17 Popular Bottled Water Brands, Ranked Worst To Best

Water is essential to life-but let's be honest, not all bottled water tastes like it's doing you a favor Some are downright awful, with flavors reminiscent of bathroom tap or the plastic bottle they're trapped in. I like to call these offenders#H2NO. Still, sometimes you have no choice-airports,concerts, theme parks-you grab what you can get.

To better understand the flavor spectrum of popular bottled waters, I tried 17 different brands. I didn't bother digging into pH levels, filtration processes, or mineral contents. In the real world,most of us just want good-tasting water without doing a chemistry deep-dive. If you're into science, more power to you-do a little extra research.

That said, if you can avoid plastic altogether, filtered tap water is the best choice. But let's be real:sometimes you're in a pinch-and that's what this taste test is for.

Here's how the bottles stacked up-from least drinkable to truly refreshing.