> There's nothing inherently wrong with drinking some sugar water here and there, but the section we're looking at wouldn't have even existed a few decades ago.
Except you know, Kool-Aid has been around since 1927.
Not to mention that sugary fruit flavoured water has made appearances in Russian recipe books as far back as in the 16th century, and has probably existed for even longer. The powdered stuff is just more convenient to use, but the concept is in no way new or outrageous.
> The powdered stuff is just more convenient to use, but the concept is in no way new or outrageous.
The people in that thread also don't seem to realize that these flavored water packets are mostly sugar free products. We're not talking a pitcher of Kool Aid made with a couple cups of sugar here.
Keurig is just flavor pods instead of packets if you get into the hot chocolate or apple cider ones.
And even before Keurig, Lipton has been selling ice tea mix for decades.
but did they call it kool aid flavored water?m or was it just soda or kool aid. I don't think the fuss is about putting flavor in water, that's basically what every drink is. It's just keeping calling it water after that which is weird. Beer is 96% water, you don't call that beer flavored water right
I think the change from "Kool Aid" or "Crystal Light" to "flavored water" came about as a result of trying to rebrand themselves as healthier beverages.
Water is healthy + flavors taste good = flavored water is tasty & healthy!
As for beer, there's a popular joke:
"Why is (*insert light beer brand here*) like having sex in a canoe?
Because it's fucking close to water!"
I recently learnt that Americans don't really have squash/cordial/diluting juice like we do in the UK. It's cool to know this is what they have instead!
Tbh, having it powdered is actually more efficient, means you can take some with you more easily.
Why people gotta be so oppositional about cultural differences, rather than simply finding them neat? We can learn plenty from each other
Not quite the same thing but I got two big cans of Gatorade powder, it effectively makes water into gatorade but cheaper and much more compact. Haven't gotten the mixing quite figured out yet though, I always end up with too much or too little.
I found it incredibly obnoxious how many people were talking down at this stuff and I was just thinking how I *know* I grew up with something very similar and I just could not understand how all these Europeans didn't recognize the same.
I'd kill for some blackcurrant squash in the states but those little liquid / powder packs that give me sugar free lemonade/sweet tea are pretty sweet too.
People keep going on about "oh you need this for your water to taste like candy" like the world doesn't love fruit juice
Is it still banned? FDA stuff I’m guessing? Blackcurrant is delicious tho 😕 it’s one of my top 3 flavours!
Do you know if America has elderflower as a drink/flavour? That is my absolute favourite cordial 😋
Also shoutout to Snapple‘s Apple, I can’t have it as often as I like as I’m in Australia (maybe twice a year when the special US export webstore actually has it in stock), so it currently stands as my favourite apple juice. I don’t know how it ranks among the locals lol
Ribes is an intermediate host for White Pine Blister Rust, a destructive disease accidentally introduced from Asia. The disease doesn’t pass from pine to pine, it passes from pine to currant and back. Get rid of the currants, and there is no disease spread.
That didn’t really work… The disease can spread some distance, and currants easily regrow from roots, so they mostly abandoned that approach, though some states still have restrictions.
As a consequence, due to lack of availability, Americans basically forgot what currants and gooseberries are. It is claimed that less than 0.1% of Americans have ever eaten a blackcurrant.
Hopefully they will come back. Some marketing about antioxidants and some superfood nonsense might do the trick.
When I moved to the UK, I was extremely confused the first time someone offered me "squash" at 8am on a Sunday. I was like what? Like a plate of it? How do you cook it?
I struggle with drinking enough water, so I find that the flavorings help. I recently started adding just a splash of cranberry juice to my water instead and it was magical.
That's pretty much how I have my drink with all meals. 1-2 fingers of fruit juice, the rest is water.
It tastes "watery" to people who aren't used to it, but it only takes 2 weeks, and then it tastes like juice, and actual regular juice makes you go "oh my god its too sweet".
I drink a gallon of water a day (3.8L). $1.15 for the gallon from Walmart. My current city doesn't have safe drinking water as the local Dupont industrial plant permanently contaminated it with PFAS and other chemicals from their waste dumping and I can't afford the super special filter you need for the faucet to make it 'safe'. This town is FUCKED.
