evian (france, still, available nationally)

a long time staple of the high-end water front (hitting US markets in the 1970s), evian has recently transitioned into other water based products, like face sprays and organic cosmetics. we're not too concerned with those here at h2br0s, though--it's the drinkability of that 7.18Ph'D-lite we care about.

packaging 9/10:
well ahead of the curve in the eco-friendly design for its smaller bottles (how did companies not pick up on this sooner?--less plastic means less overhead as well as a more environmentally friendly bottle!), with a fun-to-chew-on red spout for its individual sizes to boot, evian boasts some of the best packaging options on the market. the bottle is perfectly clear, giving you a pristine view of the equally lucid water, and is designed to invoke the idea of icicles both with the label and the bottle itself. a real winner here.

taste 9.5/10:
in my life i am yet to imbibe a more clear, perfect combination of hydrogen and oxygen. taking a sip of evian tastes like the ideal nothing, even though it claims itself to be a mineral water. drinking evian is more like injecting refreshment than it is drinking water.

clarity 10/10:
try to prove me wrong on this one.

trendiness 8.5/10:
evian used to be king here, but with the emergence of voss, and formerly fiji, evian's rep has taken a bit of a hit (i actually saw it in the front of a CVS a few days ago!). it is still popular at high-end restaurants, but the other two have become the facebooks and myspaces, leaving evian as a bit of a friendster.

value 7/10:
you're paying a pretty penny for evian (about $26.95 for a 12 pack of 1L bottles), but as the high ratings above imply it may just be worth it. it's hard to compare given that this is the first premium we've rated, but trust us when we say that if you're willing to pay the high price for water, evian is most probably your best bet.

overall:
it's expensive and pretentious, but evian mineral water may just be worth its price, both socially (depending on your "scene") and economically. as far as stills go, it's hard to beat in almost any category, with less expensive waters having a huge drop off in quality, and often more expensive ones having that same fall. although it's slipped in status in recent years, overall, evian still stands atop the global waterfall.

44/50

ideal for: upper-class suburban soccer moms, euro-trash, wall-street interns, voss drinkers' dogs