Does Water Have A Smell/Taste?

[taras]

Well, does it?

 

[stu neville]

I've never tasted pure, completely unadulterated H2O: I doubt many people have, TBH. Tap water round here tastes horrible. Mineral waters can taste different to one another. So yes, water does have a taste, to me at least.

I'll change the poll option in line with your post

 

[taras]

Ta Stu for fixing the poll.

Don't let this influence your vote anyone:

wa·ter ( P ) Pronunciation Key (wôtr, wtr)
n.
A clear, colorless, odorless, and tasteless liquid, H2O, essential for most plant and animal life and the most widely used of all solvents.

 

[Yithian]

mmm

 

[stu neville]

Ta Stu for fixing the poll.

Yes, that's as in repair, rather than rig

 

[Yithian]

mmm

 

[stu neville]

Egad, you'll all agree with me about the taste of water, just see if you don't!

Bwah ha ha ha!

 

[Anonymous]

If water has taste or smell (for human senses at least) then it's due to whatever is dissolved in it (minerals, chlorine, chemicals, plastic, metals .etc.)
But thinking about this, why doesn't it? It's the most essential thing for life to thrive, so from an evolutionary standpoint why isn't it readily detectable? I believe it may be to some animals, though perhaps one of our cryptozoologists would be better qualified to answer that.

 

[marion]

There are a couple of mineral springs locally , the Chalice well spring is full of iron salts and tastes like blood , even more gross is the mineral spring near Shapwick , along the Poldens from here , it is a sulphur spring and it stinks , I wouldn't try that to see what it tastes like if you payed me .

 

[taras]

It's the most essential thing for life to thrive, so from an evolutionary standpoint why isn't it readily detectable?

Possibly because as soon as you give something a taste, there is bound to be someone or something that doesn't like that taste. And then they're screwed.

(Not literally, I must add.)

 

[Yithian]

mmm

 

[Pinklefish]

I think there should be an extra choice for "I don't know, I've never tasted pure water".

flibbert

 

[gyrtrash]

What's 'pure' water?!
When I run the bath, I can smell the chlorine, like a public swimming pool...
Apparently(!?) Yorkshire Water is one of the few companies to NOT flouridate the water supply. Thankful for small mercies!

The best water I ever tasted was from a beck running off Ilkley moor, on a scorching mid-summer's morning, after a hard nights drinking!
Even the little wriggly things in it didn't put us off... :eek!!!!:

 

[Spookyangel]

Not meaning to sound like a health guru (I've been accused before!), but if you drink a lot of water, you can taste the difference between the water from different places.
I'd never drink the tap water when I lived in Worcester, it was revolting!The bath water used to be green.
But here, it's lovely.

 

[rynner2]

Pure (ie distilled) water is pretty tasteless - yuk!
It's the trace substances in it that provide the taste, and also affect properties like how well it washes clothes, or how your soap lathers in the shower.

And, of course, how stuff like tea tastes. Tea companies offer different blends in different parts of this country to suit the local water.

(Which probably makes a nonsense of people who take 'English' tea abroad, since the 'abroad' water may not be suitable for that blend of tea.)

 

[Pete Younger]

I remember climbing mount snowden in my youth and about three quarters the way up stopped to drink from a spring, that was the best tasting water I've experienced before or since.

 

[taras]

The common feature of all "best water I've ever had" stories seems to be that the people involved have been walking for hours on a hot and sunny day

Incidentally, the best water I have ever had was on such a day, when I was on a hike in the Cairngorms. But that was genuinely lovely.

 

[Pinklefish]

best water I had was when I was a kid, from my nan's tap in her house in Clacton!
I think it was a long hot car journey...

 

[Pete Younger]

best water I had was when I was a kid, from my nan's tap in her house in Clacton!
I think it was a long hot car journey...

You do love to bring people down to earth Pink.:sceptic:

 

[butterfly27]

As a kid I went holidaying on a farm in Northumberland. There was a spring in the field about 10 yards from the cottage and that was where we got all our water for tea, cooking and drinking. It had a really good taste.

Mind you, if I'd been a little older I might have questioned the fact that we shared the spring with a herd of cows!

