Is Expensive Bottled Water Actually Better for You?
Water is supposed to be the simplest thing we consume. The premium bottled water industry has transformed it into something that requires a backstory.
Supermarket shelves now distinguish between glacial, iceberg, volcanic, spring, mineral, and alkaline water. Restaurants are introducing water menus, while trained water sommeliers assess bottles by their mineral composition, mouthfeel and provenance. At the extreme end of the category, Svalbarði Polar Iceberg Water sells Arctic water for as much as €100 (around $116) a bottle.
The category’s growth rests on a mixture of verifiable differences and carefully constructed associations. Water can contain different minerals. Those minerals can change how it tastes. But claims about purity, alkaline pH, and remote natural sources can also create the impression that expensive water must be healthier.
According to Michael Mascha, who founded the platform FineWaters in 2002 to train water sommeliers and drag premium bottled products out of the commodity aisle,...
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