Best Tasting Water? – Pulse of the Planet

What Gives Water its Taste?

Ambience: Stream
Water. And if you think that the best tasting water would be purest with the least traces of minerals in it, you’re in for a surprise. I’m Jim Metzner and this is the Pulse of the Planet.

Ambience; River, stream

Schreiber:In my lab, I have a system that takes all the minerals out, and I use that water to make solutions, and I want that water to be as close to pure water as possible. But if you drink it, it doesn’t have much flavor.

Madeline Schreiber is a professor of Geosciences at Virginia Tech. She says that’s it’s the trace elements that give water its flavor.

Schreiber: If you just have water by itself without any elements or minerals in it, it would not taste like much.
So, for example, when you drink a bottled water, oftentimes that water, like a Dasani or Aquafina, these are waters that are treated surface water, and actually elements have been added to give it a specific taste. And Coke and Pepsi have focus groups that actually taste water, and these focus groups give them information on – should they add more calcium, should they add more magnesium to give it the taste that people prefer.
In the US, we tend to like more dilute water, meaning it has a little bit of calcium and a little bit of magnesium. If you’re used to drinking groundwater in limestone areas, then your water has a lot of calcium carbonate and magnesium in it, and it’s going to have a certain mineral taste to it. But people who grew up in cities tend to prefer more dilute waters ’cause that’s what they’re used to.
In Europe, where they tend to drink more mineral water, a lot of those waters have a lot of minerals in them, like sulfate, but it gives it a flavor that a lot of Europeans, and some Americans that have traveled to Europe, they prefer that taste.

We’ll hear more on water in future programs. I’m Jim Metzner and this is the Pulse of the Planet.

Best Tasting Water?

You're in for a surprise.

Air Date:11/22/2021

Scientist:

Transcript:

What Gives Water its Taste? Ambience: Stream Water. And if you think that the best tasting water would be purest with the least traces of minerals in it, you're in for a surprise. I'm Jim Metzner and this is the Pulse of the Planet. Ambience; River, stream Schreiber:In my lab, I have a system that takes all the minerals out, and I use that water to make solutions, and I want that water to be as close to pure water as possible. But if you drink it, it doesn't have much flavor. Madeline Schreiber is a professor of Geosciences at Virginia Tech. She says that's it's the trace elements that give water its flavor. Schreiber: If you just have water by itself without any elements or minerals in it, it would not taste like much. So, for example, when you drink a bottled water, oftentimes that water, like a Dasani or Aquafina, these are waters that are treated surface water, and actually elements have been added to give it a specific taste. And Coke and Pepsi have focus groups that actually taste water, and these focus groups give them information on – should they add more calcium, should they add more magnesium to give it the taste that people prefer. In the US, we tend to like more dilute water, meaning it has a little bit of calcium and a little bit of magnesium. If you're used to drinking groundwater in limestone areas, then your water has a lot of calcium carbonate and magnesium in it, and it's going to have a certain mineral taste to it. But people who grew up in cities tend to prefer more dilute waters 'cause that's what they're used to. In Europe, where they tend to drink more mineral water, a lot of those waters have a lot of minerals in them, like sulfate, but it gives it a flavor that a lot of Europeans, and some Americans that have traveled to Europe, they prefer that taste. We'll hear more on water in future programs. I'm Jim Metzner and this is the Pulse of the Planet.