10 Bottled Waters that Showoff Terroir and Taste

As a water writer I get great opportunities to promote the idea that water is not just water, but that naturally occurring waters are all unique. A magazine called The Clever Root asked me to name the "10 Best" waters like this for their summer 2018 issue. Now whereas I'm not fond of a "best" list, at least it gets people talking, thinking and hopefully seeking out these waters. Enjoy!

Water Winners at Berkeley Springs, 2018

For 28 years the Berkeley Springs International Water Tasting has been

handing out gold, silver and bronze awards to water; specifically municipal and bottled waters.

As a judge at this competition for many years I have witnessed first hand the impartiality of the judges. Of the dozen judges brought in annually, the majority are new to the game in a given year, meaning they are not attuned to the nuances of water on a daily basis. What’s remarkable about that point is that the 2018 awards was chalk full of former winners. The municipal water category was a battle of former winners with the water judged best in the world for 2018 - Clearbrook, British Columbia, Canada – also the biggest medal winner in the event’s history. The best water in the USA came from Santa Ana, CA, another former gold medalist. “The consistency in winners from year to year with different panels of judges validates the choices,” said watermaster, Arthur von Wiesenberger. “It also speaks to the impressively high caliber of the waters entered.” Simply put, great tasting water tastes great and people are able to discern that.

The competition, open to the public, saw nearly 100 waters entered from a cross the globe from places like Turkey, Cyprus, Jamaica, Trinidad-Tabago, South Korea, Bosnia, Greece and Australia. Waters were tasted in four separate flights over two days. Held in the small enclave of Berkeley Springs, West Virginia, the awards have garnered national press and many winners not only use the Berkeley Springs seal on their product, but also see a bump in sales after winning.

Best Municipal Water

Gold (Non-US)--Clearbrook, BC Canada

Gold (US)--Santa Ana, California

Silver--City of Hamilton, Ohio

Bronze--Mission Springs Water District, Desert Hot Springs, California

Best Bottled Water

Gold--Frequency H2O, Major Creek, Queensland, Australia

Silver--Mountain Valley Springs Water, Hot Springs, Arkansas

Bronze--Jackson Springs Natural Premium Spring Water, Marchand, MB, Canada

Best Sparkling Water

Gold--Antipodes Sparkling Water, Whakatane, New Zealand

Silver--Touch Sparkling Mineral Water, Marchand, MB, Canada

Bronze--KOPU Sparkling Water, Otakiri, New Zealand

Best Purified Drinking Water  

Gold--Ophora Water, Santa Barbara, California

Silver--GP8 Oxygen Alkaline Water, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Bronze--Rain Fresh Oxygen-Rich Purified Water, Garland, Texas 

Sweet Talk – How Do You Talk To Your Water?

As we all know, water is a physical element, but it also spiritual. Dr. Masaru Emoto writes in his book, The Hidden Messages in Water: “We start out life being 99% water as fetuses. When we are born we are 90% water and by the time we reach adulthood we are down to 70%. If we die of old age we will probably be about 50% water. In other words, throughout our lives we exist in water.” His groundbreaking work, chronicling water crystals was a discovery about water and how we as humans relate to water. You may not agree or believe in what he does, frankly I’m on the fence, but take a moment to ponder this.

With Dr. Emoto in Honolulu

His photographs of water crystals were originally featured in his book, The Hidden Messages in Water, and first published in Japan with over 400,000 copies sold internationally. What has put Dr. Emoto at the forefront of the study of water is his belief that thoughts and feelings affect physical reality. By producing different focused intentions through written and spoken words and music and literally presenting it to the water, the water appears to “change its expression,” he says. He developed a technique using a very powerful microscope in a very cold room along with high-speed photography to photograph newly formed crystals of frozen water samples. Dr. Emoto discovered that crystals formed in frozen water reveal changes when specific, concentrated thoughts are directed toward them be those positive or negative. He found that water from clear springs and water that has been exposed to loving words shows brilliant, complex, and colorful snowflake patterns. In contrast, polluted water, or water exposed to negative thoughts, forms incomplete, asymmetrical patterns with dull colors. Many people do not believe Dr. Emoto’s claims since his findings cannot be exactly reproduced – each crystal is unique and different. Is it true? Can sending positive messages to our water make it better, actually more healing, imbued with a spiritual nature?

