The water filtration industry has played us for absolute fools

I wanted to know whether my Brita water filter (“MAXTRA”) actually purifies water. The manufacturer advertises it as:

  1. removing large particles;
  2. removing metals via ion exchange;
  3. removing chemicals like chlorine.

So I took a fresh cartridge, rinsed it with water following its directions, and put it through two filtration cycles of plain water. Then I emptied the jug, made one mug of strong cherry-flavoured squash, and poured the squash into the filter jug.

I defy you to tell the difference between the following three pictures, which are the result of the first, second, and third successive filter runs respectively.

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Title: After one round of filtration After one round of filtration, the squash still looks exactly like squash.
Title: After two rounds of filtration After two rounds of filtration, the squash still looks exactly like squash.
Title: After three rounds of filtration After three rounds of filtration, the squash still looks exactly like squash, although perhaps a little more anaemic this time.

The real mug was me all along!