I could see that water being "neutral" on taste for most people is probably evolutionary. But I'm just speculating.
this post was submitted on 09 Jan 2026
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Water is neutral in taste the same way that CO is scentless - it is literally too small for the things to pick it up.
Am I weird in that I definitely can taste water?
You've got sensors for acidity and alkalinity, but water is almost never truly neutral, so for sure you can taste that. You can also taste/smell a bunch of other stuff in water, like salt, other minerals, or chemicals like chlorine.
Tangent, but I remember when I was a kid I would try to explain people that I could "smell" the "air coonditioned air" and everyone was like "what? No you can't, it's just air. It doesn't smell like anything."
I never did figure out what the smell was. I'm guessing it was some kind of chemical; it wasn't a bad smell, though. It smelled like ice cubes (which I know, doesn't make a lot of sense either.)
Anyway, all this to say that a lot of people have very strong senses. (And the other comments about water not being neutral are correct as well!)
Ice cubes do have some smell, now that you mention it. Humans have an amazing ability to smell moisture, which we evolved for being able to find water sources. So your experience with AC could relate to how AC affects the humidity in the air perhaps.
And in context of this thread, smell is one of the largest factors for our experience of flavor. Without a sense of smell, most foods would taste relatively bland.
No
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You can taste both water and CO. You just need to alter your typical concentration and get used to that, then switch back to a normal concentration. "Normal" will now have a taste. Even distilled water will have a taste, since you are probably used to bottled or filtered.
A concentration of what in what? The "taste" of water is the impurities, not the H2O itself
I'm guessing you can taste the impurities missing from distilled water. It's probably closer to being able to tell it's not quite right then an actual taste, but that's close enough to be able to call it taste.
Yes indeed, you can perceive it but it's not out of sensory stimulation - rather the lack thereof.
No really, you can taste distilled water.
In the same way that the sunlight's spectrum (or at least the part of it that reaches the Earth's surface) has the most energy of green wavelengths, which are conveniently in the middle of the light spectrum visible by humans.
Water tastes neutral because your taste receptors are constantly exposed to water because it's universally present in and on living tissue. You don't sense things that are constantly there.
I think spit is a better one. Spit tastes fine in our mouths, its always there, youre tasting it right now. Now spit in a cup and drink it immediately. I dry heaved just typing this.
tbh, for me it's more about the texture of it and not so much taste, lmao. something about the bubbles, when you spit, yuck. carbonated spit 😭
Ok, drool into a cup then and try to drink that.
Okay, done. Now what? What's supposed to happen? It just tastes like Papa John's?
This entire conversation is making me dry heave and I have nobody to blame but myself.
Water has a flavor. It has different flavors, depending on how clean it is, too. At least it does for me…
And not just that, the different mineral compositions give it a different flavor too. Sometimes when traveling here in Germany, I‘m filling my water bottle with regional tap water and often I‘m glad how good the tap water at home tastes compared to what you can get in other regions.
In the other regions defense, I'm sure they might say the same about your water simply because it's different.
Unless you're talking well water, that stuff can have a gnarly Sulfur smell to it, though still safe. Can't seem to get used to that kinda smell though lol
Water quality varies quite a bit. The water in Seattle is significantly better than the water in Florida, for example.
Funny story relating to that, when I was 5 I was told that you couldn't dig more than ~~6~~ a few feet in Florida because you would hit the "water line," so I assumed that if you dug further you'd just hit the ocean and drown. Also yes the water there tastes like sulfur all the time and it's nasty af, had to learn to get over my aversion to water after living there early on.
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It depends on the color of the la Croix can
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My friend is going through chemo treatment, which is wrecking their tastebuds in various ways, and they told me after each infusion they can’t stand the “texture” of water for a few days. Thankfully, it’s also wrecking their cancer!
Are they pissing lots of the cancer out?
Yes!
Different waters taste differently. Tap water taste differs from region to region. Bottled water tastes differently between brands and also compared to tap water. This is also caused by varying amounts of minerals.
If you think your sense of taste works fine, but can not tell taste differences in water, try making direct comparisons. Take some bottled water and some tap water (if it is safe for drinking whereever you live). Then take a sip, focus on the taste. Try making out differences. Repeat a couple of times.
If you still can't make out any differences and you weren't impatient, it might be worth training your sense of taste first, because water does have a flavour.
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Water does have flavor, depending on the mineral content. I've always had to get used to the taste of the water when I start in a new area.
The reason we've evolved to tune out whatever taste water may have, is because we need to be able to detect when there's shit in it. Literally. But also anything else non-suitable.
Which is why waters taste slightly different as we never drink distilled water really. Not that it's somehow toxic, but drinking only distilled water when there's no food and then sweating a lot would dehydrate you eventually.
Could be the other way, our brains nerfing the incredible flavour so we don't all die of hyperhydration
Water does have a flavor. It’s water flavored.
flavor is an experience created by your brain (or at least, created subjectively internal to an agent if you don't want to accept that conscious experiences are fully explained physically)
what if water really has a flavor but our brains filter it out
so this makes no sense, flavor just is what you experience.
I had surgery in my mouth and for months I've had problems with my sense of taste. Water has sometimes tasted bad. FML
Get yourself some sugar free cordial or something, it helps. Get a water filter maybe? They're expensive though
I'm really sensitive to tastes and smells, lots of treated drinking water tastes foul to me
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True. Nothing has innate taste. So the taste of water is whatever we needed it to be.
Drinking water absolutrly has a taste. You're just used to it. Not so if you drink somewhere else.
I moved from Nebraska to North Carolina 20 years ago and still haven't adjusted to the nasty taste of chlorinated water. I guess it's better than getting cholera or e. coli.
I once visited Wilmington N.C. in the "off" season (half the price for hotels) and the water was really fucking bad. Not just chlorinated, but sulfurous. Even showering in it felt like it left a kind of residue on your skin.
Flavor --> Can't taste it.
Contradiction of definitions
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