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Old 06-22-2009, 10:32 AM   #1 (permalink)
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Challenge question: Describe the taste of water...

...to someone who's never drank it.

I thought with all these heavy threads going around recently we could do with something a little lighter. My old creative writer teacher used to quiz us with these types of questions as warm ups. The hard part about this one is describing it without using an absence reference, such as "like biting into an orange without the citrus flavor."

My answer:

Water tastes like clean, mountain spring air that has become so heavy it flows into your mouth like a playful breeze.
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Old 06-22-2009, 10:40 AM   #2 (permalink)
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i think the taste of water depends on where you live...

for me, the taste of water is like a hint of melted aluminum foil.
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Old 06-22-2009, 10:49 AM   #3 (permalink)
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Tastes like dirt at home, like the YMCA pool smells at work.
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Old 06-22-2009, 10:54 AM   #4 (permalink)
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I mean water water, as in h20, not polluted water
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Old 06-22-2009, 11:03 AM   #5 (permalink)
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Zeraph View Post
...to someone who's never drank it.
Water tastes like clean, mountain spring air that has become so heavy it flows into your mouth like a playful breeze.
...water tastes like the Creator's lite and subtle version of minerals...in it's purest liquid form
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Old 06-22-2009, 11:15 AM   #6 (permalink)
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Zeraph View Post
I mean water water, as in h20, not polluted water
we are talking about water. depending on where in the world you live, water tastes different. fish taste different depending on where they are caught, because of different minerals and different other stuff in the water.

i'm not trying to derail your thread. it's an awesome thread, and a great writing exercise.

i answered honestly, water to me tastes like a hint of melted aluminum. i don't live by a fresh mountain stream nestled high in the sun kissed mountain tops.
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Old 06-22-2009, 11:18 AM   #7 (permalink)
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I don't think I could even describe the taste sensations of a banana, or a Big Mac, or Lo Mein, so to provide indicative examples of what something as formless yet varying as water is a task indeed.


"Taste" is very hard for my mind to quantify properly because it usally involves comparing newer foods to the most familar of those you have already sampled, like "This tastes like chicken, only more sinewy". Also, it relies very heavily on texture as opposed to what percolating flavors are being experienced. Also, it is not helpful at all when friends tell me that a new snackfood at 7-11 "tastes very blue and sweet".
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Old 06-22-2009, 11:20 AM   #8 (permalink)
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Quote:
Originally Posted by squeeeb View Post
we are talking about water. depending on where in the world you live, water tastes different. fish taste different depending on where they are caught, because of different minerals and different other stuff in the water.

i'm not trying to derail your thread. it's an awesome thread, and a great writing exercise.

i answered honestly, water to me tastes like a hint of melted aluminum. i don't live by a fresh mountain stream nestled high in the sun kissed mountain tops.
Touche
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Old 06-22-2009, 11:21 AM   #9 (permalink)
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Zeraph View Post
I mean water water, as in h20, not polluted water
I haven't tasted that in a long time.

After exercising or on a hot day, it's like a cold front moving through your mouth and down your throat.
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Old 06-22-2009, 11:22 AM   #10 (permalink)
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Water tastes like liquid air.
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Old 06-22-2009, 11:24 AM   #11 (permalink)
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Water tastes like poo...

I really hate the taste of water.
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Old 06-22-2009, 11:31 AM   #12 (permalink)
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After giving it some thought, I came up with this descriptor:

If you have ever gone into an empty room of a standard hostipal where the air conditioning is circulating throughout the room, and as you enter the vicinity of the space, you simultaneously smell the ventilation and swallow a gulp of saliva, this is comparable to what water tastes like.
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Old 06-22-2009, 11:35 AM   #13 (permalink)
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tastes like metal here.
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Old 06-22-2009, 11:40 AM   #14 (permalink)
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Old 06-22-2009, 12:47 PM   #15 (permalink)
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Like a soft cloud melting in your mouth.
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Old 06-22-2009, 12:50 PM   #16 (permalink)
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Originally Posted by girldetective View Post
Like a soft cloud melting in your mouth.


