Filtered Water Filter Rant

The other day I bought new water filter cartages to put in our water pitcher. Like always I followed the directions, first soaking, then rinsing and discarding a couple pitchers of filtered water. Funny thing is, the water tasted terrible. Both big names in water filters have this same problem. I only want the filter to remove chlorine from my water. Is that too much to ask? I suspect the cause of the foul taste is the ion exchange resin as charcoal filtration media shouldn't have any detectable taste.