How to pick waters at your grocery store
There are thousands of water brands available for us to choose from and they all tell us why we SHOULD choose their brand. How do we know what to believe, what is important, what we should buy?
First, there are some easy things I can tell you to look for when deciding what to buy. I look for spring, mineral or artesian labels and I would avoid purified or waters selling you on their alkalinity. Why these things are what I look for?
I like start with breaking waters in two categories. Processed municipal tap water & natural unprocessed fine water.
We will discuss processed tap water first. All of the top water brands fall into the first category of processed municipal water. Dasani, Smart water, Nestle Pure life & Aquafina all take municipal water and process it for purification and taste. 43% of U.S. adults buy bottled water because they like the taste better than tap. Americans tend to prefer more neutral tasting waters and most of the processed waters have a super low mineral content which leaves them with a very neutral taste. I’m pro drinking water over sodas and really have no beef with people drinking any type of water but there are a few cons with processed water. The main con for me would be that processed bottled water is a consumer good that is just filtered tap water. The filtration the processed actually creates wastewater and can waste up to 50-85%. Meaning industrial filtration systems intake 100 gallons of your city’s tap water and produce 15 gallons of bottled water. You could save money & drinkable water and reduce plastic pollution by getting a good water filter for your house.
Another thing to remember is that water should have some minerals. Water has minerals naturally from its contact with the earth. Minerals, also called electrolytes, in water support the transfer of nutrients in our cells. Water can we a good source of essentials minerals for our body so if you only drink highly purified water please consider a remineralization filter.
Now lets talk about natural unprocessed fine water. This is generally what I would recommend looking for at the store. There are many water brands that take and bottle water directly from the earth with no processing. These waters are naturally purified by filtering through layers and layers of rock and soil, sometimes even over the course of hundreds or thousands of years. Some of the unprocessed waters here in Austin grocery stores are:
Fiji
Gerolsteiner
Crazy Water
Voss
Evian
Mountain Valley Spring
Icelandic Glacial
San Pellegrino
Perrier
Waiakea
CFORCE
Liquid Death
What makes natural water my choice of water is that it is real water, with minerals derived from its contact with the earth that support our body functions while also tasting great. Many of these waters have a story and history and are owned by smaller more earth conscious businesses. Some of these water have more electrolytes than sports drinks and as much calcium as a glass of milk. Some of them are naturally carbonated and can make a great pairing for a beautiful meal. The biggest con with these waters is that they tend to be more expensive than processed waters but I think if we consider them a special beverage vs water just for our daily hydration the cost becomes significantly less of a factor as they are much less expensive than alcohol or other beverage options.
What we choose to purchase is important!
I hope this was helpful! If you have questions feel free to drop a line to whitneysommelier@gmail.com.
*Water Drop provides this information as a courtesy to users of this site. Please note that we are not your health provider or advisor, we are not responsible for the what or if you choose to purchase goods.
