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, prices often reflect remote sourcing and difficult transport rather than superior health benefits. Luxury water, he argues, is better understood as a dining experience than as a more effective source of hydration.

There is no established evidence that luxury water hydrates an otherwise healthy person better simply because it is more expensive or comes from a celebrated source.

“Fundamentally, true hydration is about consuming enough water throughout the day to replace daily losses rather than brand status or origin,” says Lucy Semerjian , associate professor of environmental science and technology at the University of Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates.

What matters most is drinking enough safe water to replace the fluid the body loses. Its chemical and microbial composition must also remain within safe limits.

Minerals are responsible for some of the genuine differences between waters. As water travels through soil and rock, it can absorb calcium, magnesium, bicarbonate, sodium, and other dissolved substances. Their type and concentration depend partly on the geology surrounding the source.

These minerals are already dissolved into ionized forms, meaning the gastrointestinal tract can absorb them. Mineral water can therefore contribute to a person’s calcium or magnesium intake, although its nutritional significance depends on the concentration, the quantity consumed, and the rest of that person’s diet.

The word “mineral,” however, does not tell consumers how much of any particular nutrient is present.