In October 2012 I was in Honolulu where Dr. Emoto led a group of people to the Ala Wai canal, long considered one of the most unclean canals in the city. We stood on the banks and Dr. Emoto lead a prayer as a group of diverse individuals said aloud repeatedly, “We love you water, we praise you water, we thank you water.” Can this exercise actually affect the life and health of this canal? I don’t know. And sure, I felt somewhat foolish overlooking a placid body of water assuming something might happen - that a ripple would occur over the glassy surface as if some sign might convince me that, truly, we were having an impact on water, and by extension the residents of Honolulu. But the water didn’t move. There was no flash of sunlight piercing the water’s surface, reflecting a sign. There was no flight of birds that alighted on the canal. Nothing happened. But that doesn’t mean we cannot have an impact on our world of water. Should you spend time thanking a canal, a stream near your house, the ocean as it crashes on the shore, your watershed in your city? I’m guessing that you won’t be doing that. But if we, even a little bit, think about water, and are grateful for what it provides in our lives, literally life itself, then maybe something might change, in our water, and in ourselves. As Dr. Emoto told me, “Water is the messenger of God.” 

Arrowhead Water: Of Mountains, Indians & Helicoptors

Erected in the 1920s, this Indian pointed the way to the waters and resort

In the Western U.S. if you drink bottled water it’s very likely Arrowhead. Though labeled as Arrowhead Mountain Spring Water, few people realize that there is an actual Arrowhead Mountain from whence the water flows, and yes, it is actually mountain spring water. I was asked to visit the Arrowhead bottled water facility in Ontario, California, and see first hand one of the spring sites perched high atop the mountain.

To set the stage: Arrowhead water is 122 years old as of 2016, though the water emanating from the mountain has been around much longer, obviously. 1810 was the first known mention of the Arrowhead thermal springs by Spanish Padres, who called it Agua Caliente. The thermal springs soon attracted the attention of developers and the site was commercially developed in 1864, originally as a small wooden structure that offered bathing in the thermal waters, and by the 1890s a proper three-story hotel was built which morphed into a health resort. 

Early  Arrowhead water packs

Common at the time, water-based health resorts and sanitariums capitalized on “taking the waters,” including drinking plenty of mineral water straight from the source, and daily baths in the water. Of course it didn't hurt the marketing campaign that there were Indian legends about Arrowhead; that Spanish priests utilized the water, and that a clearly defined arrowhead was, and is still, on the mountainside pointing to the water. The resort was one of the elite places for Hollywood celebs to escape to in the 1920s and 1930s. Humphrey Bogart, Charlie Chaplin, Lucille Ball and many others hung out at the hotel. Today this is all private property with no public access, though the new owners of the resort might be giving tours of the palatial old hotel…someday.

The springs are at various points in the mountain, though the thermal springs still flow at the base of the mountain down by the hotel. Clearly visible from the city of Ontario and even more visible from the helicopter ride up, the arrowhead on the mountain is actually de-composing granite. I visited Tunnel #2, located at 5,400 feet up the mountain and the only way to access it was via helicopter. I landed on a small patch of dirt and made my way though thick underbrush down to the site, a staggeringly uninteresting grey door with three locks on it and a stainless steel pipe coming from the site. There are multiple access doors like this on the mountain and provide security as, once inside the door it’s about 60 feet into the mountain where the water is captured. The water is drawn into a pipeline made of food grade stainless steel and snakes its way 17 miles down to the base of the mountain where it is loaded onto trucks and taken to the nearby facility for bottling.

One of the tunnel doors. You can see the seepage of water below the door

"This is a fractured-granite spring," says Larry Lawrence, Natural Resource Manager for Arrowhead who accompanied me to the site. As is clearly evident from the mountain, the various sizes of granite around us, from small chunks the size of your hand to monolithic portions, demonstrate the natural minerals from the rock that the water picks up as it makes its way through the mountain. Protecting a water source is crucial and in addition to the locking doors, each with a rotating system of locks, each Arrowhead spring site is monitored for VOCs (volatile organic compounds) in the air. It’s less about human intervention – it’s near impossible for anyone to get to the sites – but for animal intrusion and air pollution levels.

