Making plain water taste similar to soda or juice | Hacker News Reader

Making plain water taste similar to soda or juice

kickstarter.com

16 pointsckdarby30 comments

The soda stream was the game changer for me. I'm addicted to soda water (aka seltzer aka club soda).

I don't even like adding flavor. Filter water + CO2 is good enough for me. Curbs appetite.

I also have this probably unfounded belief that even if what you are consuming has zero calories but has a strong taste it will have some sort of impact on your hunger levels and perhaps worse insulin as well (some sweetners I believe do).

I agree, the sodastream machine is phenomenal... I drink seltzer almost exclusively, and before I had the machine I hated having to deal with all the empty plastic bottles. I'm not sure that soda stream has a huge cost benefit over buying seltzer when in bulk when it is on sale... but I like that it doesn't generate garbage and also I like fact that it is much more compact than storing a bunch of bottled water.

Also, to nitpick, I think club soda is not quite the same thing... I believe it usually has some sort of sodium or potassium salt while seltzer is just H2O + CO2 like you describe.

Not sure if the flavored bottle would even really be that effective... and $25 for the bottle seems kind of expensive just to be able to try it out, especially since this seems fairly simple to DIY.

Yep I agree the cost isn't really that effective unless you do a mod and hookup an industrial tank (I'm too lazy to do this).

The benefit like you said is not dealing with the cans or bottles. Especially for me since I like to fill a giant Yeti cup up so the soda stays cold the whole day. The soda stream bottles map perfectly over to the Yeti/RTIC 32oz tumblers.

That belief certainly has some research backing it (first Google result was https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/07/160712130107.h..., I'm sure you can find me).

Are you locked into their ecosystem or have you pursued alternative means of adding CO2? I've read an article here and there that attempts to prove simply buying the water from the store is cheaper over time.

I'm curious - is water that tastes like water actually an issue?

Unfortunately we have a whole generation that was raised on soda since we were kids. It's a hard habit to kick. But I don't think things like this product are the solution.

The water in the US is chlorinated (at least where I was in Washington, DC). It smells and tastes really terrible.

Something a simple filter takes care of easily.

I never needed to bother with a filter where I live. So everybody uses them where the water is chlorinated?

Well, people who don't want to taste chlorine, yes.

Depends where you are. It doesn't need to be at tasteable levels; the US apparently uses rather a lot and has poor quality control (Flint passim)

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2242094/Chlorine-t... (apologies for poor source)

It depends on how chlorinated the water tastes. I usually use the filtered water that comes out of the tap on the fridge but if that is taking too long to fill a bottle, I just use the regular tap water. Our water tastes fine. It doesn't have a strong scent or flavor and the water is very clear. Checking out the water quality reports for my county, we meet or exceed all EPA regulations regarding certain materials in the water. Some people in my county still rely on well water because they were too far from the water main when their house was built. Well water tastes gross and you pretty much have to filter it unless you just hate yourself. As for the quality of the well water in my county, I can't find this information as I'm guessing everyone's well water is different and no one is going around testing homeowners' wells. Chlorinated water is used in many places around US as it's cheap and effective. It reduces things like microbes and bacteria in the water supply. It can produce some nasty by products but the risk from consuming chlorinated water is much lower than consuming water that is potentially swimming in microbes and bacteria.

I use it in London, Not because the water is too chlorinated, but it really improves the taste.

"Water in the US" varies greatly from place to place. You see, the United States is a very large and varied place.

Amazing tasting well water pumped directly from old glaciers turned into underground reservoirs is "water in the US."

Water so brown and contaminated you can't even drink it is "water in the US."

Using fluoride, chlorine, chloramine, is "water in the US." Desalinated water along coastlines that tastes as such. Streams and springs that are safe to drink from.

Having lived in the area for years I can say even througout the D.C. Metro area, you have different tasting water as well.

Depends on where you live. There is a lot of variation in water quality in the US.

For me it is. I was raised on soda, especially coca-cola, and plain water just doesn't have that good taste. I guess it's kind of like an addiction.

My kids are used to drinking water, and I don't have any soda in the house (too bad for me :().

Raised on soda. Wow. Just stick to plain water for a few weeks and your tastes will adjust.

Maybe you didn't notice the part where they don't keep soda in the house? Seems like a strong indication that they do not regularly drink soda any more, even though water doesn't taste good.

Try a reverse osmosis system. APEC (sold on Amazon and other places) has great reviews and makes counter-top screw-on types which take only a few minutes to install. It makes a huge difference in water quality. The under-the-sink models with a tank are nicer because it has a buffer for the filtered water, which gives you water faster until the buffer is depleted. The tankless ones take about 30 seconds to fill up a glass (based on water pressure). I use mine to fill up a 10 liter fusti once a week (takes ~an hour) which I keep in the fridge, since I live in an apartment with no option to install a real fridge with a water dispenser.

It makes water taste so good that I prefer it over almost anything.

Essentially a The Right Cup [1] clone which raised 1.3 million on Indiegogo and is already shipping.

[1] https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-right-cup-trick-your-...

I looked up reviews of the Right Cup and they are quite negative. People say the cups just "smell like chemicals" and the water still tastes like water.

> the water still tastes like water

Water has no taste.

It surely has. One could probably argue whether it is smell or taste, or whether it is due to the water itself or the [lack of] minerals and gases dissolved in it, but there is definitely a noticeable variation between different things commonly called water.

Even more, there is at least some evidence [1] that there is a noticeable difference between normal and heavy water where heavy water is described as slightly sweet, see for example this, admittedly not very scientific, self-experiment [1] on YouTube, drinking at 4:30 and 7:50.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heavy_water#Physical_propertie...

[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXHVqId0MQc

> Water has no taste.

At least not to humans. Many animals have taste buds tuned for water.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/canine-corner/201104/ho...

Edit - formatting

Have you actually read the link you're providing as source?

It doesn't explain what it means to have "taste buds tuned" for water, just that dogs will drink more after eating salty or sugary foods, which could be entirely unrelated to the actual taste at all.

Even if these taste buds functioned like what you allege, they wouldn't be tasting water, they'd be tasting chemicals (flavors and smells) dissolved in the water.

A similar myth: The feds banned a Vodka ad that promoted the taste. The reason was that their definition of Vodka was a "tasteless" beverage. Clearly every vodka tastes different.

I like pure water anyway and just accidentally bumped into a review on YouTube the other week. Having to replace the entire cup every six months or so alone seems a bit like a deal breaker to me, even if it would taste really well.

I just buy seltzer water and I add a little bit of juice to a cup of it. It tastses great and I lost it about 10 pounds doing this alone.

I only buy juice like Langers which does not have any high fructose corn syrup. My favorite seltzer water is Adirondack brand because it's very fizzy.

I used to do the same thing except use a soda stream machine instead. One gets used to the taste very quickly. Now a days I just drink plain water.

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