The 4 Best Niche Water Bottles of 2013

CamelBak Antidote 100

Backpack

CamelBak started the reservoir revolution, and it still makes one of the best. A new quarter-turn lid on the 100-ounce Antidote prevents overtightening, a common mistake. The opening is now large enough to fit a hand inside the bladder for cleaning. And a baffle running halfway up the interior keeps sloshing to a minimum. Best of all: the bite valve leaks the least of any system we tested. 

Vapur Eclipse

Fast and Light

Pump filters are a pain; iodine tastes bad. Avoid both with Vapur’s new Eclipse. Built into the screw-top lid of the one-liter bag is a filter that, like pumps or iodine, removes 99.9 percent of bacteria and protozoa. All it takes is a little extra slurping power to draw the water through the filter. It’s the best filter-bottle combo we’ve found and weighs just 2.7 ounces, half as much as a Nalgene.

BlenderBottle SportMixer

Workout-Ready

With most sports bottles, when you mix up a protein or hydration-powder drink, there’s almost always a thick glob of it left at the bottom. Not so with the 28-ounce SportMixer. It sounds gimmicky, but it works: a stainless-steel wire sphere placed inside the durable plastic bottle agitates the contents when shaken. It’s essentially 
a portable blender. In our test, we mixed 
up a quarter cup of Greek yogurt, a scoop of protein powder, and ten ounces of almond milk in about ten seconds. 

Pat’s Backcountry Carbonator

For Beer Lovers

It does exactly what it says: carbonates. What’s more, Pat’s has extended its line of soda concentrates, which come in Gu-shot-size packets, to include beer. Empty the contents into the Carbonator, add an activator tablet (think Alka-Seltzer), and use the finger-operated pump to gas it up. The whole process takes about a minute and a half, and while it isn’t exactly an ice-cold Bud, beer of any kind is a great thing after a long hike.