Waterdrop is a water flavoring brand that sells effervescent cubes that dissolve into water. Their products have great branding, and the company’s stated mission is to “encourage you to drink more water.”
But is Waterdrop really a better alternative to other water flavoring products like MiO? What are its ingredients? Does it contain any questionable and unhealthy additives? And how do real users rate the flavors?
In this article we’ll answer all of these questions and more as we review every ingredient in Waterdrops based on medical studies. We’ll compare the brand to MiO and give our take on which product is better, and share real, unsponsored user reviews that evaluate the taste of Waterdrops.
Ingredient Review
The best selling single Waterdrops product at the time of writing this product is called Breeze. Its ingredients are shown above.
We’ll focus on the good first. Waterdrop is naturally colored with ingredients like spirulina and beta-carotene. This is a much healthier alternative to artificial food dye. Spirulina is a whole food ingredient that was shown in a medical review to be eco friendly, have antioxidant properties and to help optimize gut health.
Rather than processed sugar, Waterdrop is sweetened with fruit juice like watermelon powder; again a healthier alternative.
This product does contain a number of additive ingredients that we recommend avoiding.
Citric acid is a preservative and flavor enhancer that was documented in the Toxicology Reports journal to cause whole-body inflammation in a small subset of individuals. Unless a brand certifies that their citric acid is derived from citrus fruit and not a fungus (which it’s typically derived from for food product manufacturing), we recommend avoiding this ingredient.
This product also contains added vitamins and minerals like biotin and vitamin C. The added vitamins in this product are all water-soluble, which makes them safer in our opinion than fat-soluble vitamin additives like vitamin D and vitamin A, but we still recommend avoiding added vitamins and minerals without a documented deficiency.
As we referenced in our review of the popular Celsius drink, another wellness brand had to recall several products from the market in 2022 because the added vitamins were causing toxicity to some consumers. We consider it illogical to supplement with vitamins and minerals without proof that doing such is necessary.
Using Waterdrop would be a much healthier alternative to something like soda or commercial energy drinks, but we don’t recommend the brand due to the additive ingredients highlighted above.
Is Waterdrop Healthier Than MiO?
MiO is another popular drink flavoring brand, so consumers are often curious about which is a better option.
We consider Waterdrop to be a much healthier option than MiO.
As we documented in our “is MiO bad for you” article, MiO Original contains artificial sweeteners, synthetic preservatives, questionable flavoring agents and artificial food dye. It also contains citric acid.
Waterdrop is also a more sustainable brand in our opinion. Most of their packaging is plastic-free, and according to the brand’s Sustainability page, they are “Plastic-Positive” because for every Waterdrop pack sold, a plastic bottle is collected from the environment thanks to a partnership with Plastic Bank.
Real, Unsponsored Waterdrop Flavor Review
One of the most popular YouTube reviews of Waterdrop is published by a creator named Sarah John. She unboxes Waterdrop products and gives a taste test on their Drops and Boost products.
The video is unsponsored:
Do We Recommend Any Other Waterdrop Products?
The Breeze product we reviewed in our ingredient review above was from the brand’s Microdrinks product line. Waterdrops has three other product lines: Microlyte, Microenergy, Microtea. Here’s our quick take on each:
Microlyte: This is Waterdrop’s electrolyte blend. May be useful for athletes to refuel, but contains citric acid, flavoring agents and a blend of added vitamins and minerals so we don’t recommend it.
Microenergy: This is Waterdrop’s energy blend. It contains caffeine but the caffeine dose is not clearly listed on the product pages which is a consumer safety issue. The “Oro” product for example lists 90 milligrams (mg) caffeine on the product image (which is around the amount in one cup of coffee), but “23 mg/3.5 oz” in the product details. It’s unclear how many ounces the product is or what leads to this discrepancy, and this is unacceptable given that caffeine is a stimulant.
We recommend avoiding this product line altogether.
Microtea: Naturally colored and containing real tea ingredients like rosehip extract. Free of added vitamins so we would consider this Waterdrop’s cleanest formulation. It still contains citric acid and flavoring agents so we don’t recommend it overall.
Real Customer Reviews
Waterdrop is sold on Amazon which is a more objective resource for customer reviews than a brand’s website in our opinion. The brand’s Starter Set currently has an average rating of 4.2 out of 5 stars.
The top positive review from a verified purchaser comes from a user named “Isabella Ellis” who claims that the product and flavors are high-quality:
“I never really liked flavor water in the past, but I was pleasantly surprised and I love waterdrop! The flavors are such a great range so there is something for everyone, and the water bottle is really nice and high quality. If you are looking for a new flavored water or a replacement for juice or tea, this is a perfect choice!”
The top negative review from a verified purchaser is written by a user named “Jane Doe” who gives the product 2 out of 5 stars who claims the flavors don’t taste good and the product is overpriced:
“I initially intended to describe each flavor individually…however they mostly ended up giving me the same impression. The flavors just don’t feel like they are meant to be together for me. Additionally, there are MUCH more affordable options available. This is great if you have a huge budget to play with and enjoy weakly flavored and essentially unsweetened awkward tea…but if that’s not what you’re into then this probably isn’t for you. I would never pay for this and honestly regret taking the tax value hit for it.”
Our Clean Water Flavoring Pick
Pique Daily Radiance is our top flavor enhancing packet that can be added to water.
This product comes in convenient stick packs that can be mixed into water, and is naturally flavored with nutritious, whole food ingredients like organic elderberry juice concentrate (which is clinically shown to support the immune system) and organic lemon juice concentrate.
Most importantly, Pique's flavor enhancer is entirely free of citric acid, preservatives, artificial sweeteners and flavoring additives. There are no ingredients in this formulation that we consider to be unhealthy.
Interested consumers can check out Pique Daily Radiance at this link to the product page on the brand's official website.
Pros and Cons of Waterdrop
Here’s a quick takeaway on the pros and cons of Waterdrop as a brand in our opinion.
Pros:
- Healthier than most water flavoring brands
- Sustainable brand
- Beautiful branding & packaging
Cons:
- Products contain citric acid
- Products contain vitamin and mineral additives
- Products contain flavoring agents
- Expensive
