# what does desalinised water taste like?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-desalinised-water-taste-like/546911>\
**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:** 4\
**Page:** 2

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\
**Post date:** [July 17, 2010, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-desalinised-water-taste-like/546911/21 "2010-07-17T16:43:24Z")

</div>

> [@DrFidelius](#):
>
> 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…

I only drink pure distilled rain water and vodka. It has something to with my bodily fluids.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**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 18, 2010, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-desalinised-water-taste-like/546911/22 "2010-07-18T00:13:48Z")

</div>

> [@CutterJohn](#):
>
> 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.

When making water on a ship any mistakes on making boiler water and it becomes drinking water. We ended up with salty drinking water one time. Those guys on evap watch were un popular for a while.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Visual\_Purple](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/5daacb/32.png) [@Visual\_Purple](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Visual_Purple)\
**Post date:** [July 18, 2010, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-desalinised-water-taste-like/546911/23 "2010-07-18T22:26:09Z")

</div>

My parents’ town has reverse osmosis filtering to remove radium. When they were building the system, they specifically noted that they would add some minerals back to improve the taste. The main thing I can taste in different municipal water sources is varying chlorination levels, so I have little to say about whether the adding back thing worked.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**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 19, 2010, 6:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-desalinised-water-taste-like/546911/24 "2010-07-19T06:48:18Z")

</div>

i grew up in NYC. I have heard so many times and read the phrase: “new york city water has the best water in the nation” or some such comment.

over the past 20 years i have drunk exclusively water from a deep well.

Over the years I have been back to NYC to visit family and naturally have tasted the tap water. it may be pure, coming as it does from the mountains upstate, but it does have a distinctive chlorine taste, hard to disguise.

I always drink bottled water only when I am there.

[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-desalinised-water-taste-like/546911.md?page=1)