# what does desalinised water taste like? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 16, 2010, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-desalinised-water-taste-like/546911 "2010-07-16T13:50:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![bardos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bardos/32/1069_2.png) [@bardos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bardos)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2010, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-desalinised-water-taste-like/546911/1 "2010-07-16T13:50:34Z")
i have never tasted it but i’ve heard it isn’t like “normal” water. ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2010, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-desalinised-water-taste-like/546911/2 "2010-07-16T14:04:34Z")
Last time I was on Aruba, I felt the regular drinking water tasted a little flat. Got used to it in about six hours, after which I switched to Balashi for the remainder of my stay… ---
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2010, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-desalinised-water-taste-like/546911/3 "2010-07-16T14:07:22Z")
It’s like drinking distilled water. Go to the Walgreens and pick up a gallon of distilled water. NOT BOTTLED but DISTILLED water. Water naturally picks up trace elements and various other impurities that add to the taste. Distilled water is pure. That is why in the old days irons would tell you to only use distilled water as plain tap water would evenutally fill the iron with impurities. I found desalinised water to taste like distilled water to me. ---
**Author:** ![eenerms](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/cdc98d/32.png) [@eenerms](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eenerms)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2010, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-desalinised-water-taste-like/546911/4 "2010-07-16T14:10:32Z")
In Qatar most of the water is desalinized, tasted ok. They treated it with chlorine, so there was that. Couldn’t get cold water out of the taps though in the summer, though. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2010, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-desalinised-water-taste-like/546911/5 "2010-07-16T14:19:15Z")
Ever gone backpacking and boiled water to purify it? Tastes flat and not very good. I’d imagine desalinized is worse. ---
**Author:** ![OldGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/3bc359/32.png) [@OldGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OldGuy)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2010, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-desalinised-water-taste-like/546911/6 "2010-07-16T14:34:49Z")
Despite what others have said, desalinated water can have quite a taste. At least the desalinated water they had on Grand Cayman Island back in '98 tasted salty to me meaning, I assume, it hadn’t be completely desalinated. I really could only drink it by adding some powdered flavoring to it. The locals were used to it though ---
**Author:** ![Chessic\_Sense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7c8e57/32.png) [@Chessic\_Sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chessic_Sense)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2010, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-desalinised-water-taste-like/546911/7 "2010-07-16T14:52:25Z")
I consider myself a bit of a water connoisseur. I’ve tried water from almost all corners of the states. In order of tastiness: Virginia-Pennsylvania-Arizona-Arkansas-California-Mississippi-Florida. Canada’s up there with VA and PA while Spain is more like Mississippi-level, FWIW. ---
**Author:** ![whiterabbit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/cab0a1/32.png) [@whiterabbit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whiterabbit)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2010, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-desalinised-water-taste-like/546911/8 "2010-07-16T14:57:58Z")
I have absolutely lovely Idaho well water, **Chessic Sense**. I bet you’d love it. It’s actually too cold for me to drink straight from the tap! ---
**Author:** ![lazybratsche](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ba8739/32.png) [@lazybratsche](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lazybratsche)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2010, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-desalinised-water-taste-like/546911/9 "2010-07-16T15:37:17Z")
Water usually tastes better with some amount of dissolved oxygen and trace minerals. Desalination tosses out those trace tasty minerals along with all the rest of the not-so-thirst-quenching sea salt. I’ve tried water from lab water purification systems, which works on the same principle (reverse osmosis) as big desalination plants, just repeated a few times with extra filters thrown in for good measure. That stuff actually tastes kind of nasty, very flat and slightly sour. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2010, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-desalinised-water-taste-like/546911/10 "2010-07-16T15:54:46Z")
> [@Chessic\_Sense](#): > > I consider myself a bit of a water connoisseur. I’ve tried water from almost all corners of the states. In order of tastiness: Virginia-Pennsylvania-Arizona-Arkansas-California-Mississippi-Florida. Canada’s up there with VA and PA while Spain is more like Mississippi-level, FWIW. This may come as a shock, but Canada gets its water from multiple sources now. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![lazybratsche](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ba8739/32.png) [@lazybratsche](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lazybratsche)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2010, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-desalinised-water-taste-like/546911/11 "2010-07-16T16:14:52Z")
> [@hogarth](#): > > This may come as a shock, but Canada gets its water from multiple sources now. 🙂 Yeah, global warming has opened up a new pass in the Yukon, which allowed development of a new mountain-top glacier-mining enterprise. Previously, all Canadian water was cut from a single glacier in Nunavut. Eastern Canada still gets its water by way of moose-drawn ice sledges. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2010, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-desalinised-water-taste-like/546911/12 "2010-07-16T17:28:59Z")