Standing at tunnel #2

Back down on terra firma I toured the Arrowhead plant which, when first built, was the largest bottled water plant in the U.S. What’s amazing about most bottled water plants is the complexity of the operation, something the vast majority of people never see. Sure, it seems simple - put water into a bottle, sell it and you’re done. But the UV treatment, packaging, preform molding of the bottles, transportation, testing and shipping of the whole thing runs seamlessly with high tech equipment operating at near breakneck speed and pinpoint precision. Surprisingly there are 200 quality checks daily at this plant. “It's not that people don't believe it, it's that they just don't think about water going through that many tests,” Lawrence tells me. “You turn on the tap and water comes out - no one thinks about exactly how water gets to you.” Behind a glassed office one tech was testing multiple samples of water, decked out in gloves, mask and headgear so as to keep the room sanitized. The Arrowhead plant was built to be self-sufficient - once bottled the product is placed directly onto a truck and off it goes.

View from the helicopter: You can clearly see the arrowhead on the mountain, and the resort in the lower left

Near the plant is an R-PET facility, producing high quality recycled PET plastic pellets for Arrowhead, who in turn make those pellets into bottles. Millions of cases are produced at this facility and that means a lot of bottles. "We tend to be at about a 95% recycle rate across our supply chain," says Lawrence. Parent company Nestle has long supported extended producer responsibility (EPR) and feels that should apply to consumer packaging like bottled water. Recycling Reinvented, co-founded by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Nestlé Waters North America, promotes state EPR legislation, which would shift the costs to recycle packaging from taxpayers to producers. In essence, Arrowhead is willing to assume the financial aspect of recycling costs, though in truth, we all need to be responsible with recycling. Additionally, Arrowhead is a leading water donator; having given bottled water to over 300 organizations, and has donated 1.6 million bottles of water in the San Bernardino area alone. So the next time you see Arrowhead, you’ll have a more full understanding of the water.

Drink Water and Defend Strokes

Almost 800,000 Americans have a stroke every year according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The vast majority of strokes occur when a clot blocks the blood flow to a portion of the brain resulting in nearly 130,000 deaths annually in the United States. We know that strokes are dangerous – but what you may not know is that your own hydration can have a positive impact.

People who are not well hydrated, when they have a stroke, are about four times more likely to have a worse outcome than people who regularly have more fluids in their system, a new study suggests. When stroke patients end up in the hospital they are often severely dehydrated. When compared with patients who were not dehydrated prior to a stroke, dehydration at hospital arrival was associated with a four-fold increase in the risk of having clinically worsening symptoms between the patients arrival and their discharge, according to Dr. Mona Bahouth, a cerebrovascular fellow in the department of neurology at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, who presented her study findings at the annual meeting of the International Stroke Conference in February, 2015. “We have known that a large percentage of patients are dehydrated at the time of their stroke,” she said, adding that it is now clear that this presentation has implications for short-term prognosis. Simply put: it’s better to have a hydrated body than a dehydrated body. But can dehydration be a risk factor for stroke? The study did not address cause and effect, and Bahouth said it is not yet clear if dehydration is an actual risk factor for stroke. “I think we had a hunch that hydration would be a key feature for stroke patients,” Bahouth said. “So it’s not too surprising, but it’s just the beginning.”

A Scottish study in 2012 also found the same thing. Researchers in that study concluded that dehydration is common in patients admitted to the hospital following a stroke and is associated with severe stroke and poor outcomes at the time of their discharge. They suggest that focusing on interventions to reduce the frequency and duration of dehydration have the potential to improve patient outcomes after a stroke. Independent risk factors for dehydration included older age, female gender, and prescribed diuretics, which rids the body of vital fluids.

The John Hopkins study included 168 patients admitted to Johns Hopkins Hospital from August 2013 to May 2014. The patients underwent MRI scans to assess how much damage had been done to the brain by the stroke. Forty-four patients were deemed to be dehydrated at the time of hospital admission. There were not significant differences in hydrated and dehydrated patients with regard to stroke severity or the type of stroke they had, however water consumption showed that healthy hydration had undeniable benefit. “The dehydration group tended to end up in the worst quartile,” Bahouth said. “These were the patients who got worse over further hospitalization or didn't change at all.” And dehydration remained a significant predictor of having a worse outcome after leaving the hospital. “There is a physiological response to dehydration,” she said. “The blood gets sludgy, like thick paint, and this puts stress on blood vessel walls and it changes the dynamic of how blood vessels function.”

