You've Probably Never Even Heard Of The Best Bottled Water Brand

Americans love buying water in plastic bottles for a multitude of reasons, ranging from the higher concentration of healthy minerals to the belief that bottled brands simply taste better than what comes out of the tap. While the environmental implications of bottled water are more than a bit troubling, it doesn't seem like convenient portable hydration is going away any time soon. Accordingly, Mashed conducted a ranking of 27 bottled water brands from worst to best and discovered that the top brand is one that people might not be that familiar with. According to our reviewer, Acqua Panna Italian spring water handily beats the competition, which includes well-known brands like Dasani and Evian. 

Lauded as "how the water gods meant for their liquid refreshment to taste" by our reviewer, Acqua Panna is sourced from natural springs in Tuscany, Italy, and beloved for its minerally flavor profile. Our reviewer described this quality as "enough of a flavor to tell you that you're drinking something without making you wonder why your water has a taste." For comparison, we found fault with Essentia water's "aftertaste you can feel in the back of your throat," a flavor that's attributed to an overabundance of electrolytes. Our ranking includes both basic water brands and higher-end selections, but all of the bottles sampled can be easily sourced from most grocery and convenience stores. 

To understand why Acqua Panna is so appealing from a flavor perspective, it's helpful to know the definition of natural spring water. Spring water comes from aquifers, which are composed of sediment or water-permeable rock through which groundwater flows. As the water makes its way through the aquifer to the surface where it's collected, it accumulates minerals. Moving through aquifers also subjects spring water to a natural filtering process that helps remove impurities. While spring-derived mineral water is sometimes bubbly because of the presence of salts and sulfur compounds, it's not the same as sparkling water, which gets its bubbles from the addition of carbon dioxide. 

According to the Acqua Panna website, this spring water takes 14 years on average to make its way through the aquifer to the area where it's sourced. The company attributes the unique taste of Acqua Panna to the natural environment, which creates "a deluxe bottled water moment you won't soon forget," according to our reviewer. It seems that other hydro connoisseurs share this sentiment, as an Amazon review dubs Acqua Panna "Better than the Big Names," thanks to its "smooth, clean, and crisp [flavor], without any of the mineral-heavy aftertaste or plastic notes that are common with other brands."