Alkaline water has a pH value higher than 7.5. Research suggests this water type protects our bodies against oxidative damage, improves our blood flow, balances the pH of our blood, and helps fight acid reflux.
This is why alkaline water has recently started gaining popularity among healthy life and wellness advocates and athletes. The market has also seen a proliferation in bottled water brands that advertise their product as alkaline.
Some brands, such as Essentia, Penta, and subsidiaries of Coca-Cola and Pepsi (such as Glaceau and Aquafina), have even started to rigorously treat regular tap water, add electrolytes to it, and raise its alkalinity to win the popularity race. However, if you want to find out which brand is the best — we suggest that you opt for a spring water brand instead. There’s a variety of spring water brands that bottle water with a naturally alkaline pH value without any treatment, addition, or interference, which, in our view, is preferable to treated tap water.
We have already championed spring water as the healthiest water to drink on this website. So, the list we’re sharing today only contains natural spring water brands whose products have a pH value higher than 7.5.
What are the Best Alkaline Water Brands?
- Acqua Panna
- Icelandic Glacial
- Waiākea Hawaiian Volcanic Water
- Jackson Springs
- Starkey Water
- Tahoe Artesian Water
- Three Bays
- Aquene Springs
- YICE
Acqua Panna
When it emerges from the untouched and uncontaminated springs in the Tuscanian foothills of Italy, Acqua Panna already has a pH value of 8.8. It also has a rich mineral content with a total dissolved solids count (TDS) of 188 mg/l, a velvety texture, and a wonderfully smooth mouthfeel.
Acqua Panna’s balanced mineral makeup is responsible for its remarkable texture, savor, and mouthfeel. The geological formations around the spring endow the water with calcium, magnesium, and potassium in a range of 6.5 mg/L to 31 mg/L.
Thanks to these attributes, not only is Acqua Panna a healthy choice for athletes and people who lead a physically active life, but it’s a gourmet favorite. It’s no surprise that the brand adorns many high-end restaurants’ tables.
Lastly, although the brand has lately started to bottle its water in PET, its main choice of bottling material remains glass, which is more eco-friendly and sustainable.
Icelandic Glacial
Evidently, Icelandic Glacial originates from Iceland’s glaciers. The snowmelt journeys through lava rock very slowly for thousands of years, and throughout this journey, the rocks gradually absorb impurities and raise the water’s pH value to 8.4.
Like Acqua Panna, Icelandic Glacial has a balanced mineral makeup but a lower TDS count. It has 62 mg/L TDS overall, with 5.7 mg/L of calcium and 2.7 mg/L of magnesium, which gives it a more neutral taste.
Despite bottling water in PET, the brand only uses 100% recycled material and is certified as completely carbon-neutral, making Icelandic Glacial an environmentally sustainable choice.
In addition, the brand’s PET bottle designs have won many awards. If bottle aesthetics is important to you, you’ll do no better — at least in the category of PET bottling.
Waiākea Hawaiian Volcanic Water
Unlike Acqua Panna or Icelandic Glacial, Waiākea doesn’t emerge from its springs with a consistent pH value. Rather, its value changes between 7.6 and 8.2, depending on the time of the year.
The reason why is that Waiākea water is essentially rainwater, and the makeup of rain varies from time to time. Although it travels through volcanic rocks, so it gets naturally filtered, this journey is not long enough to give it a consistent pH value.
That being said, the volcanic rocks do give it a consistent mineral content. Waiākea has 82 mg/L of TDS. Unlike other brands, the predominant mineral in Waiākea isn’t calcium or magnesium but silica, with its 44 mg/L presence.
As such, the water has a surprisingly smooth mouthfeel and a relatively sweet taste.
Jackson Springs
Jackson Springs, emerging from the heart of the provincial forests of the Manitoba region, is arguably Canada’s best bottled water brand. Many layers of rock formations underlie the forests, and these formations purify the water and give it a rich mineral content as well as an alkaline pH value of 8.1.