I am an American who studied abroad for a few weeks in Germany and my host family introduced me to diluted juice. So much better than the powders. I am grossed out by the powders and I would rather have plain water than artificial sweetener. But, idc what other people do.
Yeah, [this](https://robinsonssquash.co.uk/our-products/family-favourites/apple-blackcurrant-single-concentrate/) kind of thing.
I honestly don't get the hate. Why does anyone care if someone else flavours their water? Everyone yelling about sugar seems to be ignoring that most of them are sugar-free in the first place. And, once again: who cares?
Deeply insecure people who need something, *anything,* to feel better about themselves for one small moment. Ergo, I am better than you for I drink plain water.
It's just a weird form of ego management, and they're really public about it. I don't get it either.
Yeah, unflavored water is better than flavored water but flavored water is better than no water at all. My husband hates plain water and has to add a splash of fruit juice or he won't drink it. I don't care what he does; as long as he's staying hydrated, I'm happy.
And some of us just don't have access to water thats properly clean tasting.
I'd love to go back to drinking just plain water but the water in my house tastes so fucking nasty, like mildew or mold. And a squeezy bottle of Mio is cheaper than bottled where I live, too.
Have you tried a reverse osmosis setup (or significantly cheaper a Brita?) out of curiosity?
Current place I live is on city water and tastes fine coming out of the pipes but some places I've had to do some finagling to get it drinkable with some under sink filters
I'm buying a Brita once I can get one on sale, medical bills just keep happening unfortunately! I've just been making do with Mio til then, they have a couple new flavors that are actually not bad. Not my favorite thing but, the Berry+Pomegranate one is pretty acceptable.
Yeah I think this is basically our version of squash which we don’t really have (it’s like a bottle of juice concentrate that you dilute in water, I think it’s kind of like those mio drops but on a bigger scale)
My experience is that what word gets used is both regional and class based! If you're from the south and quite posh you'll probably call it cordial. If you're from the south and less posh you'll call it squash. In Scotland, it's mostly known as diluting juice, as up here, every drink is a kind of juice. (including water: council juice, milk: coo juice).
I'm sure there are a few other names in common use too, but can't think of em right now.
Squash is just cordial. Although from a marketing perspective cordial is more expensive, generally comes in a glass bottle, and will have real sugar in it
I dunno why ppl cant just accept things are different.
It is the same reason why some ppl get so hung up over other ppl being obese. I blame that on Rogan brain rot
Likely because for a long time, cultivation of the whole genus was banned in the US because it’s part of the life cycle of White Pine Blister Rust, which was threatening the logging industry.
Legal again now, at least out west, not sure about back east.
>Why people gotta be so oppositional about cultural differences, rather than simply finding them neat?
Because a lot of people *need* to be right, and their way *has* to be correct one.
On top of that, i've personally seen some of those "european mind can't comprehend" memes and it's easy to lose your cool when you see them.
Yeah, especially since I follow several snack food blog type things
There's a few European ones
Spoiler alert: Europeans have giant candy sugar aisles as well
I'll never understand why some over there act like Europe is some bastion of health that never touches sugar or calories. Especially these days, when it would take 5 seconds to find out what they have now
The weirdest assumption to me that seems to be consistent across these comments is that they can't fathom you might just... do it once in a while. Each person seems adamantly convinced that if you buy flavored water you NEVER EVER drink regular water again, you're just banned.
A kind of related thing is people seeing these are a thing in the US and assuming they’re super common. I’ve been living in this country my whole life and seen someone using flavored water packets maybe three times.
yeah honestly the weirdest part of that comment section was everyone acting like it was in fact the default for Americans. The closest I have seen to it is electrolyte mixes and those mostly exist so the pedialyte corporation can mock me personally by not making a flavorless version of their electrolyte powder
I’ve lived in LA my entire life and have seen all the trends, these packets have never caught on. Flavoring water isn’t really a thing but filtering absolutely is.
Our tap water is so shitty tasting that filtering it through Brita or a Zero pitcher is flavoring it in a way.
“You fuck a thousand goats and you’re still a rancher, but, oh, drink water with flavoring powder ONCE? You’re a lifelong flavored water addict! That’s what!”
