The Air-Up claims to help you quit sugary drinks – I tried it to see if it works

Independent

14-05-2025

What is the Air-Up bottle and how does it work?
The Gen 2 bottle uses the company's patented Scentaste technology, not to flavour the water in the bottle, but to affect the olfactory system so your brain thinks the water is flavoured, so you're actually just smelling the scented pod at the top of the bottle. Scientists say 80 per cent* of what we perceive as flavour is actually derived from what we're smelling, so when you take a sip from the bottle, your brain will think you're drinking a fruity drink but it's actually just water.
The idea is that by using this method, you'll drink more water and fewer calorific sugary drinks. Ideal if you're the kind of person who loathes the taste of plain water and would rather sip juice or fizzy drinks throughout the day.
The pods come in a range of flavours from kola and watermelon to peach and iced coffee and you can purchase them individually or sign up for a subscription. The bottle's creators say this works out cheaper than buying sugary drinks – half the price in fact, at 33 pence per litre of water. Of course, that depends on how much fizz, squash or juice you typically drink in a week but experts say you should really only have one sugary drink a week to avoid ill health in the future.
Does the Air-Up bottle actually work?
I trialled the Gen 2 bottle for a week and tested different flavour pods with it. The pods themselves certainly delivered a hit of flavour but my brain wasn't exactly tricked into thinking I was sipping a Diet Coke due to the lack of flavour profile on my tastebuds. Still, the science did check out because the water didn't taste plain. Pairing the more far-out flavours, like chocolate orange, with my water felt a little strange due to the distinct lack of cupcake-flavoured drinks in my day-to-day diet, but it was a novel experience.
The pods are made from 100 per cent natural sources like fruits, spices and herbs. So apparently even the bubblegum flavour isn't synthetic. The fruit flavours hit the spot and felt more like I was drinking squash or a fizzy drink while only sipping water throughout the day. So obviously with no sugar and no calories, you could count this as a win.
The bottle itself was easy to put together and fill up from a tap, filter jug or with sparkling water for a faux-soda hit. And it was easy to take apart and clean. The only thing that I wasn't as keen on (and perhaps other health-conscious shoppers might not be either) was the plastic bottle. Air-Up has good sustainability credentials and the plastic bottles are made from 50 per cent recycled materials using renewable energy. However, if I can avoid it, I prefer not to drink from plastic water bottles. The good news is that Air-Up does sell a steel version of its bottle, which would do a much better job of keeping your drink cold too.
The mouthpiece is sporty and chunky and made from food-safe silicone which gives it a nice flexibility. However, because the straw is so large and because the bottle is angled, it felt like I was using a lot of energy to suck the water through it. This is probably personal, but I prefer a slimmer straw. What was great and what stands the bottle apart from many others of this kind was the screw-on cap which prevented 100 per cent of leaking incidents when the bottle was turned upside down or on its side in a bag while on the move.