Jackson Springs entertains a TDS count of 238 mg/L, easily one of the most mineral-rich water brands on this list. It has 42 mg/L of calcium and 13.8 mg/L of magnesium. So, if you go for Jackson Springs, not only will you reap the benefits of alkaline water but also the benefits of these two essential minerals.
Thanks to its mineral makeup, Jackson Springs has a distinct taste, if slightly bitter. The brand won multiple awards for the taste of its water at the Berkeley Springs International Water Tasting event.
Its shatterproof 1-liter glass bottle designs are a nice touch, too. They’re unique, eco-friendly, and help preserve the product’s distinct taste.
Starkey
Starkey is a product of the Imnaha Basalt in Idaho — an ancient volcanic formation that has a depth of two miles. Starkey water spurts out of the basalt’s cracks and fissures with a natural pH value of 9.2, meaning it’s one of the most alkaline spring water brands on the market.
It was native Americans who originally discovered the spring in the 1800s, but a doctor named Richard S. Starkey commercialized it as geothermal water in the early 1900s. The mineral content of the water is very low in calcium, magnesium, and potassium, but it has 150 mg/L of sulfate.
What makes Starkey geothermal is this sulfate content, plus its natural alkalinity. However, if you have a cardiovascular condition, we don’t recommend this brand because a high sulfate intake may be detrimental to your health.
Tahoe Artesian Water
The Tahoe spring is located in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, buried deep in the Tahoe Forests, at an altitude of 6,000 feet. The source is untouched, and the brand only bottles the excess water that finds its way to the surface forced by subterranean pressure.
The water is a result of snowmelt that travels through granite rocks that cleanse and mineralize it. When it emerges, it has a TDS count of 98 mg/L with calcium at the forefront (7 mg/L) and a consistently alkaline pH value of 8.2.
Tahoe is a small business, and since the brand only bottles excess water in order not to dry out the source, their output is limited. Yet, you’re still able to easily find Tahoe water in supermarkets in 20oz PET bottles, and in restaurants in 750 ml glass bottles.
Three Bays
Three Bays is an Australian mineral water brand that bottles its water at one of the world’s oldest aquifers — 600 million years old, in fact, according to the brand. The water’s journey through the 900-meter-long Palaeolithic Basement isn’t any less impressive, as it takes 2,000 years.
The ancient geological formations provide the water with a rich mineral body and an alkalinity of 8.3 during its two-millennia-long journey. It has 1,300 mg/L of TDS, 64 mg/L of calcium, 93 mg/L of magnesium, and 47 mg/L of silica.
The brand offers two options: still and sparkling. While the former is bottled directly from the source without any interference, the latter is carbonated with carbon dioxide gas acquired from the aquifer. Both come in premium glass bottles.
The typical bitter taste of Three Bays might not be for you, but it has won many prestigious taste awards, so it might be worth giving it a shot.
Aquene Springs
The Aquene Springs Crystal Source Naturally Programmable Spring Water comes from a desert canyon located near the Idaho-Nevada border. Without any interference, the water rises from the ground at a flow rate of 80 gallons per minute and a consistent temperature of 139 degrees Fahrenheit. The only thing the brand does is bottle it.
Similar to Starkey, it was discovered by Native Americans who frequently visited the canyon to drink this water they hailed as “sacred healing water.” The water’s naturally alkaline pH value of 8.4 and its high silica content (77 mg/L) is likely what contributed to its popularity among Native Americans.
The brand is eco-friendly, with an emphasis on sustainability. As such, it only uses cardboard boxes, bag-in-box designs, or glass bottles for distributing its pristine water.
YICE
Similar to Three Bays, YICE, sourced near Lake Muskoka, Ontario, originates from one of the most ancient geological formations on Earth — the Canadian Shield that formed over 500 million years ago.
The Canadian Shield has layers of geological formations that have natural cleansing properties: ignimbrites, granites, glacial strata, and volcanic rocks.
These formations give the water a rich mineral content of 200 mg/L. YICE has 46 mg/L of calcium, 15 mg/L of sulfate, and 1 mg/L of potassium. It emerges with a consistent pH value of 8.1.
Despite its mineral-rich body, the water doesn’t taste bitter. Rather, it has a sweet and crisp taste.
