Premium Water

Most people think of “premium water” as water that comes in a bottle, marketed heavily with some exotic name, origin and packaging.

To me, the most premium water is that which comes out of the tap in New York City and at our home in Westchester, New York. Once given a few hours for the chlorine to evaporate, it becomes among the purest, best tasting water available anywhere. Even on an expense account at top New York restaurants, I prefer Bloomberg tap water to bottled water.

But in the summertime, there is at least one way to take premium water to the next level: choose various complimentary herbs, then put them in a pitcher of tap water with a half-lemon. Let the flavors infuse a few hours, and the result is one of the most delicious and refreshing beverages. Not only that, you can continue to refill your pitcher with fresh tap water for two days, using the same lemon and herb sprigs.

In this photo, I picked from my garden some sprigs of spearmint, lemon balm and lemon verbena. As you can see, when using an attractive glass pitcher, the leaves magnify in the herb-infused water to create a beautiful presentation.

You just can’t get this level of premium from any bottled, mass-market manufacturer.