Dr. Paul Bendheim, a clinical professor of neurology from the University of Arizona College of Medicine in Tucson, said there are no hard-and-fast rules for staying well hydrated, though recommendations of drinking eight glasses of water each day is still standard policy. “The critical thing is that people maintain frequent volumes of urinary output during the day, that they don't feel thirsty and they regularly consume sufficient liquids,” added Bendheim, who wasn’t involved in the Hopkins study. Dr. Bahouth cautioned that anyone who thinks they might be having a stroke should not try to drink anything since brain damage might make it difficult for them to swallow correctly. That could cause them to inhale fluid into the lungs.

It’s no surprise that being properly hydrated helps with a variety of physical ailments. Water is known to help fight fatigue, eliminate toxins from the body, keep the skin healthy and more. But human nature is such that, though people may know they need to drink more water, they don’t often monitor their water intake. Yes, something as simple as water can provide meaningful long-term health benefits. Water is not a cure all of course, but drinking water at home, at work, at the gym, and on the go is never a wrong choice. Drinking more water won’t protect you from a stroke, heart attack or anything else, but if your body is properly hydrated and these studies suggest you will be helping to protect yourself in the long run.

Jack Water - Whiskey, Water and Wellsprings

Jesus may have turned water into wine, but it took Jack Daniels to turn water into whiskey. Clean pure water makes everything taste better from coffee and tea to baking and even distilled spirits. The Jack Daniels distillery in Lynchburg Tennessee has its own protected water source. I visited the distillery in June 2015 (they are open for tours) and this story is less about whiskey and more about the water used to make that whiskey. 
 
 

The Cave Spring at Jack Daniels

See, they have their very own Cave Spring full of water, and yes it’s a natural spring inside a cave. The history of the parcel goes back thousands of years, and before the distillery purchased the spring it was the water source for the town of Lynchburg. A young Jack Daniels moved the distillery specifically to this location to take advantage of the water in 1866. They mapped the cave going back about a mile into the hillside, where it splits into two caves along the way. The water is iron free but does have lots of calcium and magnesium from the natural filtration through the limestone. The water is 56 degrees year round and produces roughly 300 gallons per minute. It’s the sole source of water for the cooking of the mash and fermentation of the whiskey. There is also a reservoir under the spring that collects the water in the drier months and the spring has never been known to run dry. If you take the tour you’ll stop by the cave spring and given the hot summer temperatures this is a welcomed respite. You can clearly see into the cave for a hundred or so feet but most noticeable, aside from the wide mouth of the cave, is the layers of limestone rock.

Layers of limestone make all the difference at Jack Daniels

Eventually the distillery purchased 250 acres behind the spring in order to protect it. This is not uncommon; if you have a pure unadulterated water source you want it protected from any contaminants, either water runoff from other places, human or animal intervention. Bottled water company Kunlun Mountain does this with their parcel. I was on the Tibetan Plateau, up in the Kunlun Mountains in China some 10,000 feet where their spring was not only housed by a small concrete structure, but there was a large perimeter fence to keep the admittedly few animals who can live at this altitude at bay. Animals are naturally drawn to water sources and if a wellhead or open source is not protected animal defecation can migrate into the well and there goes your clean water. If Kunlun Mountain at 10,000 feet protects its source of water where the threat of contamination is pretty rare (there are no housing developments up there, no farms, just the stunning snow capped mountains), why wouldn’t anyone who relies on their water do everything they can to protect it? And Jack Daniels understands this. They even briefly bottled some of it for the 1982 Worlds Fair in Knoxville. The point of course is that clean, pure water, free of contaminants and unwanted tastes and odors makes everything taste better. I was working on my third travel book and was visiting a well-known teashop in the Monterey area. I ordered my tea and scone and expected to have a wonderful time and was planning on including this establishment in my book. Sadly the water they used for the tea and also the scone was heavy with chlorine that deeply affected the flavors of both. Why would anyone want to eat or drink tea that is tainted with odors and flavors no one wants? Obviously they used their local tap water and municipal water often has heavy chlorine in it (to better understand this process see my article about water treatment plants). This doesn’t mean the water is harmful, no, residual chlorine added to municipal water helps fight bacteria in the pipes, but it doesn’t smell or taste the way we want. Surprisingly many restaurants and even bars and bakeries use municipal water straight from the tap. That’s fine if you know your water, and unwanted odors and flavors have been filtered out. You don’t want a killer Manhattan with a terrific whiskey like Jack Daniels only to have a bartender use water or ice cubes made from water that is stinky, right?
 