[Dasani:](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dasani) > [@](#): > > Then it emerged that what the firm described as its “highly sophisticated purification process”, based on Nasa spacecraft technology, was in fact reverse osmosis used in many modest domestic water purification units."- The Guardian. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2010, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-desalinised-water-taste-like/546911/13 "2010-07-16T18:11:02Z")
The first year tasted the desalinated water in Barbados, it was awful and we bought gallon jugs of water for drinking. Since then it has improved a lot, but we will bring a Brita filter for drinking water when we go. We also cool it in the fridge since it never gets below lukewarm. Without doubt, the best drinking water I have ever tasted is in NYC. I grew up in Philly and their water was pretty bad. In Montreal, it is so-so and we filter it. ---
**Author:** ![robcaro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/df705f/32.png) [@robcaro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robcaro)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2010, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-desalinised-water-taste-like/546911/14 "2010-07-16T19:59:54Z")
Worst water I have ever drank was in Huron, SD. Water here in Bogota, Colombia is very good. ---
**Author:** ![Strassia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e8c25b/32.png) [@Strassia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Strassia)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2010, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-desalinised-water-taste-like/546911/15 "2010-07-16T21:10:05Z")
On the submarine, all we drank at sea was desalinated water. Desalinated just means salt is removed. It can be done by either distilling or reverse osmosis. Either way, it normally just tastes a little flat. Any bad tastes are usually caused by impurities introduced in transportation or storage. If the water is stored for any length of time, it usually has chlorine added, otherwise you will get growth in it. If you are drinking freshly purified water (distilled or RO) and think it tastes flat, all you need to do is add oxygen. this can be as simple as pouring it back and forth between two glasses. On the boat we had one of those mixing dispensers you usually use for flavored drinks. That seemed to do the trick as well. ---
**Author:** ![Snnipe\_70E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5a626/32.png) [@Snnipe\_70E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snnipe_70E)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2010, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-desalinised-water-taste-like/546911/16 "2010-07-17T00:34:47Z")
When I was going to college I prefered the evap water to water purchased ashore and put in the holding tanks. You could never tell how bad it was going to be! ---
**Author:** ![TurboNuke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f19dbf/32.png) [@TurboNuke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TurboNuke)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2010, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-desalinised-water-taste-like/546911/17 "2010-07-17T02:46:09Z")
Funny you should mention MS. I’m from Pascagoula, MS. When I was a kid I thought bottled water tasted bitter, I preferred tap water. After leaving Pascagoula, I realized that Pascagoula water is actually pretty salty. It was definitely brownish colored. Bottled water was tasteless and so it tasted wrong to me. I just visited my Dad this year and noticed the water was very clear and didn’t taste salty. Apparently, the town had gotten a RO unit. The water is very good there now. Similar to the water here in NY which has some of the best water in the world. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2010, 9:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-desalinised-water-taste-like/546911/18 "2010-07-17T09:06:13Z")
If desalinated water is distilled water, then I don’t get how it tastes flat. It actually has a slightly sweet taste to it. Then again, I’m only familiar with the term flat as used for soda–all the dissolved gasses are missing. And I know fizzy water tastes horrible. ---
**Author:** ![CutterJohn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/91b2a8/32.png) [@CutterJohn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CutterJohn)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2010, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-desalinised-water-taste-like/546911/19 "2010-07-17T14:50:22Z")
> [@Strassia](#): > > On the submarine, all we drank at sea was desalinated water. Desalinated just means salt is removed. It can be done by either distilling or reverse osmosis. Either way, it normally just tastes a little flat. Any bad tastes are usually caused by impurities introduced in transportation or storage. If the water is stored for any length of time, it usually has chlorine added, otherwise you will get growth in it. > > If you are drinking freshly purified water (distilled or RO) and think it tastes flat, all you need to do is add oxygen. this can be as simple as pouring it back and forth between two glasses. On the boat we had one of those mixing dispensers you usually use for flavored drinks. That seemed to do the trick as well. Yep. Bit flat, and nowhere near as good as the well water at grandpa’s house, but quite drinkable. Though every once in a while someone would discharge a bit of JP-5, and the DUs would suck some of that up with the water.. Everything would taste a bit nasty for a day or two. ---
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2010, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-desalinised-water-taste-like/546911/20 "2010-07-17T15:53:19Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > If desalinated water is distilled water, then I don’t get how it tastes flat. There are different methods of getting salt out of water for drinking, and distilling is only one of them. Reverse osmosis is another, which to simplfy uses membranes and pressure to seperate the salt out. I think most people don’t realize water DOES have flavour, not much but it does taste like, well…Water. Lots of minor things go into giving water its own taste. The best water I ever had came from [Buhl, Minnesota](http://www.buhl-water.com/recent_media_coverage.htm) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-desalinised-water-taste-like/546911.md?page=2)