12 Best Fancy Bottled Water Brands

From diamond rings and designer purses to Lamborghinis and McMansions, there's no end to the ways you can show off your wealth. And thanks to fancy bottled water, you have the opportunity to flaunt your status — even if your budget is more thrift store than Gucci. Even the most expensive bottled water brands sell their smaller wares for less than $2 per bottle. It's not cheap, but it's a tiny luxury most of us can afford to indulge in every once and a while.

What sets upscale bottled water apart from generic brands is by no means a science, but even non-experts can spot a bougie bottle when they see one. In general, fancy bottled waters feature a combination of unique packaging, an elegant label, and a detailed origin story about the water's provenance (bonus points for volcanoes or ancient aquifers). With all of these sleek marketing tactics, knowing where to make your water splurge can be tricky. To help quench your thirst in style, we've put together a list of the best fancy bottled water brands. Follow along as we discover some of the world's best-packaged H2O.

Established in 1899, San Pellegrino is one of the oldest — and dare we say, the most distinguished — fancy bottled water brands in the world. With its signature green glass bottle and mineral-rich composition, there's not much we don't love about this iconic Italian carbonated water. In fact, this storied water has long been thought to possess therapeutic properties thanks to its unique mineral blend of calcium, chloride, magnesium, and nitrogen, among others. San Pellegrino's chemistry gives it a distinctive flavor that's crisp, refreshing, and just the slightest bit salty. The company treats its water with carbon dioxide as a way of preserving the mineral profile, something that also creates small, gentle bubbles. While you're certainly welcome to drink San Pellegrino alone, it's best enjoyed as an accompaniment to seafood or pasta.

San Pellegrino sources its water from natural springs in San Pellegrino Terme, a small commune just north of Bergamo in Italy's Lombardy region. The water makes quite the journey before reaching town. And when we say journey, we mean three decades. In fact, San Pellegrino's water comes from rain and melted snow that flows from the summit of the Dolomites and through the sedimentary stones of the Alps before reaching the town center.

We don't know about you, but every time we see water packaged in glass bottles, we immediately think it's pretty fancy. That's definitely true of Mountain Valley Spring Water. The water itself isn't particularly groundbreaking, amounting essentially to spring water filtered through a granite and marble aquifer in Arkansas' Ouachita Mountains. However, the packaging lends an air of sophistication and refinement to an otherwise generic product.

In addition to looking sharp, the hand-blown glass bottles help preserve the water's pH level (7.3 to 7.7) and mineral blend. Together, the well-balanced pH and mineral blend (consisting of calcium, magnesium, and potassium) create the crisp, refreshing, and award-winning taste Mountain Valley is known for. And speaking of awards, Mountain Valley holds the title of America's most-awarded spring water, having won 19 trophies from The Berkeley Springs International Water Tasting organization. Some of its top honors include Best in the World for both spring and sparkling water.

Marketed as Hawaiian volcanic water, Waiākea (pronounced why-uh-kay-ah) comes from the bio-diverse forests of Hilo, Hawaii. More specifically, the precious liquid is sourced from a deep well at the base of the Mauna Loa volcano. The H2O begins its journey to bottled water as rain and snowmelt (hard to believe in Hawaii, but true!). Next, it flows through 14,000 feet of porous volcanic rock. During that time, it gets filtered and mineralized, taking on sodium, magnesium, calcium, potassium, and silica. Finally, it resurfaces in the form of crisp alkaline water (the pH falls between 7.6 and 8.2). Waiākea's alkalinity gives it a soft and smooth mouthfeel and a slightly sweet aftertaste.

Thankfully, Waiākea sees itself as a steward of the land. That means the company works hard to be as sustainable as possible. Sustainability efforts include bottling less than .003% of its source's water, using recyclable packaging made out of aluminum and post-consumer PET plastic, and obtaining a Carbon Neutral certification. Besides its delicious still and sparkling waters, Waiākea also sells Hawaiian volcanic coffee.

Unlike many other fancy bottled waters, Pepsi-owned Life WTR (stylistically written as LIFEWTR) doesn't come from a mountain peak or an ancient volcanic aquifer. Rather, it's sourced from municipal water supplies (aka tap water) and then filtered using a process called reverse osmosis. Without getting lost in the nerdy details, reverse osmosis involves using a semi-permeable membrane to separate water molecules from contaminants like sodium, copper, and lead, just to name a few.

Once filtered, Life WTR adds electrolytes like magnesium sulfate and potassium bicarbonate back into the water to improve the taste. The result is a clean, crisp water with a pH of between 6.4 and 7.4. It's the kind of bottled water whose flavor won't offend anyone. So what makes it so note-worthy? Well, Life WTR's bottles are literally works of art. The brand regularly collaborates with artists to create eye-catching designs featuring everything from flowers and portraits to abstract doodles and geometric patterns.

Antipodes is New Zealand's answer to fancy bottled water. Based on the bottle design alone, you can tell that this is a brand that means business. The low-profile glass bottle pairs seamlessly with the silver twist-off cap, giving Antipodes a look similar to high-end beauty products. But aesthetics aren't what sets Antipodes apart. It's the comprehensive information about the water's source and bottling process printed right on the bottle. This level of transparency makes you feel confident about what you're pouring into your glass.

Yet the true essence of Antipodes' uniqueness lies in its source. The H2O comes from a silica-rich artesian aquifer buried more than 1,000 feet below the earth's surface, making it New Zealand's deepest quality water source. Over time, the geological pressure exerted on the aquifer causes the water to rise to the surface, but not before 50 to 300 years of natural filtration. This natural journey means that Antipodes needs only minimal microfiltration before bottling, eliminating the need for sterilization, additives, or further processing. What results is subtly-flavored water with 130 milligrams of minerals per liter. Combine that with its neutral pH of 7.0 and its silky texture and you've got bottled water fit for royalty.

If you've ever had to wait in line for your iced brown sugar oat milk shaken espresso at Starbucks, then you might have noticed the coffee chain's in-house water brand, Ethos. The Seattle-based coffee giant acquired Ethos in 2005 with the goal of improving water quality and accessibility around the world. To that end, Starbucks donates five cents from the purchase price of each bottle of Ethos to water hygiene programs in countries like Tanzania and Colombia. You'll be reminded of this mission every time you take a sip as the minimalist bottle design features a map of the world on the front panel.

The water itself has a crisp, neutral flavor and a pH of 5.5. It's good, but it's certainly nothing to write home about. That's likely because it's sourced from municipal water supplies and not some fancy underground aquifer. Originally, Starbucks collected the water from California but stopped in 2015 due to public outcry about the chain taking water from drought-stricken areas. From there, it turned its sights on Tennessee before moving to its current location in Wisconsin. Questionable practices aside, Ethos is a solid bottled water to glug in between sips of cappuccino.

Static Media owns and operates Tasting Table and Mashed.