Highland Spring - Still Spring Water •••

Various stockists, 330ml glass bottle around £1.30.
Filtered through land certified as organic by the Soil Association, this is pleasant without being remarkable. While being a refreshing drink, it didn’t taste as clean as the tap water and the fact that you’re paying highly for the privilege makes this harder to swallow.

This Water (Innocent): Cranberries, Raspberries & Spring Water •••••

Various stockists including Sainsburys, Boots and Starbucks. 420ml bottle around £1.40.
The little brother of the popular Innocent Smoothies, this is refreshing, tasty and one of your five a day to boot! It is however the furthest removed from water in the test, basically tasting like a fresh fruit juice, though universally voted best in the test.

Glaceau Vitamin Water – Revive •••

Various stockists, 500ml bottle around £1.40
The ‘active lifestyle drink’ comes in six flavours that all do a little something different. Revive is the fruit punch flavour with spring water and comes with B vitamins and potassium to help wake you up but, although sweeter and with a nicer smell than the other labels, it still leaves a chemically aftertaste.

V Water: Orange and Passion fruit •

Various stockists including Bagel Factory, Cineworld and Budgens. 500ml bottle around £1.40.
Water that promises to deliver everything we need and fails dismally. A chalky aftertaste so bad that you’re left feeling like you’ve just had a soluble aspirin or a flat isotonic drink. Either way, that means too chemically imbalanced to beat regular water.

The Pure H2O Company – Ultra Pure Water ••••

Red Sugar, 27B Raeburn Place, Stockbridge, Edinburgh, 07787552927. One litre bottle £2.15, glass (sit-in) £1.00.
Uses a new system, Reverse Osmosis with De-ionisation (RODI), to deliver the cleanest and purest water available, although the test taste couldn’t find a way to distinguish it enough from tap water in taste, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

Tap water ••••

From the … er, tap. Prices vary depending on water suppliers.
We use an awful lot of it and it’s one of those things that you forget is still a bit of a luxury in the world, but in the taste test it delivered a strong performance against the new hipster designer labels. Refreshing, clean and with no chalky aftertaste.