A few years ago, there were only
a small number of choices for bottled water, but
consumers today find more than 900 brands in the
marketplace. We've created this primer on some of the major brands to take the guesswork out of your next trip down the grocery store aisle.
Acqua
Panna
For
centuries, Italians have fondly referred to Acqua Panna
as “baby’s water,” raising their children
from infancy on this clear, crisp water because of its
lightness, high quality and purity—appropriate
for even a newborn’s delicate digestive system.
The source is located 3,700 feet high in the serene
Tuscan Apennines of Northern Italy.
Known for centuries to nobleman, hunters, shepherds
and farmers for its remarkable purity and freshness,
Acqua Panna Natural Spring Water comes from a pristine
source, located on a vast, unspoiled natural reserve
25 miles north of Florence.
The source is nestled among beechwoods, chestnut forests
and lush meadows on the slopes of Mount Gazzaro in a
town named Scarperia. Legend has it the ancient Romans
built the only road stretching from Northern to Southern
Italy through Scarperia—and past the source—to
provide well-deserved refreshment to weary travelers.
It is said that even Amerigo Vespucci sipped from the
Panna source.
Arrowhead Mountain
Spring Water
Rainfall
and snowmelt percolating through soil and metamorphic
rock give rise to four springs in California’s
San Bernardino Mountains. The water was first bottled
in 1894 and by 1905 was being transported on “water
trains” to consumers in San Bernardino and Los
Angeles. Today Arrowhead Mountain Spring Water is
transported from the source for bottling in Southern
and Northern California and Arizona.
The water is micron filtered (to remove particles of
sediment), ozonized, passed under ultraviolet light
and lightly mineralized (between 100 and 200 ppm of
total dissolved solids).
Calistoga
Nestled
at the north end of Napa
Valley, Calistoga is a spa-resort town where a geyser
second in size only to Yellowstone’s Old Faithful
shoots from the ground, and people have been coming
to “take the waters”—in pools and
mud-baths—since before the turn of the last century.
Of the town’s three commercially bottled waters,
Calistoga comes from water which emerges from the ground
at 212 degrees Fahrenheit and is then cooled to 39 degrees
Fahrenheit for bottling. The hydrogen-sulfide aroma
is removed from the water at the bottling plant by filtering
it through sand. The finished water is then ozonated
and carbonated. Calistoga also bottles a noncarbonated
water from a Napa County spring.
Crystal Geyser
Located
along the High Sierra mountain range in the town of
Olancha, California, is the source of Crystal Geyser
natural alpine spring water. Mount Whitney and other
towering peaks of the High Sierra are a section of the
Sierra Nevadas, which are approximately 270 miles long.
Glacial waters have seeped over eons through cracks
in the granite rocks in this range, the source of alpine
spring water. Snow-melt and rain on Olancha Peak, 12,123
feet, filters through multiple geologic strata and the
water surfaces at 78 degrees and is bottled at the source,
4,000 feet above sea level.
Evian
This
famous non-sparkling European water comes from Source
Cachat in France,
where the water emerges from a tunnel in the mountain
at 52.88 degrees Fahrenheit. The source is fed from
the melted snow and rain that filters through glacial
sand from the Vinzier Plateau over a period of fifteen
years. The glacial sand is surrounded by clay, which
protects the water from pollution. The water is bottled
at a nearby bottling plant, which is highly automated
and exceptionally hygienic.
Fiji Natural
Artesian Water
The
origin of Fiji Natural Artesian Water is rainfall. It
is bottled at the source, taken from an aquifer beneath
volcanic highlands on the main island of Viti Levu in
Fiji. Fiji Natural Artesian Water was first packaged
by the company’s founder, David Gilmore, to provide
to guests at his exclusive Wakaya Club on Wakaya, a
2,200-acre island in the Fiji Republic. The product
was launched in Florida and Los Angeles at the end of 1997 in a distinctive,
square-shaped bottle, with dramatic graphics. It is
said to have a smooth “mouth feel” due to
its high silica content.
Gerolsteiner
Spring Water
In
the German style of obsessive purity and cleanliness,
Gerolsteiner water follows a strict purity certification
process from bottling to consumption. Originating in
springs from the area of Volcanic Eifel, Gerolsteiner
flows from ancient, rocky volcanic reservoirs 200 feet
beneath the surface of the earth. This gives Gerolsteiner
a high mineral content, including carbonic acid, which
helps break down the otherwise non-water-soluble dolomite
rocks in the spring and infuses the water with a variety
of earthy elements. The acid, it is said, is also responsible
for Gerolsteiner’s unique flavor. It is widely
available in Germany and is shipped to 30 other countries
around the world as Germany’s number-one water
export.
