This tale begins in be center of Berkshires in the town of Goshen in an even smaller village in that town called Lithia. Now it didn’t get that name for nothing there was a family in the village that operated a Lithium mine. This was back in the middle 18 hundreds when they were still using black powder in the mine. The ore from the mine after it underwent a rough concentration was the mineral spodumene a silicate of Lithium. This was the ore spodumene.

After they had refined the spodumene it was shipped to a chemical manufacturer in New Jersey where it was converted into lithium carbonate a chemical used in the glass industry. However, it had another use because it was a carbonate it would fizz when it was added to an acid. A local businessman was experimenting with this phenomenon when he discovered that lemon and lime juice is an acid. A bright idea struck him and he tried mixing a quantity of lithium carbonate with a lemon and lime juice and added sugar to the combination along with filling the bottle containing the solution with water.  He actually mix all the ingredients together and bottled it before he added the lithium carbonate.  This was the last step before capping the bottle.  There was no such a thing as an automatic capping machine in those days; everything was done by hand.  The very last thing that was added to the bottle was a teaspoonful of lithium carbonate.  Then the lid was clamped on and the bottle was ready to be shipped.

He called this product Lithia water and claimed that it would make you feel good. In those days they didn’t know much about soda, but they didn’t know what tasted good. Lithia water became an overnight success and a great deal of it was sold. It still kept the slogan that, “Lithia water makes you feel good.”

Over 30 years ago a cow barn belonging to the family that mining the Lithia had several hundred empty bottles that were made of light green glass with the words Lithia Water cast right into the side of the bottle as a raised casting.  These bottles had the appearance of being handblown rather than machine made.  Some of these bottles may exist today in that same barn.  The author actually drove by the Barn as late as mid-September 2008.  However, the barn door was closed and he couldn’t see if there were any of the Lithia Water bottles inside.