"Good water rises to the top," said Klein Rone. "Our tasting process is vindicated when the same waters are rated by a completely different panel of judges and still win." Atlantic City was the only other three time gold medalist.

More than 200 people watched at the Country Inn in Berkeley Springs on February 24 as a dozen media judges spent hours tasting more than 100 waters from 23 states and ten foreign countries from New Zealand and Armenia to Grenada and the Philippines. Arthur von Wiesenberger, author and founder of BottledWaterWeb.com once again served as the event's watermaster. "This is the longest running and largest water tasting in the world," he said.

The challenge to distinguish and rate subtle differences in the bottled water led to another first this year -- two ties in the bottled water category where an American and a Canadian water tied for both gold and silver. Aquamantra's, I AM HEALTHY from Mount Palomar, CA tied for gold with Muskoka Natural Spring water from Gravenhurst, Ontario. Tied for silver were John Deere Artisan Water of Grayling, MI and Ramona Springs, Washago, Ontario. Third place was ESKA from St-Mathieu d'Harricana, Quebec; fourth was Aquaroyale from Baguio, Philippines and fifth was Woolrich Spring Water from Woolrich,PA.

All seven of the top five bottled waters were new to the winners circle this year.

"It will be interesting to see how many of this year's winners follow the pattern and use an image of the medal they won in Berkeley Springs on their bottles," said Jeanne Mozier, one of the event's founders. Mozier collected a dozen entrants from the event that already sported the Berkeley Springs seal. "This is exactly the type of global recognition for Berkeley Springs that we hoped for when the event was initiated in 1991," she said. Bottles with the event medal on them are kept on display in the Visitors Center office.