Water is the most foundational thing anyone consumes, and it rarely gets the scrutiny people give their supplements or protein powder. That’s exactly where this Loonen Water Review conversation starts. Clara Sieg is the co-founder and CEO of Loonen, a company rethinking bottled water from the source to the glass bottle it lands in. On the show, she walked Lauryn and Michael Bosstick through how she ended up obsessed with water, what most people misunderstand about the bottled water category, and how Loonen approaches sourcing, filtration, and transparency differently.
This post explores what Loonen actually is, why the brand chose glass bottled packaging, what Clara says makes it different, and a practical framework for evaluating any bottled water before you buy it. Think of it as a starting point for asking better questions, not a verdict handed down from on high.
The Bossticks dedicated this episode to a subject they’d somehow never covered before, and Clara made it a masterclass. You can watch the full conversation here and keep reading for the highlights:
Loonen Water Review & Meet The Founder Clara Sieg
Before deciding whether Loonen fits your own routine, it helps to understand what the brand is. Loonen is a glass bottled water company that positions itself around consistency, purity, and transparency in a category Clara describes as genuinely difficult to innovate in.
So… what actually makes Loonen different from the bottled water you’re used to buying? A lot of it comes down to the four things Clara discussed in the episode, from how the water is sourced and filtered to why the company uses glass bottles and what it shares about testing.
Below, we’ll share how Clara breaks down the choices behind Loonen and why she believes they matter when compared to traditional bottled water.
The Bossticks are not doctors or scientists. This post is informational and reflects a conversation on the show, not health, medical, or safety advice. Always research your own water sources and consult qualified professionals for decisions about your health.
What Is Loonen Water?
Clara’s interest in water started with a much bigger shift in how she thought about the products she used every day. After a long road to pregnancy and eventually going through IVF, she found herself looking for areas of her life where she could have a little more control. That led her to learn more about plastic and endocrine disruptors and start making changes at home.
She swapped plastic food storage for glass, moved away from nonstick cookware, and became more intentional about the beauty and cleaning products she used. Eventually, that same scrutiny landed on something even more simplistic: water.
What Clara found was a category dominated by plastic bottles and plastic-lined aluminum cans, with surprisingly little information available about what was actually in bottled waters. The issue became even more personal when she transitioned her daughter from breastfeeding to formula. She had been incredibly thoughtful about choosing the formula itself, only to realize that its main ingredient once prepared was… water.
That realization ultimately helped inspire Loonen. As Clara explains on The Bossticks, the goal was to create a more dependable option for something people consume every single day. Loonen’s approach draws from World Health Organization guidance by prioritizing both the quality of the original water source and the filtration process, rather than relying on one or the other.
Why Loonen Uses Glass Bottles
Packaging sits at the center of Loonen’s positioning, and Clara is direct about why.
Moving Away From Plastics
Glass was an intentional choice for Loonen from the beginning. As Clara became more conscious about the amount of plastic in her own home, she started replacing everyday items with alternatives like glass, stainless steel, and cast iron. But it wasn’t about changing everything overnight; it was about making better swaps as things needed to be replaced.
That same mindset shaped how Clara thought about bottled water. Much of the convenience-driven innovation in this category has centered on lightweight plastics and aluminum containers. For Loonen, Clara chose glass to move away from glass while creating a bottle that better reflected the concerns that led her to question conventional bottles in the first place.
A Bottle Designed to Actually Use
Loonen made its own custom glass mold, which Clara says took a long time and was expensive. She wanted a bottle that fit in a car cup holder and had a wider spout, so it felt like actually drinking from a glass.
Lauryn herself is a fan of that spout for a practical reason. On the show, she pointed out she can drop electrolytes, aminos, and creatine straight in, shake it, and head to the gym. Ultimately, it’s a convenient, better-for-you alternative to the original convenient alternative.
Keeping Glass All the Way Through
For Loonen, glass isn’t a marketing accent, it’s a commitment through the whole process. Clara says they only ever put the water in glass and don’t blend up margins by introducing plastic or plastic-lined aluminum, because she doesn’t think that’s right for this category.