 

[fiktishus]

Hmm...if we are discussing bottled waters...they certainly do taste very different from each other.

I have a favourite, its relatively cheap and has a clean refreshing and smooth taste that is easy to drink in any quantity.


I hate the expensive popular brand name ones...I'm yet to try any that are to my liking!
Hmm, bottled water is not cheap though, sometimes costing more than carbonated fizzy drinks.
Why is that???
You would think it would cost more for all the different ingredients, advertising, preparation time etc.

I am not the adventurist type who drinks out of creeks or streams...probably because i know that aquatic animals have sex in it...eww.
:cross eye:

I will drink tap water that has been filtered though...if I have to.

 

[ruffready]

people go to say "Mexico" and their ...

told, "don't drink the water"!!so they don't . Then while at the clubs at night ,their drinking mixed drinks (in mexico) with ice cubes ..and can't figure out why most of the next day their on the throne in the bathroom reading comic books thinking (I'm glad I brought these along, yuk yuk yuk duh huh duh huh):blah:

 

[Anome]

As someone who has drunk distilled water (I thought everyone tried those washbottles in Chemistry - I even know one guy who's tasted acetone because he wasn't paying attention), I would say it still -sort of- has a taste. Of course, it's unlikely that the distilled water was completely pure, and it did start as Brisbane water, which has a lot of stuff to get rid of, ao that may explain it.

As to why water doesn't have a pleasing taste to make you drink it, it has something even more effective: Thirst. As others have pointed out, the neutral taste helps you determine if it's OK to drink, but to make sure you don't forget to drink, you get thirsty, which has a bit more of an impact than "Water tastes nice, I think I'll have some."

 

[Anonymous]

I remenber once after a day of crosscountry skiing and being incredibly dehydrated, drinking water and it tasted sweet, like there was sugar in it. It was just regular bottled water, but I have noticed that the thirstier I am, the better the water tastes.

 

[Anonymous]

lukewarm/room temp water via a pipe tastes like the material the pipe is made of, i.e. PVC, metal, etc.

cold, winter tap water is crisp and clean, it has a wonderful taste.

cold bottle water tastes like shite...like chemicals.

warm/hot water tastes "milky".

 

[rynner2]

As to why water doesn't have a pleasing taste to make you drink it, it has something even more effective: Thirst. As others have pointed out, the neutral taste helps you determine if it's OK to drink, but to make sure you don't forget to drink, you get thirsty, which has a bit more of an impact than "Water tastes nice, I think I'll have some."

This is something that has always puzzled me about 'pleasure' in connection with evolution. The idea that pleasure motivates us to have sex and thus perpetuate the race seems an odd way to go - could we not have a pleasure free sex drive? Do animals enjoy sex? I'd have my doubts about the male spiders who get eaten by their mates!

The mating drive is often (always?) driven by pheromones. Perhaps pleasure is just a non-essential frill (and thrill!) that got tacked on almost by accident.


The girl who survived three days in the Australian jungle managed to find water - I don't know if she's commented on the taste! Incidentally, if you were lost in a jungle, what strategy would you follow to get out? I think I'd try walking downhill, and then following streams and rivers. (At least you'd have water!) But knowing my luck, I'd end up in some dismal swamp full of crocs...:eek!!!!:

 

[stu neville]

I think I'd try walking downhill, and then following streams and rivers. (At least you'd have water!)

Exactly what I was taught on a survival course thing some years ago: downhill until you find moving water, follow the flow of the water til you reach a settlement. Civilisation is always downstream.

ibid
But knowing my luck, I'd end up in some dismal swamp full of crocs...:eek!!!!:

They didn't cover crocs.... Perhaps I should see if I can get my money back...

 

[Pete Younger]

Civilisation is always downstream.

Apart from the village thats upstream from the one thats downstream.

 

[stu neville]

OK Pete: if we're ever together in that situation, I'll go downstream, you can go upstream

 

[Pete Younger]

OK Pete: if we're ever together in that situation, I'll go downstream, you can go upstream

No it's ok Stu. I'll stick with you, my sense of direction's crap anyway.