Hydration: Can You Drink Red Water?
The red color is caused by tannins in organic material
If you hike or backpack in areas with large amounts of decaying vegetation, like the forests of North America or the peat bogs of Scotland and Northern England, you’re going to come across natural water sources that are sickly red, orange, or yellow. The tea-like coloring is caused by tannins that have leached from trees, grasses, and leafy plants into the local water supply. This coloring is harmless, and the water can be filtered or purified by regular means for human consumption. While it’s aesthetically displeasing and may impart a slight bitterness to the water, tannins do not pose a health or medical issue.
Some water filters can partially remove tannins from reddish water, particularly those with an activated carbon component, such as the Katadyn Hiker Pro, thereby making the water more palatable. The MSR MiniWorks Ceramic Filter can also remove tannins, but must be brushed (cleaned) occasionally to restore its normal flow rate. However, tannins will reduce the lifetime of most hollow fiber filters, such as the Sawyer Squeeze, the HydroBlu VersaFlow, and the Katadyn BeFree, unless they are backflushed more frequently.
Tastes like tea but no caffeine. Think unsoaked acorns if you eat them. I ‘discovered’ that my FirstNeed water purifier admitted tannins when I was doing a leg stretcher in Da Yoop 25 years ago. My immediate reaction was not to trust the FirstNeed. I bothered one of their engineers, as it is my nature, about this issue until he sent the data sheets. Tannins slink below 0.1 micron and activated carbon at volume. They do no harm except to your taste buds. Which is pretty amazing considering purifiers can remove virii, phages and the like. Carry on and mind the gap.
Black tea is a good correlate. Just slightly bitter but perfectly palatable.
Saves carrying tea bags!!! Water is dark brown, and opaque, in the boreal forest. I thought I would have written the first post about this, but James beat me to it. Now, if we could only find plants for cream or milk. Or have you found any lactating Sasquatch ?
Was in the Daks two years ago hiking Colden and Blake . Only place to camp near those summits had a spring that had that color water . I drank it and hoped nothing would happen . All was well but when I hiked out and told the Ranger he looked at me like I had three heads. I’ve run in to that type of water more in the Daks than the Whites but no I’ll affects noted.
Hope this helps
Tannin heavy water is prized for whiskey making – the Western Isles and Jura Malts are heavily flavored with a peaty fragrance/taste. Best whiskeys in the world…..
Haha, I recognized that word “tannin.” Been drinking tea for a half century at least. The tannin is why they tell you to drink tea for certain lower digestive issues. If I drink it on an empty stomach I feel nauseous.