What Company Makes Costco's Kirkland Brand Bottled Water?

Kirkland Signature is the private-label brand at Costco. While it took a while for the product line to rise out of obscurity after its 1995 release, it has since become a household name. 

Costco is the only seller of Kirkland Signature products, but the warehouse chain doesn't actually make all of its products themselves. To create all the Kirkland products, Costco often has to outsource from other big brands and labels. While we don't know the true origin of every single Kirkland Signature product, we do have a good idea about the producers of a fair few, including Kirkland Signature purified water.

Despite being bad for the environment, bottled water is still popular and the Kirkland brand is one of the top choices on the market. These 16.9-ounce bottles are sold in bulk cases that contain 40 bottles each. What makes this water stand out is that it is infused with a special mineral blend that makes the taste unique to Costco. The water is uniquely made for the warehouse chain, but the true producer of it is actually a known bottled water brand you may have heard of before: Niagara Bottling. If you're not as familiar with this water company, let's talk about it.

The big elusive brand behind Kirkland Signature water is actually a very prominent figure in the bottled water market. If you're not yet familiar with the name, Niagara is the leading private-label brand of bottled water in America. Family-owned by the Peykoffs, the company has been operating since 1963 and sells products under many names, including Niagara, Tea Joy, H2O+, and V-ssentials. The brand offers much more than just purified water, too. Distilled and alkaline options are also available, as are other offerings such as colorful vitamin waters, protein shakes, and even iced tea.

While Niagara started off in the industry by selling its own brand of water, it began selling private-label goods in the '90s. In addition to providing water to Costco, the brand also now provides for other big grocery chains. Still, as far as we know, the company only sells its unique purified water blend to Costco. Here's what fans have to say about how Niagara's Kirkland Signature blend stacks up against other big name brands of water.

While some people argue that all water tastes the same, or close enough anyway, many others disagree. There are many different ways to treat water to get it ready to drink, from using reverse osmosis to different forms of filtration, all of which have an effect on the drink's taste. (If you're curious, Kirkland's water is made using "state-of-the-art purification, filtration, and reverse osmosis technologies" to make it stand apart.) Let's dig into what some consumers think of Kirkland's uniquely made water and how it compares to other brands.

Some Amazon shoppers commented on how Kirkland Signature stacks up against bigger brands: Apparently, it tastes as "good as national brands" as one drinker noted — and how the price was often much better. (Just another potential benefit of grabbing a Costco membership.) Other customers shared their thoughts with Influenster and sang its praises, with many touting its smooth flavor, cheap pricing, and one commenter even stating, "Purified water has always been a no for me but I love the taste of this one...highly recommend." Either way, you shouldn't knock it til you try it, so for all those with a Costco membership, let us know what you think.