5/10/01 KVUE-24 (ABC TV, Austin, TX) 10PM Newscast

Water Taste Test Story

Male Anchor: Well, we can’t live without it, and now we have more choices than ever before where to get it: water. 

Female Anchor: But which brand of water tastes the best?  Tonight we have the results of our KVUE Taste Test.  KVUE’s Olga Campos joins us now with her special assignment.  Olga?

Olga Campos:  It is hard to imagine you could tell a big difference when it comes to water, especially since there are so many brands and such a range of price.  Tonight our viewers’ choice of the best in bottled water is the focus of my special assignment report. 

Nothing quenches your thirst like ice cold water, but with our active lifestyles it’s likely we’re gulping water from a bottle. Marketing of bottled H2O is big business with sales in the U.S. topping five billion dollars a year.  The brands give consumers plenty to choose from.

Arthur von Wiesenberger (Bottled Water Expert):

 You see the word spring on the label that means it comes from a natural spring, a natural protected source, that’s consistent, that’s monitored, and that is good tasting.  If you see the word purified or processed, well, chances are that could be nothing more than just tap water. 

Olga Campos:  For our KVUE consumer taste test, we decided to let you compare easy-to-find brands of spring water.  The most expensive is Evian, bottled in France.  It costs $1.99.  Dasani, a product of CocaCola, costs $1.39, but the label doesn’t list its source for the water.  Remarkable Spring water is a Randall’s store brand.  It costs $.99 and comes from Bucks Spring near Jasper, TX.  Ozarka is nationally known.  It costs $.99, and its source is Rohrer Spring in Henderson County.  And Glacia bottled water is the HEB brand.  It is sold for just $.79 and is bottled in Canada.  All prices are for one and a half liter containers.  We also filled a bottle with tap water.  The City of Austin takes its water from the Colorado River with three treatment plants meeting state and federal standards.  Fifty people tasted six different samples and we added the category of no difference, but for some, there is a clear distinction.

Male Tester:     Just fresh-tasting and I drink a lot of bottled water.

Olga Campos:  When it was over, one brand beat the rest with the most votes.  Ozarka at $.99 is our water winner. In second place – the category of no difference.  Our testers decided the samples of bottled water taste the same. 

Female Tester:  You can hardly discern anything.

Female Tester 2: Tastes the same.

Olga Campos:  And our surprising third place winner is tap water.  Again, here’s how the bottled water stack up price-wise.  Evian is the most expensive, followed by Dasani, Remarkable Spring, Ozarka, Glacia, and the City of Austin tap water, but when it comes to our taste test, Ozarka is tops followed by no difference, tap, Dasani, Evian, Randalls Remarkable Spring and HEB’s Glacia.  If you happen to buy bottled water in bulk you’ll be happy to know it’s considered safe to drink long after that expiration date on the label expires.  That information is used by retailers to keep track and to rotate their stock on the shelves.

Male Anchor:   So it may be all in your head and not in your tongue. 

Female Anchor: Interesting results.

Reprinted with permission from KVUE-24 television, Austin, TX.