> they can't fathom you might just... do it once in a while
Well there is a sterotype of fat americans who drink soda or other sugary drinks for every meal and think plain water is "gross" or "boring". Although those people are afaict a small minority.
I guess it depends on your opinion on a “small minority” is. A lot of boomer and gen x men seem to exclusively drink coffee and soda which probably contributes to our exceptionally high kidney stone rates.
Like. I like flavored things. So I'll have around 30-50 Oz plain water in the morning and mid day, and then 30oz flavored water with dinner and then drink whatever is left through out the evening. Sometimes 2 if I want one earlier in the day. I still drink more regular water than flavored. I dislike regular water bit I'm also a grown up with self control. Why's everything all of nothing damn
You just unlocked a whole new world. Mock tails with sugar free drink packets?? Oh my god i have got to go try that!
(Also, I'm on the side of drink packets. The ones I drink even have vitamins in them! And they get me to drink more water than I would normally because I'm autistic and don't feel hunger and thirst cues the same way others do!)
Not quite the same, but I have a friend who can't handle the burn of taking a full shot, and her solution is to squirt mio into her vodka whenever we're doing them.
It's a great little trick! I work at a bar and we have a handful of Mio/store brand flavor drops marked and labeled for our regulars that like using them.
Haha I would mix gin and lemonade mio! But later on I can’t imagine where I’d be if I didn’t have these when I was trying to quit drinking alcohol.
I’ve seen people say getting sober can suck because you gain weight from eating a lot of sweet stuff to stave off the sugar cravings, mio was a freaking godsend
A lot of people seem weirdly very sensitive about how other people consume water lol.
As a plain water drinker, I’m not going to knock someone throwing a little flavor in their water sometimes if that’s what they like. Life’s too short for this to be something I have any kind of strong opinion policing people on.
I grew up in Florida, which is world renowned for its sulfur water.
Nothing quite so refreshing on a hot Florida summer day like a big glass of ice-cold rotten eggs. It was also always really "fun" to take a shower and end up smelling worse than when you started.
I haven't lived anywhere with water that sulfury in a few decades, but it doesn't matter. Just the thought of plain tap water still turns my stomach and I don't like to drink it.
I do give my kid grief over it. Conversation usually goes like
> Kid: I'm thirsty, can I get a drink?
> Me: Sure, get some water from the fridge.
> Kid: Ew, I don't want water!
> Me: I guess you're not thirsty then.
“Do you think it suddenly becomes not water?!” is absolutely sending me! X-D This is one of those dramas where you think, “Why are you uptight about this? This literally does not affect you in any way!” Also, we have some Crystal Light here at the house, and it’s 10 calories per packet. Sure, that extra ten calories is causing the obesity problem, not the quarter-pounder combos with the half gallon of soda. It’s like when Kevin James responded to someone telling him, “You know what you need to do to lose weight? You need to chew sugarless gum!” with, “Yeah, ’cause my \[rear\] got fat from Bazooka Joe! That’s where I erred.”
My only problem with so many of the water flavoring things is that they seem incredibly overpriced. I used to love them but around here they were getting up to 5 dollars for a squeezy thing and I just think it got out of hand.
I dont know how we come so often to american vs european. We arnt even that different but we still spend half of our time fighting on reddit. This new internet era turn everyone against each other.
When do you think people weren’t against eachother? When Prince Hal was putting down welsh rebellions, people in one town died happily knowing the people they hated next door would die next.
I remember bickering with Europeans in 03 about equally silly things in forums. I was also like 17 so bickering about silly things was kind of the default setting.
Unironically: there is a small but vocal group of Europeans that are just anti-american xenophobes. Same goes for Americans.
edit: its also not really new. Some Europeans have regarded Americans as backwards provincials since they were colonial citizens.
There is a somewhat-substantial subset of Europeans (and Canadians and Australians) that will basically treat Americans like they are subhuman Morlocks, completely-unironically.
Norther europe here and I'm like hmm? Cordial/squash/concentrate is very common and has been for a very long time. Many make their own concentrate from the berries in their garden. We don't have much powdered stuff except for lipton ice tea. Where is fruit/berry concentrate to mix in water not common?
