This column originally appeared in Looped In NYC, our weekly newsletter for where to go and what to know. (Sign up here!)

We New Yorkers love to brag that our city is the best at everything – food, walkability, cultural diversity, and yes, even our *tap water.*

Former Mayor Eric Adams called it the “champagne of municipal water.” The city's environmental protection website prides itself in having “the best tap water in the world.” And some New Yorkers even credit their water as the secret ingredient behind the city’s famously thin, foldable pizzas and thick, chewy bagels.

I’ll admit that New York City’s tap water is genuinely tasty and very drinkable. But I lived in Baltimore for a couple years and… I remember it being pretty good there, too! So lately I’ve been wondering: Does NYC really have the best tap water in the world? Or are the city and its passionate residents just really good at marketing it?

So for this week’s Looped In, we brought in water sommelier Amalia Ulman (yes, those exist!) to test NYC’s water against tap water from Baltimore, Cincinnati, Washington, D.C. and of course our neighbors in Jersey City.

Ulman ranked each city on a scale of 1-10. One city’s water made her physically recoil, earning it a 1/10. And while Baltimore still tasted smooth to me, Ulman described a “chalky aftertaste.” Watch our video of the taste tests to see how each city stacked up.

But spoiler alert: New York City was the only one to get a coveted 10/10.

It makes sense that NYC’s tap water tastes so good because it comes from extremely clean water reservoirs in the Catskill Mountains and the Hudson Valley, which are forested areas protected from pollution, according to water expert Gregory O’Mullan, who chairs Queens College’s school of earth and environmental sciences.

NYC’s drinking water supply system is the largest unfiltered water supply in the country, according to New York state’s Department of Environmental Conservation. That means the water is naturally purified as it moves down through layers of soil and rock, requiring minimal chemical treatment like chlorine and ultraviolet radiation before reaching your faucet.

In contrast, places like Long Island get their tap water from groundwater aquifers, which are more susceptible to industrial pollution, O’Mullan said.

“ It is far, far easier and cheaper to keep water clean than it is to treat water that has been exposed to a variety of pollutants,” O’Mullan said.

NYC’s tap water happens to be both safe and good-tasting, but O’Mullan was quick to point out those two things don't always correlate with each other. That means the cities that got low taste testing scores still might have perfectly safe tap water.

“It’s important to untangle those two things,” O’Mullan said. “That being said, it's important to have good-tasting water as well because we don’t want to have to use bottled water.”

NYC’s water source is relatively pristine, but old pipes in some buildings can leach lead into the water, O’Mullan said. You can get a free lead test kit by calling 311.

And if you want to be extra careful with your tap water, here are some tips O’Mullan shared:

  • Run your faucet for 30 seconds to a minute when you first wake up since water sitting in the pipes overnight can pick up contaminants.
  • Cook with cold water. Hot water can interact with pipes more and pick up lead a little bit faster.
  • Clean out your water faucet aerator monthly. Corrosion particles can collect there and increase lead exposure.

As for whether NYC's famously clean tap water makes our pizzas and bagels taste better, the answer is more nuanced. According to Rachel Wyman, who teaches advanced baking at the Culinary Institute of America, the city’s low mineral content increases yeast activity, which does make bread taste better.

But water is only part of the reason. It’s really the city’s unique airborne yeast strains that give New York bread its distinctive flavor, she said. You can see this wild yeast sometimes as dusty white coating on your grapes and blueberries, Wyman said.

“ Even if you take New York City tap water and your flour and your bakers and everything else to San Francisco, you're not gonna be able to recreate the same nuances that the microbiome of New York City has in its dough,” she said.

Listen to this week's Looped In segment on "All Things Considered."