Agua de Piedra Is the It Girl of Sparkling Water

This is Highly Recommend, a column dedicated to what we’re eating, drinking, and buying. Here, contributor Khushbu Shah sings the praises of an aggressive bubble structure in sparkling water.

I’ve always wondered why there aren’t top-shelf waters in the way that we think about top-shelf spirits. They are premium products that command a higher price point—and for good reason. Just like various types of booze, not all bottled sparkling waters are made alike. If LaCroix is the “well drink” of water, then Agua de Piedra is absolutely the top of the top shelf.

To me, the sign of a great sparkling water is a robust, active bubble. The kind when you pop the lid off the bottle and tiny droplets rocket to the top and create a bouncy mist, as if the particles are dancing to the latest Bad Bunny single. The kind that makes your eyes water and reminds the back of your throat that you are very much alive when you take a sip. No one has time for soft, low-energy bubbles!

You should be able to hear the bubbles circulate—a great water is not quiet. Agua de Piedra is loud in the best way. In fact, I accidentally left a half-drank bottle out overnight, uncapped, and the bubbles were almost as energetic in the morning. It truly grips on to its fizz and doesn’t go flat.

Agua de Piedra originates in Mexico, from La Huasteca basin in Nuevo León, Mexico, in particular. It gets its distinctive crisp flavor from the fact that it is slowly filtered through the geological formations in the basin and gathered from an underground river. The name, Agua de Piedra, or “water from the rock,” is an ode to its roots.

Its vigorous bubble and sharp clean taste makes Agua de Piedra great on its own or as the carbonated component of a nonalcoholic drink or cocktail. It’s my favorite sparkling water to use to finish off building a spritz or to cut a bitter amaro like Montenegro for a post-meal digestif.

My favorite way to drink Agua de Piedra is to fill a thin-walled glass with a few ice cubes, add a hefty splash of calamansi or yuzu juice, and then pour the water to the brim. It’s a trick I picked up from Lasita, the beloved Filipino restaurant in Los Angeles. The result is a refreshing drink that is somewhere in between a flavored sparkling water and a great soda.

What I appreciate the most about Agua de Piedra is the ease with which it pairs with everything. It’s great with a cheesy pizza or with a creamy Caesar salad. It’s the best for cleansing the palette between bites of saag paneer and dal makhani or after a strong shot of espresso. I love cracking open a very chilled bottle with a giant bowl of pesto pasta salad or a plate of steamy dumplings doused in chili oil and vinegar. Agua de Piedra is essentially the Champagne of sparkling waters.

There are many other great global sparkling waters out there. I love Borjomi from Georgia if you don’t mind a little salinity, and the squat-bottled Singha from Thailand has a great effervescence. Topo Chico and Mineragua, both also from Mexico, are wonderful options too. But Agua de Piedra—freshly cracked open, sipped out of a deeply chilled glass bottle—will always be that girl.