A WATER bottle designed to help you to drink more water with a clever mind trick will be stocked in a major UK supermarket.
Air Up is a German creation that uses the power of scent to add ‘flavour’ to water.
The bottles work by using retronasal olfaction[/caption]
The bizarre concept has hit Sainsbury’s shelves with a £30 price tag and is currently sold out online.
Sainsbury’s is the brand’s first British supermarket after trading in Germany, Switzerland, Austria, France, Netherlands, Belgium, Italy and Spain.
Users inhale fruity scents through special pods as they drink, kick-starting a reaction in the brain called ‘retronasal olfaction’.
Across the UK, 519 branches of Sainsbury’s now stock Gen2 and Sipper bottles and seven pod flavours.
The Sipper model carries an rsp of £24.99, while Gen2 will cost £29.99. Pods start at £4.99 per three-pack.
The 600ml bottles were invented by five founders who, according to their website, had “no money, no experience – just one goal”.
The company claims to double the consumer’s water intake in “just four weeks” and say that after 12 weeks users will report “35 percent more energy and 30 percent less dry skin”.
“It’s science! Retronasal olfaction is the natural human ability to experience 80% of taste perceptions,” it reads on Air Up’s website.
“Taste happens behind the nose, not in the mouth!”
“Air Up is the first company ever to harness this untapped potential, allowing us to create any flavor (yes, any!) without any downsides.”
“Just got my first air up and I love it!” one happy customer wrote on Instagram.
“Coolest water bottle in the universe,” added a second.
However, Air Up has taken a battering online for “poor customer service”, “faulty products” and “late or no delivery”.
“Worst customer service ever. Shocking from such an innovative brand. I’d avoid at all costs!” one wrote.
“They are rubbish! Don’t waste your money! You can’t drink them properly! Useless waste,” a second added.
“I spent around £90 buying air up bottles for my three kids just to find they leak and soak their school bags. Then discover you’ve just released a leak proof version,” wrote a third.
Another added: “Are there real people on your support team? Been waiting for weeks for my order and keep going round in circles with the bot.”
Although a fourth said: “There are lots of customer service complaints but I’ve just emailed customer service and they gave me a 5 star service, I’m so pleased, my comments were listened to, I even got a response within about an hour! They went out of their way to resolve my issue.
The Sun has approached Air Up for comment.
The brand launched in the UK in 2021 and generated £100million in revenue.
Air Up has supplied more than two million customers in the UK.
It has grown from a startup in 2019 to a global company with 250 employees and operations in 14 countries.
The brand says that users double their water intake when using the bottles[/caption]