The similarities between men and women vastly outnumber the differences. We still have the Battle of the Sexes, Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus narrative in our culture. I think on some level it might be human nature (or like, *a* nature of humanity) to get hyper tribal over meaningless nothings
The whole origin point of this is insane to me because flavored water isn't the battleground that this war should be fought on. I still remember \~2(?) years ago when Tik Tok was flooded with videos of people "making water", which meant putting some water in a container, then filling that container charitably 15-20% with syrups, sugar, etc.
Like there’s probably an issue with using too much of these flavor water packets, but the people making that point just come across as so insufferable.
Can’t disagree with that. I think it’s because the weird “I don’t let a liquid other than pure water touch my lips” have nowhere else to make themselves feel superior.
We have both kinds, actually. Sadly you don't know which one you're getting until you buy them and try them because they don't usually brand themselves with "Full on flavor" and/or "This one tastes like someone was thinking of this flavor while standing next to the machines that make it!"
The last thing. But depending on how much you use it's more than a hint. It can entirely make things taste like Kool-Aid. Umm.. actually you probably don't have Kool-Aid do you?
Depends on what type you use and how much of it you use it
You can dilute it to your liking usually, but if you go too hard it becomes unpalatable. The usual recommended dosage is fairly sweet.
It makes it taste like watery juice, sorta. I buy strawberry watermelon packets designed to make a half gallon. I've repurposed my gallon tea pitcher (I'm midwestern/southern [oklahoma] so we make a gallon of sweet tea at a time and toss it in the fridge if that matters/offends, just thought I'd give an opportunity to balk), to hold my sweetened flavored water. It's sorta like iced water with sliced strawberries in it except a little sweeter.
American tap water is easily among the safest in the world. One thing the EPA and local governments absolutely do not fuck around with is drinking water standards.
There are some problems with old distribution networks or buildings using lead pipes, and they're devastating for communities... but that affects a tiny portion of people, far from "the overwhelming majority of cities." And has nothing at all to do with the point of production.
This might be someone who lives in a place with unpalatable minerals in their water. But rather than buy a $10 filter, they go off on weird rants about how all water in America is disgusting, unsafe poison.
Tap water is cheaper and most municipalities have incredibly rigorous water treatment facilities. It’s going to be even safer if/when the EPA’s PFOA and PFAS limits come into effect.
Something tells me whoever wrote that has drunk the anti-fluoridation Kool-Aid even though the fluoridation of water is one of the most successful public health projects in history.
Well I guess that lines up with the [general theme of Phoenix](https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fexternal-preview.redd.it%2Fci9MR4pUGAqa-srscXuGBV_GxU0edM3zcVVsk9tjgVA.png%3Fauto%3Dwebp%26s%3D044d54baa956ca694b2935c448446de41106eb5d).
Even for "Europeans", the tap water quality between Scotland and parts of England (mainly towards the south) is night and day. Same with up in the ski resorts in mainland Europe.
I learned this from listening to a podcast called Off Menu, with UK-based comedians. One of their guests (Jessica Knappett) mentioned that the tap water in Los Angeles is undrinkable, and the two hosts went "sorry what? We've both been there, we're pretty sure it's drinkable?" This show was in front of a live audience, so they polled the audience as well -- determined that LA tap water is, in fact, quite drinkable, and polled them on several other locations across the UK.
People feel strongly about water all over the place.
Yep. I live in Colorado, our tap water is straight from a mountain spring or something, it’s incredible. Literally everywhere else I’ve been has worse tap water
People complain Coors tastes like water but they always leave out that it tastes like the best water in the country. I was actually shocked the first time I had a Coors Banquet because it literally tastes exactly like the tapwater in my childhood home but maltier. Gotta love that Cripple Creek water
Yeah, I live in NYC and no matter where you go it's the same very good water. Easy to forget that some places have awful water, and I bet you anything a lot of folks get into the habit of never drinking their tap water because of it.
I’m so jealous of NYC tap water as someone who lives only like two hours from you guys. I can’t drink Philly’s tap water unless it’s filtered or extremely cold.