See, I uttered this similar phrase to my friends when pressed to describe the taste of SmartWater

... and they just chuckled and remarked, "So you've tasted clouds before?".
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Old 06-22-2009, 01:07 PM   #17 (permalink)
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Dansani water for some reason is one of my favorite tasting waters for all its odd mineral flavor. My favorite water is in the mountains of North Georgia/South Carolina/North Carolina where it comes out of the tap so cold it hurts your teeth... it's the cleanest tasting thing ever.

Out of my current tap, it tastes like pennies. My hair is tinting red again and starting to fall out a bit more... guess what's in my pipes.

I love water. On a good day I drink almost a gallon. It soothes me and often makes me sleepy at night. In the heat of the day, the coolness tastes like childhood. Okay, so hose water tastes like childhood, too... we were hoodlums.
And I have to tell you, every time I see this thread, I'm reminded to get up and refill my cup. I'm going through a 2.5 gallon jug of Zephyrhills every couple of days, with bottles, too.
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Old 06-22-2009, 02:15 PM   #18 (permalink)
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Ya'll are gonna hate me here. I <3 Sams club. It's the only thing that actually tastes like real water to me. I know where it comes from, they distill it and add nothing to it. So great, as for describing it ...

Sam's club water does not taste like mud, in fact, it tastes like the air that you breath early in the morning on a February after coming from a long and laborious work session and craving something with a hint of nature in it!

Quote:
Originally Posted by noodle View Post
... Out of my current tap, it tastes like pennies. My hair is tinting red again and starting to fall out a bit more... guess what's in my pipes.

...
Dang', get the landlord or property management or someone!!
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Old 06-22-2009, 02:22 PM   #19 (permalink)
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that's the area I live in xerx. it jsut takes some getting used to. I don't DRINK it. eew.
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Just realize that you're armed with smart but heavily outnumbered.
The question isn’t who is going to let me; it’s who is going to stop me. Ayn Rand
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Old 06-22-2009, 05:42 PM   #20 (permalink)
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Punk.of.Ages View Post
Water tastes like poo...

I really hate the taste of water.
You are supposed to flush before drinking out of the toilet bowl...

Xerxys - I reckon Sam's club has you duped - paying for bottled water just seems wrong to me.
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Last edited by spindles; 06-22-2009 at 05:47 PM..
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Old 06-23-2009, 10:23 AM   #21 (permalink)
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There are a couple of bottled water brands that taste like snow when chilled. Not meant to be funny because I can't say that about all water.
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Old 06-23-2009, 10:46 AM   #22 (permalink)
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I guess I'm the only pedant here who saw this question a bit differently.

One of the very definitions of H20 is that it is a clear, colorless, odorless, and tasteless liquid.

To someone who had never tasted water, I'd inform them the above; it has absolutely no taste.

Any level of impurity in water will make it taste differently, but trying to explain all of those variations is tough even to someone who HAS tasted it. Water itself should have none.

And that's totally ignoring the issue of someone who has never tasted water - how have they survived, up to this point? Without some sort of intravenous drip of water, they would soon die. My primary concern would be in helping them start drinking water, not explaining to them what it tasted like.

This is probably why I'm so bad at creative, expository, or imaginative writing.
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Old 06-23-2009, 11:33 AM   #23 (permalink)
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Jinn ...

Quote:
Originally Posted by Zeraph View Post
... The hard part about this one is describing it without using an absence reference, such as "like biting into an orange without the citrus flavor." ...
Yeah, you suck at this!!
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Old 06-23-2009, 11:47 AM   #24 (permalink)
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Water, it tastes like life.
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Old 06-23-2009, 12:02 PM   #25 (permalink)
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Like my mouth got stuck open during a thunderstorm.
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Old 06-24-2009, 09:18 AM   #26 (permalink)
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Jinn View Post
One of the very definitions of H20 is that it is a clear, colorless, odorless, and tasteless liquid.

To someone who had never tasted water, I'd inform them the above; it has absolutely no taste.

Any level of impurity in water will make it taste differently, but trying to explain all of those variations is tough even to someone who HAS tasted it. Water itself should have none.
Even distilled water out of a glass container has a certain taste to it. I'm not sure how to describe it, but it's there.
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Old 06-24-2009, 10:29 AM   #27 (permalink)
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Cold spit.
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Old 06-24-2009, 12:18 PM   #28 (permalink)
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...like a cascade of glacial refreshment that cleanses the palate and fills your body with an instant feeling of well being.
that about sums up my thoughts on water!
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