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October 6th, 2008 admin Leave a comment Go to comments

Water Cooler

Bottled Water Coolers Free Trial; Can Customers Taste the Difference?

How do we taste water?

As we all know taste is one of the five senses, it refers to the ability to detect the flavour of substances. Taste receptors are found on the surface of the tongue and are essentially a network of complex chemical sensors designed to detect specific types of compounds within our food and drink. In humans the sense of smell impacts on the sense of taste and factors in on the brain's perception of flavour.

MYTH 1: This bottled water tastes so pure

Itâ€™s a myth that humans can taste pure H20; pure water cannot react to the sensors found on the tongue as pure H20 contains no compounds, people would still be able to feel the pressure and detect the temperature but no taste will be present. It is only when water contains contaminants that tastes and smells (which can then impact on the perceived taste) may be detected. By its very nature then any type of water that tastes of anything is not pure. The content of water itself can be complex and vary from area to area, depending on the compounds picked up from the rocks and soils that it passes through before it reaches the customer.

MYTH 2: Chilled water tastes better

The fact is that chilled water has even less taste than water that is luke warm, which is an interesting point as many prefer their water chilled. It raises the question of why people think that chilled bottled water tastes as good, because chilling the water impedes the tongues sensors and prevents an individual tasting the very impurities that give bottled water its taste.

MYTH 3: Tap water tastes terrible and canâ€™t be good for me

In the UK chlorine is added to the tap water to ensure that the supply is food grade quality 24/7. The presence of chlorine along with other impurities can have an adverse effect on the taste and smell of mains supplied water.

FACT 1: The taste of Mains water can be improved

There are a wide range of water filters on the market today, under sink filters for the home or office kitchen and filters that are housed in the desktop or freestanding water cooler style machines. Activated Carbon based filters are normally sufficient to remove the bad tastes and odours from the UK mains water supply and usually last for up to 6 months at a time.

Considered to be one of the oldest means of Water Purification Activated Carbon has been used to filter water for hundreds of years. Carbon filtering works by removing contaminants and impurities, utilizing chemical absorption. By its very nature carbon provides a large section of surface area that attracts and holds a wide range of contaminants. Activated Carbon has a positive charge designed to attract even more (negatively charged) contaminants in your water supply. It should be noted that although carbon is effective at removing elements that cause bad taste such as chlorine and sediment it does not generally remove minerals, salts, and dissolved inorganic compounds from the water.

Another method of improving the taste of your mains water is to chill the water down to a point where the taste and smell become reduced, perhaps by storing dispensed water in your fridge for a few hours.

FACT 2 Mains water is cheaper than bottled water

It doesnâ€™t take a mathematician to work out that bottled water is expensive, a typical 19 Litre Water Cooler Bottle costs Â£5.50 where as 19 Litres of metered water costs only Â£ 0.023.

FACT 3 Mains water is better for the environment

If you opt for a Plumbed in Water Cooler you will be helping to reduce the cost of bottle production and delivery. While bottled water accounts for only a small percentage of an individualâ€™s carbon emissions itâ€™s important for businesses and individuals to do all that they can to reduce their carbon footprint. Bottled Coolers have an obvious additional effect on the environment in terms of the initial production, the delivery and the disposal of the bottles.