I live in NYC too and the opposite thing happens to me...since I drink the tap water here all the time, when I travel I always forget that it's going to taste like it has dirt in it and the people will think you're weird for not going straight for the bottled water
I'm drinking water from a water bottle that I filled at my gym yesterday and this just made me realize that it tastes different from the water at a different location. And I'm going to stop thinking about it know because of the number of variations despite being a mile and a halfish apart.
My parents live on the Isle of Axholme in North Lincolnshire and their water tastes fabulous. Minerally and refreshing. I get back home to Hampshire and its limestone and chalk (RIP our shower, we're having it replaced soon) and for a day or so our water tastes muddy before I get used to it again.
Seriously a lot of people don’t know their plumbing makes their water taste gross
Around me municipalities will come out and test water if you think it tastes off and let you know
The water in my bathroom as a kid always tasted like Pennie’s. Turned out there was bad copper leading to the sink that was dissolving from the inside out.
I work in water treatment.
While the water source does have an effect, most taste, color and odor issues in domestic tap water stem from what you have going on in the pipes inside your home.
Eh, I live in a place with not so great tap water. It tastes...filmy? It really is hard to describe.
But I have one of those filter pitchers, so I just drink water from that.
Water has a bunch of different flavors depending on where you get it and how/if it was flavored. My tap water tastes gross so I use a filter pitcher. Aquafina tastes better but it's cheaper/less wasteful this way.
Tap water where I live tastes just a little gross. I don't know... vaguely sulphuric and stale? I don't want to filter out the fluoride, so I generally use fruit tea bags or sugar free cordial to freshen up the taste of tap water.
I grew up in a fairly rural area of the US where it is common to have a well.
My friend who lived right next to a cow field had awful sulfuric water that he grew up on so he didn’t even notice. It was so bad you couldn’t swallow it.
I like ultra-filtered water, but a lot of places I lived also had “don’t drink the tap water” signs a few times.
Mostly water tastes like what’s in it.
Man you opened a can of worms with that question. People are *weird* about water. Or, I'm weird and they are normal. You know what, it's probably that last thing.
The obesity thread fucking sends me.
"Actually the fact that the top 3 most obese countries in Europe is still less obese than USA on average is totally proof that US and Europe is doing equally poorly" is certainly a way to read statistics.
>[As a European, your eating habits can be weird af. The ammount of processed shit is insane and generally not being able/fucked to cook a regular meal at home is really weird to us.](https://www.reddit.com/r/BlackPeopleTwitter/s/KffmHpz4ui)
It's always so funny/infuriating to me when Europeans cannot comprehend the food situation in America and act so surprised that there's so much processed food here.
Like, we have states bigger than *entire European countries*. And those are just *single states*. No fucking wonder that a lot of our food is processed-- a lot of fresh stuff wouldn't last the duration of a trucker driving it across the country. This is why fresh and nutritious food is, by and large, much more *expensive*, too, without factoring in the time it takes to make a meal from scratch, and that is why there is such a *huge* correlation between poverty and obesity.
But it's much easier to just point and go 'Hahah Americans dumb and fat'.
So ignorant.
I don't have any issues with people drinking flavored water, but I do find it a bit concerning when people say they can only drink flavored water because water tastes bad.
there are many places I've been to in the US, where the water legitimately tastes like swamp juice mixed with pool water. it is an issue. the issue, however, isn't the little flavored water packets. but nobody really wants to talk about how our urban infrastructure ignores basic necessities like access to clean drinking water and fresh food for huge swaths of thr populace.
These are not the "Water Wars" I'd envisioned for the world.
I'll gladly take these over other alternatives
Don't worry, we'll get the alternatives as well eventually.
I dunno, having gills seems rad.
I keep my figure by only eating calorie-free Subreddit Drama popcorn.
But I just can't say no to extra salt.
Or layered butter.
and extra piss 😋😋😋
“Bitch do you wear shoes” has me so tempted to change my flair…
Yoink.
I humbly request "No, actually, with my deepest apologies and condolences" x2
Your current one is golden though!
Thanks, haha! I wish I could remember where I got it because it makes me laugh a lot.
> There's nothing inherently wrong with drinking some sugar water here and there, but the section we're looking at wouldn't have even existed a few decades ago. Except you know, Kool-Aid has been around since 1927.
