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I’m notoriously bad at drinking enough water. While some of my friends haul giant insulated water bottles and trendy tumblers with them everywhere they go to stay hydrated, my daily average would only round out to be about eight ounces. If I had to swallow a pill, you could bump the number up by an ounce or two… maybe.
Why is it so hard for me to drink water? To put it simply, water is boring. Water is at the bottom of my list of everything to consume—but I do put in the effort. I’ve tried infusing my water with fruits or veggies to make it more flavorful (and potentially more fun). It helped temporarily increase my water intake at first, but the hassle of chopping lemons, strawberries, and cucumbers every day just wasn’t sustainable—and don’t get me started on cleaning these water bottles. Sadly, my DIY “spa water” was not a long-term solution for me. The other alternative that well-meaning friends have suggested has been flavoring my water with flavor packets, but I’m not too fond of the aftertaste that lingers from artificial sweeteners.
When I heard about Air Up, a BPA-free Tritan water bottle that could potentially trick my senses into drinking more water, I was intrigued. The Air Up is designed to activate our retronasal perception (when smells go into the nose through the mouth) to flavor water. As you intake water, you’re also intaking some scented air. That’s where the “flavor” comes from. The scented air gets coded by your nose as a flavor you can almost taste even though there is none.
When I first tried the water bottle, I was surprised at how well this scent flavoring technology worked. I’d block my nose while drinking the scented water to see if it affected the taste, and sure enough, I was really drinking plain water. The scents of the Airup come from interchangeable flavor pods such as watermelon, peach, and tangerine.
As much as I hated prepping and cleaning up my infused water, I did love the “taste.” My favorite flavor pods from Air Up are lemon-basil and lemon. Because the flavor is carried through the air bubbles up to the nose, it doesn’t have the funky aftertaste I disliked from other flavor additives. It just tastes like infused water without the prep, added sugar, and hassle.
Rarely are there silver bullets in life, and the Air Up is no exception. After more than six months of using my Air Up water bottle, my daily water intake still isn’t exactly where it should be, but I am proud to say that my average now sits at around 20 ounces, more than double what it used to be. A win is a win!
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