This Iron County company walked into the 27th annual Berkeley Springs International Water Tasting Contest on Feb. 25, went up against about three dozen bottled waters brought in from places like Alaska and Colorado, even as far away as Fiji and Sweden — and left West Virginia with a silver medal.

Its Artesia label tied for second with another artesian water, Canadian Gold from Marchand, Manitoba. Only Zaros Natural Water of Crete, Greece, and AlphaPure Springs Water of Ocala, Florida, ranked higher.

All this on Crystal Falls Springs’ first visit, in a competition that organizers said drew entries from 50 countries and 46 states.

“It’s not really that we do anything special,” company president Debra Rose said. “We bottle natural artesian water that comes right out of the ground already perfect, the way God made it. We just put it in a bottle and market the product across the U.S.A.”

BRIAN AND DEBRA ROSE of Crystal Falls hold the silver medal their Crystal Falls Springs’ Artesia bottled water received in the 27th annual Berkeley Springs International Water Tasting Contest in Berkeley, W.V. (Theresa Proudfit/Daily News photo)

Crystal Falls Springs sells their artesian water across the United States and Canada, but it’s not always easy to spot its products, Rose said.

“We label our water for several large store chains across America under their private-label brands,” she explained

The award-winning Artesia, however, can be found under that name in the Upper Peninsula and northern Wisconsin. Vollworth & Company Meats delivers the water locally to Tadych’s Econofoods in Iron Mountain and Jubilee Foods in Crystal Falls, plus Riverside Liquor in Spread Eagle, Wis.

So, what goes into an award-winning water? The company on its website credits the natural mix of minerals and drawing from a deep aquifer.

“If they were considering all the things that make water great, like the perfect alkaline Ph and balance of health-giving minerals, we would win first place for sure. But second place in an international taste contest is still a great honor and quite an achievement for Crystal Falls Springs and the town of Crystal Falls,” Rose said.

“We are very thankful for what we have and for the community in which we live. The City of Crystal Falls, Iron County and Crystal Falls Township have all been very gracious to us and our company since we started from scratch and built up our business, which now distributes our water to nearly every state in the lower 48,” Rose said.