Bottled water is a popular and essential product all around the world for many reasons. Not only is it convenient, but it provides thirsty people everywhere with reliable access to clean, potable water.
As is the case for any sellable product, many factors can contribute to the average cost of a bottle of water in one country versus another. Here are some key examples to keep in mind.
Factors Influencing Bottled Water Prices
Several factors influence the price of bottled water, including quality, consumer perception, income levels, and access to freshwater sources.
Quality and Health Regulations
Quality counts a lot when it comes to what you’ll pay for bottled water. In European or North American nations like the United States, Switzerland, or Germany, health regulations are strict, and standards for products like water are high. This means better packaging, more robust filter processes, and so forth, leading to higher overall costs but a safer product.
Consumer Perception
How a country’s people view products like bottled water can also affect price. In some countries, bottled water is seen as more of a luxury product, as opposed to a daily essential. This can naturally affect pricing.
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Income and Cost of Living
In countries with higher average incomes and costs of living, many products tend to be more expensive as well. This includes options like bottled water and other similar beverages.
Access to Freshwater
In countries with easier, more abundant access to the freshwater supplies required to sell bottled water, production costs related to transportation may be lower. This can, in turn, lead to a more affordable end product.
Testing 10 Popular Bottled Drinking Water Brands - See How They Compare!
Premium and Expensive Water Brands
For years headlines have popped up talking about expensive water. A Google or YouTube search for "most expensive water" or "most expensive bottled water" turns up a quick series of lists. Most of them have incorrect pricing, or use the same old data including several brands that no longer exist. The not-so-subtle message in these pieces is that it is crazy for H2O to cost so much.
Water is a human right. Full stop. Food is also a human right. Full stop. And in both cases, it can and should at times also be a delight for our senses. Different natural waters like different foods can bring greater and varied enjoyment through taste, presentation, and origins. Enjoying premium foods that cost more in no way negates the human right of all to food.
Many people think all water tastes the same. But most of us have known someone who can easily discern differences. Maybe you are one of them. And when the differences are explained and tasted, even more people understand. I have run numerous water tastings, usually with 6 different brands at a time, and no one has ever left without understanding that water is not just water. Most walk away with a favorite, such as in this brief clip of a water tasting we did at Gruvelageret restaurant here in Svalbard.
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Many natural bottled waters come from truly unique sources as water enthusiast Michael Mascha describes in his writings on natural Fine Waters. Besides for rare types of natural spring water, there are also glacier waters, rain water, iceberg water, aquifer sourced water, and many others. This can make the price much higher than ordinary brands because transportation, measures to offset the carbon footprint, purity maintenance, and ensuring the sustainability of the sources can be expensive.
Bespoke packaging is also a driver as brands try to make something interesting for the consumer, just as wine and spirits do. In some cases, where the water itself is nothing special, packaging may be the only major factor behind a high price. Brands sometimes create bespoke moulds for their expensive bottles rather than using off-the-shelf traditional designs. Other times they deck the bottles out with jewels or specially commissioned artwork.
Some premium bottled water sources include (clockwise from top left) natural springs, rainwater, artesian wells, and icebergs.
Defining the Price
Defining "the" price of a bottled water can be surprisingly difficult. Retail prices vary not just by country (reflecting transportation costs and taxes), but also outlet by outlet reflecting individual profit margin decisions. So let's create an accurate up-to-date list for 2024. Ignore the "crazy" instances such as where a brand makes a handful of jewel-encrusted bottles as a marketing tool. However, there is a growing trend of making super-expensive editions available without special order procedures. These rules leave plenty of room for interpretation. But in general they produce a reasonable list truly reflecting the market position of each brand.
Examples of Premium Water Brands
Below are some examples of premium water brands, highlighting their unique characteristics and what contributes to their higher price points:
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- BLVD: A division of Jon Monsir, an Australian luxury goods company. They saw the opportunity in premium water and sought out a unique source which they found in a spring in the pristine antipodean environment of Tasmania. They sell only a sparkling version and only to the high-end hospitality sector and online.
- Berg Water: Alongside Svalbarði, Berg water is one of only a small number of currently operating iceberg water companies we know of in the world. Like Svalbarði, they gather individual iceberg pieces from the sea in a very manual process just before they would otherwise melt and be lost forever. A small local industry has grown up in Newfoundland producing different beverages from iceberg water including beer, vodka, and bottled water. The Quidi Vidi brewery in St. John's has a well-known iceberg beer in a popular cobalt blue bottle that has been a big hit. Coming from an iceberg source, Berg is ultra-low mineral.
- MINUS 181: Comes from a 181 meter deep artesian well in northern Germany. They have a rather odd-sized bottle at 681ml produced by Riedel, a company founded in 1756 known for their wine glassware. Which matches up with the fact that they offer a special gift box which includes bespoke glasses. The bottle bears similarities to Elsenham in the UK and the Arte bottle from Solé in Italy.