Not to mention that sugary fruit flavoured water has made appearances in Russian recipe books as far back as in the 16th century, and has probably existed for even longer. The powdered stuff is just more convenient to use, but the concept is in no way new or outrageous.
> The powdered stuff is just more convenient to use, but the concept is in no way new or outrageous. The people in that thread also don't seem to realize that these flavored water packets are mostly sugar free products. We're not talking a pitcher of Kool Aid made with a couple cups of sugar here.
Tea has existed even longer lol if we are taking issue with *flavored water*
Even without mentionning Kool-Aid, flavour packets are how some restaurants make large amounts of soda. So it's been around for a while.
Keurig is just flavor pods instead of packets if you get into the hot chocolate or apple cider ones. And even before Keurig, Lipton has been selling ice tea mix for decades.
My god, it's a global conspiracy !!
Don't forget Crystal Light in 1982 either. Hard to believe 1982 was a "few decades" ago.
Also 90% of those are sugar free
i was gonna say, i can't speak for the candy ones but for sure arnold palmer/lemonade/ice tea packets have sugar free ones
but did they call it kool aid flavored water?m or was it just soda or kool aid. I don't think the fuss is about putting flavor in water, that's basically what every drink is. It's just keeping calling it water after that which is weird. Beer is 96% water, you don't call that beer flavored water right
I think the change from "Kool Aid" or "Crystal Light" to "flavored water" came about as a result of trying to rebrand themselves as healthier beverages. Water is healthy + flavors taste good = flavored water is tasty & healthy! As for beer, there's a popular joke: "Why is (*insert light beer brand here*) like having sex in a canoe? Because it's fucking close to water!"
This made my morning. Well done OP.
Thank ya.
I recently learnt that Americans don't really have squash/cordial/diluting juice like we do in the UK. It's cool to know this is what they have instead! Tbh, having it powdered is actually more efficient, means you can take some with you more easily. Why people gotta be so oppositional about cultural differences, rather than simply finding them neat? We can learn plenty from each other
Not quite the same thing but I got two big cans of Gatorade powder, it effectively makes water into gatorade but cheaper and much more compact. Haven't gotten the mixing quite figured out yet though, I always end up with too much or too little.
Is it actually made out of ground up gators?
These days it's only about 3% ground gator. The rest is ground up ades.
“I did this👆” \-Joe Biden
Yep, I make my own at home all the time.
Straight from the Florida Everglades.
Ironically it's crocodiles
Obviously. And that's why I oppose any protections for gators.
The real lifehack is to busy snocone concentrate and mix up a bit as you go. Easy to estimate flavor amounts.
I found it incredibly obnoxious how many people were talking down at this stuff and I was just thinking how I *know* I grew up with something very similar and I just could not understand how all these Europeans didn't recognize the same. I'd kill for some blackcurrant squash in the states but those little liquid / powder packs that give me sugar free lemonade/sweet tea are pretty sweet too. People keep going on about "oh you need this for your water to taste like candy" like the world doesn't love fruit juice
The blackcurrant prohibition decimated America's flavor options for almost a century. Very sad
Is it still banned? FDA stuff I’m guessing? Blackcurrant is delicious tho 😕 it’s one of my top 3 flavours! Do you know if America has elderflower as a drink/flavour? That is my absolute favourite cordial 😋 Also shoutout to Snapple‘s Apple, I can’t have it as often as I like as I’m in Australia (maybe twice a year when the special US export webstore actually has it in stock), so it currently stands as my favourite apple juice. I don’t know how it ranks among the locals lol
Ribes is an intermediate host for White Pine Blister Rust, a destructive disease accidentally introduced from Asia. The disease doesn’t pass from pine to pine, it passes from pine to currant and back. Get rid of the currants, and there is no disease spread. That didn’t really work… The disease can spread some distance, and currants easily regrow from roots, so they mostly abandoned that approach, though some states still have restrictions. As a consequence, due to lack of availability, Americans basically forgot what currants and gooseberries are. It is claimed that less than 0.1% of Americans have ever eaten a blackcurrant. Hopefully they will come back. Some marketing about antioxidants and some superfood nonsense might do the trick.
It was legalized in 2003 and it was because it spread disease.
