Bottled Water Brands, Ranked Worst To Best

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The muddied world of bottled water can be a difficult one to navigate, with sleek bottles advertising spring sourcing and pH balancing like any of us could tell if it's true. Sure, many people have brand loyalties. And regional bottled waters can oftentimes be a source of civic pride right up there with local beers and baseball teams. But when you get right down to it, what makes water great is how it makes your mouth and body feel. And in that respect, there is some great variation.

Some waters make you want to chug the entire bottle, brain freeze be darned. Others you'll ignore as soon as you've quenched your immediate thirst. You'll find distinct differences between spring waters and purified waters, as well as glass bottled waters and stuff in plastic. So, we undertook a feat of exceptional hydration and tried 16 of the most popular brands of bottled water. We present our findings for which are best — and which are best left in the convenience store cooler.

Water is perhaps the most bountiful stuff on Earth, and yet Nestlé made a fortune packaging and selling it for around the same price as juice, milk, or soda. While it was once a flagship bottled water for Nestlé, the quality of Pure Life doesn't even meet its cut-rate price point. Nestlé doesn't even produce it anymore and instead has handed off operations to BluTriton. Either way, Pure Life remains a subpar choice.

Pure Life's flavor profile is anything but pure. None of the natural effects or notes that come from bottled water are here, like the mineral notes that may remind a drinker they're consuming something healthy. This is a water that somehow feels thinner, or, ironically, watered down. It leads with the taste of chalk, metals, and most egregiously, the plastic Pure Life water bottle. That could be because Pure Life doesn't come from a pristine mountain spring. Instead, it's sourced from city water supplies and well water. You might be better off drinking regular tap water that you can filter to your liking. 

Poland Spring is a little like the John Stark of bottled water: It's pretty terrible and the only reason it gets any respect is because New Yorkers seem to think it's great. NYC's regional bottled water of choice gets a rep almost as underserved as its tap water, but at least nobody's claiming Poland Spring makes bagels taste better. Still, it hits with a mouthful of plastic and goes down heavy, leaving an aftertaste almost as bitter as a cab driver who gets perpetually stiffed.

We'll give it to Poland Spring — it is cool and refreshing, and we guess after spending an entire summer afternoon sweating your way through an hour-long subway ride, it probably tastes like it was sourced from the Garden of Eden. But it's sourced in Maine, and while it's excellent cold, it absorbs an intense amount of plastic flavor as the water heats up. Transferring it to a glass doesn't eliminate the notes of petroleum, so if you're visiting the Big Apple, this is one local "treasure" you don't need to try.

Though it's technically not bottled water, Boxed Water wears its gimmick right on its packaging, which is a carton of water that is akin to a large juice box. Boxed Water is a product with a mission: to provide water without adding to the global problem of plastic waste. Unlike most other waters, Boxed Water comes in readily recyclable containers that are made from sustainable materials, not single-use plastic that lives on for decades.

That's all well and good, but Boxed Water doesn't appear to give much thought to how the water inside its earth-saving packaging tastes The liquid is vaguely promised to be "100% purified," which we suspect means it's fitlered, like almost every other bottled water available. 

None of that speaks much to the actual flavor or mouthfeel of the water, which is less than grand. Boxed Water resembles plain tap water that went through a Brita filter. Furthermore, as this is a product that proudly uses paper, that material affects the water. The taste of cardboard is prominent here, making for a beverage that tastes too much like really wet paper.

According to the label you'll find on your next Eternal water bottle, the water "filters through layers of ancient rock, absorbing essential minerals and making it naturally alkaline." The curvy bottle is also an attention grabber, and since it's a relative newcomer, Eternal is a strong candidate for a novel first try.

Though it's one of the more aesthetically pleasing waters on the market, the liquid itself tastes a little like a softened-up version of the stuff that came out of your grade school drinking fountain. Lots of minerals and metal, with a smooth finish and not much aftertaste. It has an initial blast of those flavors that sets you back for a second, and it's definitely not a water that invites you to drink an entire liter. Though the bottle is alluring, the stuff inside is not. And though it's not bad, you can do a lot better.

Deer Park Natural Spring Water doesn't purport to be anything that it isn't. It's a simple, unpretentious, and functional bottle of water. While some of the more premium brands offer a thick, even velvety mouthfeel, the bargain brands are decidedly thinner. Deer Park is that kind of water, thin but still smooth and perfectly drinkable. It's even got a pronounced sweetness, which more than covers the clunky hints of minerals and chlorine that one usually encounters in packaged water. This is a product that isn't too much of anything, and aims to be forgettable, wanting only to hydrate. Deer Park water is tap water, just turned up a notch. 

The only significant drawback to Deer Parks is that because manufacturer BluTriton utilizes four different sources around the East Coast to make Deer Park, the water is inconsistent. Every serving offers every benefit — sweetness, crispness, and drinkability — but the level of each can vary greatly from bottle to bottle.

