AN ESTONIAN
MINERAL WATER
RICH IN HISTORY

PHARMACIST PETER MIKHEIM

Peter Mikheim worked in Pechory County, driven by a passion for making people well. When he discovered the beneficial qualities of Värska water in 1936, he became the first chemist in the country to start selling it in his pharmacy. The water you hold in your hands has been bottled in Värska in his honour from well no. 1.

Peter Mikheim is born into a farming family in Kasaritsa municipality on 5 May.

1879

Mikheim’s thirst for knowledge takes him from the local village school to Treffner Gymnasium and later the Imperial University of Dorpat in Tartu, where he studies pharmacy.

1900
–
1912

Mikheim serves as a dispensing chemist in Moscow, Siberia and the Far East. During the First World War he works in military hospitals and then in Odessa, where he manages to secure his return to his newly independent homeland.

1913
–
1920

Mikheim is taken on at the city pharmacy in Võru, where he is soon promoted to manager. He remains in the role for 12 years before retiring.

1921
–
1934

Retirement proves unfulfilling for the active Mikheim, who buys the modest Värska health store and transforms it into a first-rate pharmacy, obtaining a permit to produce and sell soft drinks and mineral water.

1935

Mikheim launches mineral water production, bottling water from the Värska springs discovered several years previously. Peter Mikheim Mineral Water soon goes on sale.

1936

465 meters

Carbonated natural mineral water from 463 metres beneath the surface

Nr 1

Well no. 1 is found in Värska, cadastral reg. no. 93401:005:0332

Cl-Na-Ca

Lightly salty Cl-Na-Ca-type mineral water.

Salt content solely from naturally occurring sodium.