Bottled water is a huge part of the American life. Over 12 billion USD are spent on water bottles each year in the United States. About 35 billion bottles are sold annually, making it the most popular drink in the country.                      

Just as people have their preferences for soft drinks, people have preferences for bottled water. Though water is technically the same drink, there is no denying that the taste varies between brands.

Dasani water is my, and apparently many others’, favorite brand of water, seeing that it is the most sold bottled water brand next to private labels. This can be credited to it’s taste, which is crisp and not overloaded with strange flavors from too many added minerals.

Arrowhead, on the other hand, has a very unique and unpleasant taste. Most people (including myself) agree that it tastes like either tap water, pool water, or even sewer water. You could drink water from the sink, and it would probably taste better than Arrowhead.

Some people claim that all water tastes the same, to which I say they must get their tastebuds checked. Each brand has such a distinct taste, and therefore, I truly don’t understand how people say that there is no difference. The taste and smell of the chemicals in the inferior brands of water are too pungent to even stand drinking.

Also, if all water did taste the same, people would only buy the dirt-cheap bottles. Since the cheap brands taste like literal dirt, people spend a few extra dollars to get a more refreshing alternative that they can look forward to drinking. It may be argued that people buy the more expensive water because they believe the packaging and price indicate better taste when, in reality, it is no different than any other water. Even if that was true, I, along with all the others who were supposedly “fooled” by the aforementioned scam, would not enjoy a bottle of Arrowhead as much as I would a bottle of Dasani.

I don’t even believe that it’s a possibility for water to have the exact same taste if they are from different companies. There is absolutely no way that the variety of minerals added, the sources of the water, and the ways that the water is transported has absolutely no affect on the taste.

Just as food preparation alters taste so does the preparation of water. For example, you might have tried food cooked by someone and not liked it as much as when it was prepared by another. It may have had the the exact or almost exact same ingredients, but you still didn’t think it was as good as others for multitudes of reasons. Perhaps there was too much of an ingredient, maybe it was too dry, or maybe it simply tasted funny.

This same concept can be applied to water. Companies all add differing levels of calcium, sodium, chloride, magnesium, iron, zinc, chromium, and others that are bound to give the water they produce a taste that is a bit different from their competitors. Though it is difficult to pinpoint what exactly may be overpowering the clean water taste, it is still easy to tell that something is off about the flavor.

If you are human with sufficiently functional tastebuds, you know for a fact that each brand of water has qualities that give it a one-of-a-kind taste. To all the Dasani, Sparkletts, Crystal Geyser, and Fiji water consumers: Do not let anyone with inferior palates tell you that their Arrowhead or Kirkland water compares to your favorites.