Question

people say water has no taste but thats so untrue it may not have FLAVOR but it does have TASTE- its REFRESHING, coool, pure!

Answer 1

You’re right that saying “water has no taste” is an oversimplification. People use different words for the sensations water gives (refreshing, cool, pure), but those are real perceptual experiences — just not always the same thing scientists mean by “taste.”

Short breakdown:
- Taste (in the strict sense) = the five basic tastes detected on the tongue: sweet, sour, salty, bitter, umami. Plain, chemically pure H2O carries almost none of those signals.
- Flavor = taste + smell + mouthfeel + chemesthesis (temperature, tingle, cooling, etc.). So “refreshing,” “pure,” or “clean” are mainly flavor/texture/smell descriptors.
- Other contributors: dissolved minerals and salts (hardness, minerality), dissolved gases (CO2 gives tang/tingle), trace metals (iron can taste metallic), chlorine or organics from tap water, and temperature. All of those make different waters taste different.
- Context matters: water can taste “sweet” after sour foods, “bad” after a cigarette, or “clean” from association with freshness.

So your experience (“refreshing, cool, pure”) is valid — it’s just a mix of temperature, mouthfeel and any dissolved substances rather than a simple basic-taste signal. If you want to explore the differences, try side-by-side tastings of chilled distilled, bottled mineral, and your tap water and notice temperature, aftertaste, and any minerality or chlorine notes.