Ohio District Wins Top Tap Prize At Water Tasting Contest

BERKELEY SPRINGS, W.Va. (AP) — An Ohio water district has won the top prize for U.S. tap water at an international tasting contest.

Montpelier, Ohio, took home first place for Best Municipal Water on Saturday at the 32nd annual Berkeley Springs International Water Tasting in West Virginia. It beat out last year's winner, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, which placed second. Another California entry, the Mission Springs Water District, was third.

All three have won the gold medal previously.

"The consistency in winners from year to year with different panels of judges validates the choices," water expert Arthur von Wiesenberger said in a statement. "It also speaks to the impressively high caliber of the waters entered."

The top bottled water award went to Vortex Energy of Meriden, Connecticut. Halstead Springs of Speedwell, Tennessee, finished second and there was a tie for third between Asagiri no Shizuku of Shizuka, Japan, and Smeraldina Still Water of Sardinia, Italy.

The sparkling water gold medal went to Big West Sparkling Spring Water of Victoria, Australia.

Judges based their rankings on taste, odor, mouth feel and aftertaste. Nine judges chose from among entries in 16 states, three Canadian provinces and eight other countries.

(Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)