[breischl]

It's been pretty well documented that presentation affects the perception of taste. Adding some fancy adjectives (and possibly a fancy price) to the menu can make people perceive the food as tasting better. I believe it's been shown to work with wine too. So it's not surprising that the same thing can happen with water.

[yzzxy]

Also, wine is barely better than water in terms of taste perception. Even wine "experts" can't differentiate wine in a blind test - they've been known to confuse red and white wine, give wildly inconsistent ratings to a single wine over multiple tests, and correlate high ratings with high price - even if the "expensive" wine is really a cheap on with a fake fancy label and price tag.

[mortenjorck]

I've actually assimilated this effect and consciously appreciate how certain craft beer labels affect my perception of the taste. There's a local brew I explicitly enjoy more from a 12oz bottle than on tap because of its package design.