Most of the can
is water

Our spring water comes from Palomar Mountain, in the highlands of northern San Diego County, where free-flowing springs come out of granite about 5,000 feet above sea level. Same mountain as the observatory.

It is not pumped from a deep well and it is not piped in from somewhere else. Winter rain and snow soak through thin mountain soil and weathered granite, move through cracks in the bedrock, and come back out as a spring. The U.S. Geological Survey calls this a fractured crystalline aquifer. In plain words, the rock holds almost no water. The cracks do the work.

Water that moves through granite picks up a light mineral load. It comes out soft, with a little calcium and magnesium and none of the heavy or sulfur taste some spring water has. That matters more in SunGod than it would in a seltzer, because there is no carbonation to hide behind. The water is the texture of the drink, and the fruit has to come through it.

Most canned drinks start with municipal water. It is treated to be safe, and it tastes like wherever the plant is. That is fine for a lot of things. It was not what we wanted to build a drink on when the water is most of what you are holding.

The most recent public analysis of the Palomar source, run by Eurofins Eaton Analytical in Pomona, reads like this:

pH

7.1

Total dissolved solids

110 mg/L

Hardness

49 mg/L, a soft water

Naturally occurring electrolytes

Sodium, calcium, magnesium, bicarbonate, chloride, sulfate

The same panel screened the water for microbiology, PFAS, volatile organic compounds, pesticides, metals, radionuclides and disinfection byproducts. Most of it came back below detection or reporting limits. Below detection is not the same as zero, and we would rather say that than print a slogan. Real water always carries something, and here what it carries is the minerals we want.

In 2012, Palomar Mountain spring water tied for fifth at the Berkeley Springs International Water Tasting, the competition people in the water business call the Academy Awards of water. We do not lead with awards. But a blind tasting judged by people trained to taste water is one of the few credentials in this category that means anything, and the source we picked has one.

Non-carbonated, 5 percent, real juice: every one of those decisions puts more weight on the water. A soft, light spring lets the cucumber and the pineapple do their work instead of fighting a mineral or chlorine note. It costs more than tap water. We think you can taste the difference, and if you can't, you can at least read exactly where it came from.