Hawaiian Springs
Natural Water
It
begins as rain and snow falling through the cleanest
air on earth, to the slopes of Mauna Loa Volcano on
the Big Island of Hawaii,
thousands of miles from the nearest continent. Mauna
Loa is the largest mountain in the world in land mass.
This pristine water filters through thousands of feet
of lava rock and forms an underground water flow where
it is captured at the source in Kea’au (Puna District)
on Mauna Loa’s slopes. Early Hawaiians always
had a reason behind the names they selected for places.
Kea’au, District of Puna, means “clear,
pure spring water.” Every day over one billion
gallons of this unusually pure water flows underground
toward the ocean to repeat its never ending cycle. Hawaiian
Springs Water is bottled at the source in European tradition.
Ice Mountain
Early
Indians were the first to discover Ice Mountain Spring,
located in the remote woodlands of Mount Zircon, near
Rumford, in central Maine.
They noticed it seemed to rise and fall with the cycles
of the moon and called it Moon Tide Spring. The water
was first bottled by the Abbott family in 1859, and
is now bottled as both still and sparkling.
Mountain Valley
This
water springs from a source in a 500-acre forest in
the hills between Glazypeau and Cedar Mountains, in Arkansas.
Adjacent is a timberland preserve, all of which protects
the Mountain Valley aquifer. It was first bottled in
1871 and has been continuously bottled since then, both
as carbonated and noncarbonated water. Mountain Valley’s
source emerges at 65 degrees Fahrenheit; the bottling
plant draws approximately 50 gallons per minute from
the spring. The source’s aquifer is estimated
to be at 1,600 feet below the earth’s surface,
where the water filters through levels of shale, Blakely
sandstone and limestone.
Perrier
The
beginning of the Perrier water dates back more than
100 million years to the Cretaceous Period, when limestone
deposits began to form faults and fissures that captured
water deep within the earth below what is now Vergèze,
France. Hannibal’s Carthaginian army is said to
have paused by the spring, Les Bouillens, in 218 B.C.
Remains in the area suggest that the Romans also refreshed
themselves in the waters of Perrier, which have a bit
of natural carbonation. When it is bottled, extra fizz
is created by adding filtered carbon monoxide gas captured
at a nearby natural source.
Poland Spring
The
history of Poland Spring, Maine, dates back to 1793,
when the area around the spring was first settled and
the Ricker family opened a small inn. Soon afterward
Joseph Ricker lay dying, and to ease his fever someone
fetched water from the spring. The story is that Ricker
drank it and lived another 52 years to tell the tale!
In 1845, Hiram Ricker began to bottle the water and,
in 1893, Poland Spring was awarded the Medal of Excellence
at the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago.
Today, Poland Spring comes both still and sparkling.
San Pellegrino
The
spring of San Pellegrino is sequestered in the mountains
north of Milan,
Italy, and was first made famous by quenching the thirst
of Leonardo da Vinci. Today the Fonte Termale, an opulent
marbled drinking hall is a monument to the glamour of
“taking the waters.” San Pellegrino’s
sources are three deep springs, which emerge from the
ground at 69.8 degrees Fahrenheit. The waters come from
an aquifer 1,300 feet below the surface, where limestone
and volcanic rocks impart unique minerals and trace
elements. Among its several bottled waters, San Pellegrino
also bottles and imports to the United States.
Saratoga
In
the southern foothills of New
York’s Adirondack Mountains is the famous
town of Saratoga Springs, where, in the Gay ‘90s,
celebrities like Lillian Russell and Diamond Jim Brady
drank Saratoga’s carbonated water from monogrammed
cups. Saratoga’s original source was a hand-drilled
well that went through 30 feet of sand and 150 feet
of rock. Natural carbonation occurs in the water, although
the water is re-injected with additional carbonation
during the bottling process.
Solé
The
Fonte Solé Spring is located in the foothills
of the Lombardy region of the Italian Alps and has been
revered for its health-giving waters since Roman times.
In the Middle Ages, the source was controlled by a monastery
when both plague and pestilence threatened the population.
A belief grew up that those who drank from the spring
would be. Today, the water is recognized as being low
in sodium. The University of Pavia has declared it as
being microbiologically pure. Solé is packaged
in green glass bottles, both noncarbonated and lightly
carbonated. The latter, be warned, is not the best mixer
to use for spritzers because of the fragility of its
bubbles.
Spa
First
discovered by the ancient Romans, the source for Spa’s
non-sparkling mineral water is located in Belgium’s
Ardennes Valley. Spa was the first town to develop an
international bottled water industry (in 1583, the water
was exported to none less than King Henri II of France).
