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Every drink on this blog starts with water. Not as an afterthought, but as the foundation. The sparkling water in the Kalamansi Spark, the water you brew the butterfly pea flower tea in for the Butterfly Pea Shift, the water you dilute your simple syrup with. Water is in almost everything and most people never think about it.

I started thinking about it when I noticed that two batches of the same drink, same ingredients and same ratios, tasted noticeably different depending on which water I used. Tap water in most cities has chlorine, fluoride, and mineral content that affects flavor more than you’d expect. A clean, filtered base makes a quieter drink. The ingredients come through more clearly. The whole thing tastes more intentional.

This is the post about water. What’s in it, what to filter out, and which filtration options are worth having in a home that takes its drinks seriously.

Why Water Quality Changes Everything

Tap water in most US cities contains chlorine and chloramine, added for safety during municipal treatment but not something you want in a drink you’ve carefully balanced. Chlorine has a detectable taste and smell that flattens delicate flavors. If your lavender syrup tastes slightly off, or your butterfly pea tea seems dull, the water is often the culprit.

Mineral content matters too. Very hard water can make drinks taste heavy and slightly metallic. Very soft water can make them taste flat. The ideal sits somewhere in the middle: clean, neutral, and out of the way of everything else in the glass.

This isn’t about being precious. It’s about removing one variable from a drink you’ve put thought into. Good water doesn’t make a drink taste better. It stops it from tasting worse than it should.

The Microplastics Question

There’s something else in tap water that the usual filter conversation doesn’t always cover: microplastics. These are tiny plastic particles that have made their way into water systems from a range of sources including packaging, synthetic textiles, and plastic plumbing infrastructure. Research has now confirmed their presence in tap water samples worldwide.

A global review published in ScienceDirect found microplastic fibers present in up to 83% of tap water samples tested worldwide. According to Food and Water Watch, people in the US may be ingesting 4,000 or more microplastic particles through tap water annually. What’s notable is that bottled water isn’t a cleaner alternative. Research cited by CNN estimates that people who drink only bottled water may ingest approximately 90,000 microplastics annually, compared to around 4,000 for tap water drinkers — because the plastic packaging itself adds to the count.

The science on long-term health effects is still developing. The EPA does not yet regulate microplastics in drinking water, though there are active calls for monitoring standards. What the research does make clear is that microplastics are present and that filtration helps. A 2025 study published in PMC found that drinking water treatment processes can remove 97 to 98% of microplastics before water reaches household taps. Household reverse osmosis systems go further, and a 2024 study in Environmental Science and Technology Letters found that boiling hard tap water and allowing it to settle removes at least 80% of certain nanoplastics by trapping them in calcium carbonate during the process.

We’re not here to alarm. We’re here to note that the filters below, particularly the reverse osmosis options, are among the most effective tools currently available for reducing microplastic exposure at home. It’s one more reason the water conversation is worth having.

The best ingredient is the one you never notice.
Good water is exactly that.

01 · Pitcher Filters

A countertop pitcher filter is the most accessible entry point. No installation, no plumber, no commitment. You fill it, it filters, you pour. The tradeoff is capacity and filter replacement frequency but for a single person or small household making drinks regularly, it’s more than sufficient.

02 · Faucet Filters

A faucet-mounted filter attaches directly to your tap. No filling, no waiting, no separate pitcher to store. Turn the faucet on, get filtered water instantly. For someone making drinks regularly throughout the day, the convenience difference is significant.

03 · Under-Sink & Countertop Systems

If you’re committed to water quality across everything you cook and drink, an under-sink or countertop reverse osmosis system is the most thorough option. These remove virtually everything from the water. Some people add a remineralization stage afterward to bring the taste back to something balanced.

04 · Make Your Own Sparkling Water

Once you have a clean filtered water base, carbonating it yourself is the natural next step. Pre-bottled sparkling water is mostly water from a municipal source, filtered yes, but then packaged in plastic or glass and shipped. Making your own from already-filtered tap water is cleaner, cheaper over time, and removes the packaging question entirely.

Which Option Is Right for You

What This Means for Your RLC Drinks

The drinks that benefit most from filtered water are the ones where water is the largest component. The Butterfly Pea Shift, the Blue Butterfly, and any sparkling drink where the water makes up 4 to 5 oz of the glass. The color-changing drinks are particularly sensitive because the pH of your water can actually affect how the butterfly pea flower tea shifts.

For warm drinks like the Lavender Cloud, filtered water makes the steeping cleaner and the lavender note comes through without mineral interference. It’s a small thing that adds up across every drink you make.

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