[ravenstine]

Really depends on the tap water and might be mostly due to chlorine. As someone who drinks distilled water almost exclusively, it's surprising how apparent the chlorine is when I occasionally have to the drink tap water in my area. Chlorine is basic while coffee is acidic, and chlorine is just pretty reactive in general, so it would be surprising if chlorine didn't affect the flavor of and in a negative way.

[BrandoElFollito]

I thought that distilled water is bad because there are no more micro elements?

[mixmastamyk]

Yes, we need minerals. Also, Chlorine will dissipate in a few hours or so. Put in a pitcher in the fridge for a cool drink any time.

[ravenstine]

You should already be getting your minerals from your diet, and food is an all around better way to get micronutrients in general. The mineral that's in the highest abundance in tap water is calcium, but there's better calcium to be found in broccoli. Same with things like magnesium... if one's health hinges on what's in their ingested water, their diet is terrible. There's nothing in water you can't get in greater quality and abundance in food.

There's this urban myth that distilled water pulls minerals out of your bones. Go find some high quality studies that demonstrate this incredibly flawed idea and get back to me. ;) Things like calcium in your bones aren't in a form that distilled water could dissolve away even if it wanted to (that's just not how things are working in the body though). The other theory is that the body would cannibalize calcium from the bones if there's no other calcium available; if you're getting even a modest amount of calcium from diet, which is easy to do with even the most unhealthy diets, this is never going to happen. If you are osteoporotic or are at risk of it, no amount of water is going to save you, and the evidence that mineral-free water would make it worse is nonexistent.

If it was dangerous to be consuming water devoid of minerals, the FDA would pull things like reverse-osmosis and ZeroWater filters off the shelves. But people keep repeating the evils of distilled water as if it's concluded fact when it's anything but.

Meanwhile, distillation and reverse-osmosis guarantee that heavy metals, microplastics, and many pharmaceuticals never make it into your drinking water in any meaningful amount. For some people it improves the flavor, as in my case, but others don't like it. But to anyone reading this, try drinking distilled exclusively for a few weeks and then drink tap water again. For me there's an obvious difference in smell and flavor that is tolerable but still off-putting.