In the process, the town inadvertently exported its
name; since then, “spa” has been synonymous
with most natural springs and health resorts. On the
edge of the High Venn near Spa is the spring called
Reine (the Queen’s Spring). Rain and melted snow
falls on a moss area of La Fagne, a plateau 575 meters
above sea level. It percolates down through layers of
clay, slate, flint, sand and quartz where it finally
surfaces at 440 meters above sea level.
Trinity
The
source of Trinity is a place called Paradise, Idaho,
located on the edge of the vast Idaho wilderness in
the foothills of the Trinity Mountains. A source of
exceptional purity, the Trinity springs flow through
crystal-lined passageways over 2.2 miles below the planet’s
surface within the massive granite Idaho Batholith.
Emerging from this deep, protected, pristine source
at a temperature of 138 degrees Fahrenheit, Trinity
is pure enough to be bottled in its natural state without
disinfectants. In keeping with the recognized traditions
and wisdom of European spring stewardship.
Tynant
Springing
from a source in Wales’ Cambrian Mountains, this
carbon-filtered sparkling water first made a name for
itself in London's
high-end hotels in 1989. Today, the lightly carbonated
beverage is more widely distributed and imported to
the United States. Tynant is recognizable by its striking
blue glass bottles, the hue that apothecary bottles
were colored during the Victorian era.
Vittel
This
still mineral water comes from three springs in the
small town of Vittel, protected within a 5,000-acre
forest in the Vosges Mountains in Northeastern France.
Vittel comes from an immense underground aquifer where
rock strata and sandstone charge the water with calcium,
magnesium and sulphates. The spring surfaces at 11.1
degrees Celsius, and its waters are renowned for its
stimulating effects on the kidneys, gall bladder and
liver.
Volvic
Volvic
is bottled exclusively at its unique source in France
and available in more than 60 countries. The basin supplying
the Volvic spring source is located in the Regional
Park of the Old Auvergne Volcanoes, a volcanic region
that has been dormant for 10,000 years. The name Volvic
refers to the town as well as a type of gray volcanic
rock. The Clairvic Spring was discovered in 1927. In
1965, the French Ministry of Health authorized the bottling
of Volvic water. Volvic emerges year-round from its
protected source at the constant temperature of 8.8
Celsius.
Voss
In
response to bottles of water that lack style and are
for the most part unsophisticated, two Norwegian entrepreneurs
created Voss, a classier, designer-savvy tube of water
from the crisp, frigid aquifers of their Nordic homeland.
Shielded for thousands of years from pollutants by thick
layers of rock and ice, Voss water is bottled in Southern
Norway, “naturally unfiltered,” and it is
served both still and sparkling. But its rugged purity
is not Voss’ only selling point. The company’s
designers painstakingly developed the bottle’s
look and feel to reflect a brand that embodies both
health and high fashion. Voss first became available
mostly in upscale hotels and in health spas in Europe and in the United States. But the stage is set for much
wider distribution in 2006 to gourmet food isles and
retail stores on both continents.
This guide
has been produced with the help of Arthur von Wiesenberger,
author of four books on bottled water, a water master
at the annual International Water Tasting Competition
in Berkeley Springs, W. VA, and the founder of www.BottledWaterWeb.com,
the definitive bottled water website and www.BottledWaterBoutique.com,
the Internet’s first online water purveyor.
Blue Keld Waters
This luxury water brand from England comes from a spring in the Yorkshire Wolds, a region of low hills in the northeastern area of the country. The waters take many years to naturally filter through the chalk and limestone of the Yorkshire Wolds before they arrive at the Blue Keld Spring. The company produces Natural Water, Premium Water, Flavored Water, Blue Keld Ice, and Artesian Water. The company's Artesian Water is aimed at the hotel, restaurant and catering industries, and is bottled in a unique, tear-drop shaped vessel made from blue Venetian glass imported from Italy.
OGO Oxygenwater
Dubbed “The Breathing Water,” as it contains 35 times more oxygen than regular water, OGO comes from a natural spring in Tilburg, Netherlands and is instantly recognizable both by its taste and appearance. A patented oxygenation process takes place in The O-Company’s facility prior to bottling and creates a still water with a light balance. OGO Oxygenwater is sold in a unique and distinct round 33cl bottle. OGO is also available in sparkling form and in elderflower-and-lychee-flavored Flower Power.
Tasmanian Rainwater
The air in Tasmania, Australia has scientifically been proven to be the purest in the world, and it is from here that the pristine clouds shower the earth below with refreshing raindrops. Since 2006, one company has bottled the still water at a custom-designed catchment facility before it reached the ground, and has distributed it to locations worldwide. All-natural Tasmanian Rain, which contains only seventeen parts per million of dissolved solids, is available in 12- and 24-fluid ounce sizes and comes in a chic and recyclable glass bottle.
Some references obtained from www.finewaters.com
| P052906 |
(Updated: 07/28/08 LH) |
