Question:
My company has moved from the yummy spring water bottles to a "reverseosmosis" filtered cooler thingy. It tastes like liquid tinfoil, andgives that slick, metallic "right before you upchuck" taste in yourmouth. In short, it's disgusting.

Well, I'm stuck with it, apparently, but it seems as if our OfficeManager has totally fallen for the sales propaganda - it has noartificially-added minerals so it's "water at its purest form". Etc.etc.

So, does anyone know about this system, and whether it's true thatthis vile water is more "pure" and hence "better" than other waters?(I am aware that so-called spring water isn't necessarily the be-alland end-all, but it was tasty, dammit!)

Answer: Reverse osmosis filters are generally pretty good at removing lots ofstuff from water. You can look up a recent Consumer Reports review andsee just what the one your boss installed removes. They are generallybetter than other filters are removing the sorts of other things onegenerally would like removed, unlike a Brita(TM) filter. Brita(TM)sremove some stuff, but they aren't good to rely on if you have anactual water-quality problem (instead of just a taste problem.)

NB for readers with bad water: find out exactly what is making yourwater bad before buying a filter. Filters that remove ghiarrdia arenot necessarily the same filters that remove chromium.

That being said, water in its purest form doesn't taste like much. Tryan experiment: get a bottle of spring water (whatever kind) and abottle of distilled water. Do a taste test. The distilled water, whichis about as pure as you can get, will taste flat and strange. Thespring water should taste like, well, spring water.

The metallic taste may be coming from the pipes in the water cooler,not the filtering process.

Unfortunately, I don't know of any way to get the minerals back *into*water that has been purified. A Brita(TM) won't do you any good hereunless you can get to the water before the reverse osmosis filter (andsince most reverse osmosis filters are hooked up at a point before thewater comes out of the tap, you may be S.O.L.)