Drinking water from the tap is the best thirst quencher

Take a glass, fill it with water from the tap and enjoy the refreshment. No other thirst quencher is so cheap, always available and healthy as drinking water. The national drinking water ordinance (TrinkwV 2001) regulates the quality requirements for drinking water, its hygienic safety as well as the adherence to limit values ​​of substances possibly dissolved in the water.

But not only practical reasons speak in favor of quenching your thirst at the tap. Drinking water also tastes good - sometimes slightly salty, sometimes a bit bitter or sometimes a bit sweetish. The region of origin determines the taste.

Simple drinking water is best. Image: Mikkel Bigandt - fotolia

In Germany, drinking water is mainly obtained from groundwater, surface water and spring water. The amount of the individual shares in the use for the public water supply depends strongly on the regional conditions. On average, however, groundwater accounts for the lion's share of about 61 percent. This occurs when precipitation seeps into the ground and this water collects over impermeable rock or clay layers. On its way to deeper layers of earth, the rainwater releases minerals from the existing rocks. The different composition and concentration of minerals in the soil provides for a huge variety of tastes of drinking water and also to the natural mineral water, spring water or medicinal water treated water.

In regions that are characterized by decaying volcanic activity - for example in the Eifel, the Black Forest or the Swabian Alb - the water flows predominantly over calcareous strata. It tastes more neutral, sometimes slightly earthy-dry. The gypsum and anhydrite-containing soils in northern Germany, but also in some low mountain ranges, give the local water a sweetish to slightly bitter taste depending on the sulphate concentration. So-called chloride water is formed when the water leaches rock salt deposits (eg deposits of primal oceans). They are rich in chlorides and sodium and give the water a salty touch. In regions with sand and gravel deposits such as the Allgäu or the North German Plain, many minerals leave their mark on drinking water. Eva Neumann, aid