I enter the Kunlun bottled water plant, 10,000 feet over China

Obviously everyone wants great tasting water. Clean water is not a given, it is an ongoing process and tremendous effort to safeguard. Water sources need to be protected to ensure the quality of that water is viable for any industry, whiskey, wine, or anything else. Jack Daniels is but one example of a company that takes its water seriously, respects it, and goes to great lengths to ensure its excellence.

Fasting + Water = Health

Water aids the human body in countless ways. Research cardiologists in the U.S. found that fasting can lower the risks of developing coronary artery disease and diabetes, but also can improve your blood cholesterol levels. I fast once a month for a 36-hour period so I’m always interested in studies showing the benefits of proper fasting. This study showed that fasting for just 24 hours can bolster a metabolic protein called human growth hormone (HGH) that protects lean muscles. Another study reported by American Heart Association also found a link between lower rates of heart disease and people who fast one day each month for religious practices. And the cornerstone of these fasts is water.

Two different clinical trials followed patients who drank only water and ate nothing else for 24 hours. They were also monitored while eating a normal diet during an additional 24-hour period. Blood tests and physical measurements were taken from each subject to evaluate their cardiac risk factors, markers of metabolic risk, and other general health parameters. Although calorie restrictions found in juice-only fasting can be beneficial for heart health, water-only fasts produced the most beneficial results. “Extreme diets generally do little more than cause frustration, are potentially dangerous, and are in general a waste of time and money,” says Michelle May, MD, author of “Am I Hungry? What to Do When Diets Don't Work.”

Overly strict regimens can lead to fluid losses that can disturb the body’s electrolyte balance, causing upset stomach, headaches, fatigue, moodiness, and even dehydration. Experts suggest that the body detoxes itself naturally through the hardworking kidney and liver which eliminate toxins. Therefore for a safe cleanse (which can include weight loss though that is not the primary objective), load up on healthful all-natural foods, drink lots of water, and avoid excess medications and alcohol. Since water is used in almost every biochemical process in the body, during a fast, you will generally consume more water than what you usually drink. This increase in water consumption facilitates the natural healing process, and accelerates the removal of waste products from the body. As your immune system is strengthened from this detoxification process, you may note an increase in energy, mental clarity and feelings of well-being.

Research cardiologists at the Intermountain Medical Center Heart Institute in Salt Lake City, Utah, report that fasting not only lowers one's risk of coronary artery disease and diabetes, but also causes significant changes in an individuals blood cholesterol levels. Both diabetes and elevated cholesterol are known risk factors for coronary heart disease. “These new findings demonstrate that our original discovery was not a chance event," says Dr. Benjamin D. Horne, PhD, MPH, director of cardiovascular and genetic epidemiology at the Intermountain Medical Center Heart Institute, and the study's principal investigator. “The confirmation among a new set of patients that fasting is associated with lower risk of these common diseases raises new questions about how fasting itself reduces risk or if it simply indicates a healthy lifestyle.”

Fasting causes hunger, obviously. In response, the body releases more cholesterol, allowing it to utilize fat as a source of fuel, instead of glucose. This decreases the number of fat cells in the body. “This is important because the fewer fat cells a body has, the less likely it will experience insulin resistance, or diabetes. People who fast have lower rates of coronary disease, and fasting was associated with a lower prevalence of diabetes,” says Dr. Horne. This recent study also confirmed earlier findings about the effects of fasting on human growth hormone (HGH), a metabolic protein. HGH works to protect lean muscle and metabolic balance, a response triggered and accelerated by fasting. During the 24-hour fasting periods, HGH increased an average of 1,300% in women, and nearly 2,000% in men. In this most recent trial, researchers conducted two fasting studies of over 200 individuals -- both patients and healthy volunteers -- who were recruited at Intermountain Medical Center.

It’s important to drink at least seven to 10, eight ounce glasses of water every day and to specifically avoid tap water during a fast. Why no municipal water? It can reintroduce toxins and chemicals into your body (stemming from antiquated and potentially harmful pipes and infrastructure) thereby actually defeating the purpose of the fast, which is to cleanse your body with natural, pure water. Do not however drink distilled water during a fast as it has no electrolytes in it that you need for optimum health. If water is too bland for you, try adding slices of lemon, maybe orange, or cucumber in your water but do not add any un-natural ingredients like sugar flavorings, or any chemically enhanced flavoring. During a fast your body needs the purest water possible to help filter toxins out of your system. Fasting is a healthy regimen and water, the body’s very own natural lubricant, is the ideal way to keep our body healthy and happy.