the unreacted chlorine.
• Chlorine smell and taste - this is the more typical too much chlorine in the water. Most humans can taste chlorine to about 5 ppm (some people are sensitive to 2 ppm). The EPA limit is 4 ppm. Most treatment plants shoot for a 3-4 ppm exit concentration at your tap. Certain conditions such as living close to a treatment plant or a system flush may spike the chlorine levels.
• Strong Dirt/Earth/Fish smell - Welcome to bacteria/algae country. In warmer areas, this happens seasonally when algae blooms. This is not something you should fix at home, call the water company.
• Metallic smell and taste - Most often this is corroding pipes (low ph water can be the culprit). The other potential is natural iron and manganese in the area.

Almost all of these only apply to tap water…I say that because bottled water is almost never treated with chlorine. If it is, some filtration is applied. In either case, these tend to be unlikely. If any of these conditions happened regularly with bottled water, consider it brand suicide.

Those are “bad”. The other complaints are uncomfortable tastes. This list is shorter:

• TDS (total dissolved solids) - This is a measure of inorganic and organic constituents. Mainly we’re talking about calcium, magnesium, chlorides, sodium bicarbonates, etc.). The EPA limit for TDS is 500 ppm, mainly for taste considerations. Most people notice differences around 200 ppm….at about 1000 ppm the water definitely tastes almost undrinkable.

The rest of the list includes: Chloride, Copper, Iron, Manganese , Sulfate, and Zinc. Most of these either impart a hardness or saltiness.

TDS is the main source of complaints taste wise. Bottled waters are not bound by the 500 ppm TDS limit. Often, bottled water will have higher TDS than tap (SF water ~ 100 mg/L, Fiji has a TDS of 210 mg/L). However, bottled waters are part of big brands….while their TDS may be higher, by no means do they generally have poor taste.

Takeaway:
Taste is subjective, at least up to 500 mg/L. If you’re curious about your water’s taste…check the TDS on the annual report first. It will be give you a good idea about whats going on.

Next up, a discussion on chlorine.