Water Does Not Spoil
Okay listen, this is news to me, and even though my editors fried me just for just finding out about it, I bet it’s news to some of you too: you can leave a glass of water for a few months, and as long as it has been properly cleansed it won’t get bad.
Not that I think the water is rotting, okay? I just thought there were enough bacteria floating around the house, or in the tap water, or on your lips when you sip, which, if you spend a month alone in a glass, can grow and then make you nauseous. But as food safety specialist Dr. Benjamin Chapman told me in a slightly embarrassing phone call, that won’t happen.
But there must be some way, right? Yes, says Dr. Chapman, if you haven’t washed the glass properly and left behind a nutrient like juice or other sugary residue. More colorfully, he adds: “What would matter if, for example, someone shoved a piece of turd on their finger.” Thanks Ben. But even if you drank from a glass, touched it with your mouth, left an imprint on your lip, and then left a glass – even so, he says, you are not going to poison yourself with bacteria from the mouth.
Now even clean water will taste unpleasant in just a few hours. Chemist Susan Richardson told Wired that this is mainly because people taste more in warm water than in cold water. When the water reaches room temperature, you can taste the chemicals it contains. And the chemistry of tap water changes when it is outdoors, when chemicals like chlorine are “released” into the air. In addition, some of the water evaporates, which increases the concentration of everything else in the water. The water becomes “stronger”, it just tastes different from what you are used to, so you don’t like it.
Obviously, if the water supply is polluted, all bets lose. If it was toxic when it got out of the tap, it is still toxic after it got out. But, apparently, if it all started well, even old water with a super-tolerant taste is good for drinking, and I am an ignorant hydrophobe. Fine. But I’m not alone. I got curious because food blog The Kitchn was asking the same question – or maybe they were stating the obvious to guys like me.