And because transparency is such a priority, Clara continues to say that every bottle is tested on a “finished good” basis. You can scan a QR code, see exactly what the bottle is made of, and feel confident in your investment.
What Makes Loonen Different?
One of the biggest differences Clara points to is how Loonen approaches the water itself. In the U.S., bottled water generally falls into different FDA-defined categories, and those classifications affect everything, from how the water is sourced to how it can be treated.
Purified water, for example, can come from municipal sources and undergo extensive treatment. Spring and mineral water, on the other hand, have different requirements around their source, composition, and processing. Clara saw an opportunity to combine what she valued about both approaches rather than rely solely on sourcing or filtration.
Loonen starts with spring-sourced water that’s tested at the source. From there, it’s transported in stainless steel tankers to a facility that uses stainless steel lines and physical membrane filtration. According to Clara, the process doesn’t involve chemical treatment or plastic contact. After filtration, the water is rebalanced to restore its original mineral profile.
Transparency is equally important. Clara explains that while bottled water companies are required to complete certain testing to comply with FDA regulations, they aren’t necessarily required to make those results readily available. Loonen takes that extra step.
What to Look for When Choosing Bottled Water
Clara offered a genuinely useful framework for evaluating any bottled water. Here’s what she said to pay attention to.
The Reporting Limit on a Test
Clara says you want to know the reporting limit of a test, meaning the level at which it can reliably say whether something is in the water. The lower it is, the better. Her reasoning is practical. If the reporting limit is really high and a result says non-detect, that’s essentially meaningless; you want the reporting limit to be reasonably low.
NSF Certified, Not Just “To NSF Standards”
Wording matters here. Clara draws a distinction between something being made to NSF standards and something being NSF certified, and recommends getting a filtration system that’s actually NSF certified because it’s something you can trust.
Whether the Source Information Is Current
Sources aren’t static. Clara points out that varying weather patterns and surrounding land use mean the water you got from a bottled brand two years ago isn’t necessarily the same today, and the minerality can shift. A brand that tests every run is accounting for that.
Loonen Water vs. Other Bottled Water
Rather than crowning a winner, it’s more useful to line up where Loonen’s stated approach differs from the broader category.
On packaging, most of the category has moved toward plastic and plastic-lined aluminum, while Loonen commits to glass bottled water throughout. On transparency, Clara notes the annual FDA test is required… but publishing it is not. In comparison, Loonen publishes every run with a QR code on the label. On water information, Loonen’s spring-source-plus-filtration model differs from purified waters that don’t credit a source and from spring waters that can’t be filtered under FDA terms.
Clara is honest that this is a hard space to compete in. She describes the category as mostly owned by public companies and private equity roll-ups, with low margins, heavy breakable glass, and heavy water, all of which make it challenging to innovate on.
She’s also candid that plenty of shoppers won’t be as obsessive about water as she is, and that’s fine.
Worth noting: The hosts and Clara are describing their own experience and preferences, not issuing a scientific ranking. Different waters suit different budgets and priorities, so the comparison is about approach, not about declaring any single brand best for everyone.
Is Loonen Water Worth Trying?
Whether Loonen is worth it comes down to what you value in a water. It sits at a premium to a standard plastic bottle, and Clara acknowledges that directly. Loonen may appeal to readers who already lean toward reducing plastics at home and want packaging and transparency to match.
Clara sums up the everyday appeal simply: it feels nice in hand because it’s thin enough to fit a car cup holder, and it tastes like clean, crisp water. Lauryn also loves the sparkling for a nightly mocktail, and Michael, more of a still water person, uses the sparkling in a wind-down drink.
Before buying, do the same homework Clara recommends for any brand: look at whether the source information is current, whether test results are published with a low reporting limit, and whether the packaging matches what you care about. If those answers line up with your priorities, it’s an easy thing to try.
For more real conversations with founders building thoughtful brands, the episode with actress and entrepreneur Jamie Lynn Sigler is worth a listen too. And to hear Clara’s full story on sourcing, testing, and building in a brutal category, watch the complete Clara Sieg podcast with The Bossticks and subscribe on YouTube.