- ROI: Is easily the most extreme tasting water on this list, and possibly in the entire world. They market themselves as the world's highest magnesium water which gives it a crazy punch. Water sommelier Martin Riese once described it as being like "two alka-seltzers" (sidenote: the testers try Svalbarði after ROI in that video). Celebrity Zac Efron said it was his favorite during a tasting with Martin on the Netflix series "Down to Earth". The company has a history going all the way back to 1647, and a source bearing the legend that Apollo told his winged horse Pegasus to strike the ground from which the spring then opened up. They claim a number of health benefits from the extreme mineral composition.
- Uisge Source: Is unique on this list as a water sold specifically for whisky pairing. Appropriately sourced from multiple natural springs in Scotland to match the region's famous whiskies. It sort of cheats getting on this list as it is only sold in a small 100ml bottle of water which inevitably means the price per litre is going to be higher for a premium special-purpose product. They sell three types all at the same price point to give different whisky pairing experiences. Highland (225 TDS) and Speyside (125 TDS) come from historic wells, while Islay (183 TDS) comes from a spring. Most suppliers offer all three bottles of water in a set. They have also introduced a special version at the same pricing called Allt a Mhullin Moutain Water. It is sourced from a spring fed by water flowing down from the highest mountain in the UK near Fort William in the Scottish Highlands.
- Ô Amazon Air Water: Is the only premium brand we are aware of that captures water directly from the air. And they do so from the Amazon wilderness where the trees already naturally filter the humid air. There are mist waters which gather water that condenses from fog on nets or other surfaces, but Ô Amazon has a unique process. They filter the natural humid air, then run it over cold coils which causes the water to condense so it can be gathered into tanks for bottling. Like Svalbarði, they have a major focus on the environment, aiming for zero negative impact. They support projects to help local communities in the Amazon to sustainably utilize natural resources. A particularly important issue at a time where the Amazon forest's "lungs of the world" are too often burned down for unsustainable uses.
- Svalbarði: We created Svalbarði to become the first truly rounded luxury water brand. As opposed to predecessors at this price point who have mostly just been about selling gaudy packaging. For Svalbarði, enjoyment of the brand is about the combination of our unique iceberg source from the arctic nature of Svalbard's fjords, light as air taste, elegant design, and eco-mission. The costs are high to be the world's northernmost water. Gathering icebergs just before they melt into the seas around Svalbard next to the North Pole at 78° north is laborious. Bottling in high-design packaging worthy of the source requires premium supplier sourcing. Supporting CO2-removing projects that help save 100kg of the North Pole ice cap for each bottle requires detailed certified auditing of our activities from supplier to customer.
- Bling H2O: Is the epitome of a brand that is almost 100% about the bottle with virtually no focus on the water itself. Designed by a Hollywood producer who saw the opportunity to put a new kind of style item into the hands of celebrities by decking out a frosted bottle with Swarovski crystals. They revel in their gaudiness saying "Bling H2O is pop-culture in a bottle. Regardless of the lesser focus on the source water, they are honest about who they are and when founded in 2005 were one of the first two significant brands to hit a true luxury price point (alongside Fillico). 16 years later they are still around and putting out multiple editions, so they have clearly succeeded in finding a market niche. Quick side note, Bling does make a $2700 edition called "The Ten Thousand".
- Nevas Water: Launched with initial availability only in Germany and has since spread around the world. Including as far away as our distributor Origin Floe in South Africa. They are clearly aiming at the "celebration" market as an alternative for champagne, including by only selling sparkling. Their number 2 position on our list comes from their €1500 "Design" edition. Unlike Bling's "The Ten Thousand" which we excluded, Nevas' extreme product is regularly available for normal delivery time orders and hence makes the list. On their water characteristics, Nevas call themselves the first premium cuvée water. A term taken from the wine world that often refers to a high-quality blend of more than one type of grape. For Nevas, it refers to their blend of two different water sources. Specifically, two "several hundred years old" artesian wells, though we could not find where those wells are or the total TDS level.
- Fillico: With the moniker "Jewelry Water", Fillico is the ultimate over-the-top design focused water brand. Like Bling H2O, it began in Beverly Hills, California in 2005 targeting Hollywood celebrities. A year later they began selling in Japan which has been their home ever since. Though they are available globally including online. Fillico has always had a wild array of different designs which seem to constantly change. In the end, the design with its Swarovski crystals, gold trims, glitter wings, and other aspects is so over the top - with their social media playing up that aspect almost exclusively - that it is the overwhelming reason for the pricing. If you want a unique eclectic piece of glass to show off for your event, Fillico has you covered.
These examples illustrate the diverse factors that contribute to the pricing of bottled water, from the source and purity of the water itself to the design and marketing of the packaging.
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