While Hollywood's greatest actors and actresses were being recognized Sunday in Los Angeles, a company from Marchand was being singled out at a completely different Academy Awards event.

Peter de Jong (Photo by: Canadian Gold Beverages)The annual Berkeley Springs International Water Tasting event was held in West Virginia. And, what has become tradition, Marchand's own Canadian Gold Beverages took home some hardware.

Peter de Jong is Owner and President of the Marchand company. He says last weekend's competition is the longest running and largest water tasting competition in the world. That means the best of the best are there, all vying for top spot.

This year there were five categories; Best Municipal Water, Best Bottled Water, Best Sparkling, Best Purified Drinking Water and Best Packaging. Touch Sparkling Mineral Water of Marchand claimed a gold medal in the Best Sparkling category, while their Canadian Gold Artesian Water took silver under Best Bottled Water.

"Our consistency of winning medals every year is a testament to the good quality of water from our source in Marchand," says de Jong.

More than 100 companies competed in the water tasting this year. Judges spend two days grading the water on its taste, smell, feel in the mouth and for aftertaste. de Jong says the water which they pull from the ground is already very good, and he says it is what they can do as a company to fine tune it that puts it over the top.

Judges spend two days grading the water on its taste, smell, feel in the mouth and for aftertaste. de Jong says the water which they pull from the ground is already very good, and he says it is what they can do as a company to fine tune it that puts it over the top.

He notes the greatest award they get from winning these medals is exposure. de Jong says on a regular basis they have people from China visiting their plant and says they ship to Dubai, Saudi Arabia and around the world.

Peter de Jong purchased Canadian Gold Beverages in 2012. He says they are a small company of only a handful of employees, which is the way he likes it.