Drink It. Mountain Valley Spring Water.

I realize it sounds ridiculous to say that water is delicious--but this one is. I met an old friend for breakfast last week, and he had a mysterious green bottle tucked under his arm. I first thought it was a Sprite or 7 Up, which seemed strange, especially in the morning. When it came time to order drinks and I got a large coffee, he said he was all set ... with his water.

I had to ask, "What is this water you have?" The water--Mountain Valley Spring Water--turns out to be somewhat difficult to find in Los Angeles, and is mainly distributed through home delivery. It's from a highly protected natural spring source in Arkansas. I found 1 liter glass bottles at West Hollywood's Whole Foods, but they're certainly not convenient to carry around.

Not really wanting to believe the hype about how excellent the water was, I poured myself a room temperature glass yesterday afternoon. Ok, it really is that good.

It's similar to Fiji in that it has a pH over 7. Fiji is 7.5, Mountain Valley Spring Water is 7.8. Evian is also somewhere above 7. Arrowhead (which I most often drink because of the convenient and well-priced 6-packs of 16.9 oz. bottles) is neutral, at 7. Waters that I consider to not taste very good, such as Penta, Dasani, etc. are at 4.

Mountain Valley Spring Water is available in both glass and plastic bottles, which is nice because some people like to avoid drinking from plastic. Even their home water cooler bottles are glass.

It is a bit pricier than Arrowhead, a case of 24 16.9 oz. bottles is $22 for example. But, if better tasting water means drinking more water, the health benefit outweighs the cost in the end.

Info: mountainvalleyspring.com, (800) 499-9982

-- Leslie Anne Wiggins

Photo credit: the BEAT