Probably the most direct competitor to Boxed Water is Just Water. Created by celebrity Jaden Smith after he was haunted by the image of a plastic bottle floating in the ocean when he went surfing at age 10, Just Water comes in a purpose-built container that is reportedly made with methods that produce low carbon emissions and reduce waste. The bottle is constructed primarily from sustainable paper products, along with aluminum and sugarcane that are used to make the cap.

The non-paper ingredients prevent the taste of paper from seeping into the water, which is itself very refreshing and not bogged down by too many mineral traces that so often negatively impact flavor in other bottled water brands. Just Water appetizingly sources its stuff from springs in New York's Adirondack Mountains. That water is noticeably crisp and provides a smooth drink of moderate thickness with a clean and sweet finish.

This water, which the label asserts is taken from the Olfus spring in Iceland, boasts hands-down the coolest bottle on the shelf — a jagged glacier that makes you feel a little like Sir Edmund Hillary every time you take a sip. It claims to come from an underground spring caused by a massive volcanic eruption 5,000 years ago, meaning the glacial water is filtered through lava rock. This creates a water that's about as close to visiting Iceland as you can get without having to search for a $99 bargain fare.

The lava filtration gives this water a taste unlike any of the other spring-fed brands, which can come across as bitter and aggressive. However, this problem can be solved by chilling the water to near-freezing temps, at which point the extreme cold somehow nullifies the bitterness. This might explain why the water tastes better in Iceland. Either way, Icelandic, like hakarl, can definitely be an acquired taste.

Core is the ideal water for people who don't want their water to taste like anything. The big, ergonomic bottle with a standout O on the label is like the liquid equivalent of high desert air: It's thin and crisp, but you know it's clean. You'll get a tiny hint of minerality from Core, likely from the electrolytes and minerals added during the reverse osmosis process. But that same process removes pretty much any mouthfeel, which is perfect if you're looking for something to chug.

That said, the emptiness of the flavor might lead some to call the water lacking. It's like an emotionally unavailable ex who never did anything wrong, per se, but never really lit up a room either. If you prefer your bottled water — and maybe your people — not too complex, Core might be the water for you. But if you're looking for something deep and interesting, you may want to look further down on the list. That's why it landed straight in the middle of our rankings.

Once upon a time, Evian's brand name was so strong it was used generically to describe any bottled water. Like, the Google of bottled water. But the industry has gotten far more saturated since those days, and while Evian is still a luxurious standard, it's far from the best bottled water on the market. Sure, the bottle molded to resemble the French Alps is impressive. And the water is the odd bottled water with a signature flavor. But if you're not into minerals, it may not be for you.

This, we assume, is what happens when you source your water from French snow. And if you've ever bailed out hard while skiing Chamonix and gotten a giant mouthful of the stuff, you know they're not lying. That being said, French snow isn't necessarily the flavor one wants in bottled water. And while it is clean and refreshing, it's also thick with minerals. Evian's not bitter and doesn't have much of an aftertaste, and those who love it will insist — usually in French — it's the best on the market. But if you don't love it, you'll probably pass it over in favor of something less earthy.

If you have ever walked into a Starbucks hungover and thought to yourself, "You know, I should probably have some water before replacing all the alcohol in my system with caffeine," you've probably had Ethos Water. You won't find it in stores, but you can often find it between pre-made paninis and Odwalla juice in the Starbucks cooler, as it's the coffee chain's own brand of bottled water.

Ethos Water has a cool, smooth finish, and really doesn't have near the bite of most waters you find in plastic. Transferred into glass, it's similarly refreshing and not bitter, kind of surprising from the people who made bitter coffee cool. An added bonus: Starbucks donates five cents to humanitarian causes around the world for every bottle you buy. So you can feel a little better about yourself as you nurse your hangover headache and scroll through last night's regrettable texts.

Easily the best thing to come out of greater Tampa since the Cuban sandwich, this smooth, cool, refreshing spring water tastes like a spring-fed river on a hot summer day. Or, at least what one tasted like before it was surrounded by condominiums. To sip Zephyrhills is to taste natural Florida, a place where limestone aquifers purify water providing life to one of the most biodiverse ecosystems in the nation.

Of course, herons and manatees are a little less picky when it comes to their water tasting a little too much like it comes from the earth. And while Zephyrhills certainly tastes more natural than most plastic bottled waters, it can lean a bit to the mineral side. That said, if you blind taste-test it next to Fiji, you won't know the difference. And the only reason it didn't top Fiji on the list is the bottle, a thin plastic container that's indistinguishable from lots of generics.

Voss has somehow positioned itself as both a high-end bottled water to have with dinner, like Acqua Panna, and as a refreshing, small bottle for quick refreshment, like a cylindrical Fiji. Bravo. Or as they say in Norway, godt jobbet. It tastes amazing, and it looks just as good. You can grab it from a local convenience store or serve it at a nice dinner, so it has a diversity we can't help but like.

Voss also has the smooth, crisp, food-complementary tastelessness you want with dinner but just enough minerality to know you're not drinking wet air. That's certainly something we can't say for a lot of the other bottled waters on this list. The bottle fits perfectly in cupholders, and Voss has just enough cache behind it to look impressive. And on the plus side, it's just ubiquitous enough that people know you didn't demand it in your rider.