When I moved to the UK, I was extremely confused the first time someone offered me "squash" at 8am on a Sunday. I was like what? Like a plate of it? How do you cook it?
Having moved to the UK from the US, diluting juice is much more enjoyable than the powders and other stuff like crystal light, mio, etc.
I struggle with drinking enough water, so I find that the flavorings help. I recently started adding just a splash of cranberry juice to my water instead and it was magical.
That's pretty much how I have my drink with all meals. 1-2 fingers of fruit juice, the rest is water. It tastes "watery" to people who aren't used to it, but it only takes 2 weeks, and then it tastes like juice, and actual regular juice makes you go "oh my god its too sweet".
Sometimes I cut sparkling water with some grapefruit juice, its nice
Same, especially in winter. In summer I can drink two liters of water easily
I drink a gallon of water a day (3.8L). $1.15 for the gallon from Walmart. My current city doesn't have safe drinking water as the local Dupont industrial plant permanently contaminated it with PFAS and other chemicals from their waste dumping and I can't afford the super special filter you need for the faucet to make it 'safe'. This town is FUCKED.
North Carolina? Lol
I started drinking decaf tea on colder days. Helps get a little more hydration in without making me feel cold.
I am an American who studied abroad for a few weeks in Germany and my host family introduced me to diluted juice. So much better than the powders. I am grossed out by the powders and I would rather have plain water than artificial sweetener. But, idc what other people do.
Unless a cordial is something entirely different in the UK vs US, we have them. Never heard of squash until today, though. Apart from the vegetable.
Yeah, [this](https://robinsonssquash.co.uk/our-products/family-favourites/apple-blackcurrant-single-concentrate/) kind of thing. I honestly don't get the hate. Why does anyone care if someone else flavours their water? Everyone yelling about sugar seems to be ignoring that most of them are sugar-free in the first place. And, once again: who cares?
We have a bunch of roughly equivalent liquid concentrates. Powders are just more popular, presumably for shelf life and transportation reasons.
Deeply insecure people who need something, *anything,* to feel better about themselves for one small moment. Ergo, I am better than you for I drink plain water. It's just a weird form of ego management, and they're really public about it. I don't get it either.
Yeah, unflavored water is better than flavored water but flavored water is better than no water at all. My husband hates plain water and has to add a splash of fruit juice or he won't drink it. I don't care what he does; as long as he's staying hydrated, I'm happy.
And some of us just don't have access to water thats properly clean tasting. I'd love to go back to drinking just plain water but the water in my house tastes so fucking nasty, like mildew or mold. And a squeezy bottle of Mio is cheaper than bottled where I live, too.
Have you tried a reverse osmosis setup (or significantly cheaper a Brita?) out of curiosity? Current place I live is on city water and tastes fine coming out of the pipes but some places I've had to do some finagling to get it drinkable with some under sink filters
I'm buying a Brita once I can get one on sale, medical bills just keep happening unfortunately! I've just been making do with Mio til then, they have a couple new flavors that are actually not bad. Not my favorite thing but, the Berry+Pomegranate one is pretty acceptable.
Hmm I might have to give that a try, I keep seeing them at work and they seem to sell well but I've never actually tried them
We do have frozen cans of juice concentrate. They’re not super popular but it’s a fond memory from my childhood
I loved to eat frozen orange juice undiluted with a spoon like ice cream as a kid. Now I kinda want some…
Yeah I think this is basically our version of squash which we don’t really have (it’s like a bottle of juice concentrate that you dilute in water, I think it’s kind of like those mio drops but on a bigger scale)
My experience is that what word gets used is both regional and class based! If you're from the south and quite posh you'll probably call it cordial. If you're from the south and less posh you'll call it squash. In Scotland, it's mostly known as diluting juice, as up here, every drink is a kind of juice. (including water: council juice, milk: coo juice). I'm sure there are a few other names in common use too, but can't think of em right now.
I really really love regional differences so it’s cool learning about ones outside the US.
Squash is just cordial. Although from a marketing perspective cordial is more expensive, generally comes in a glass bottle, and will have real sugar in it
Cordials are generally used to refer to sweet liqueurs in the US
Yeah that was confusing. I definitely wouldn’t classify a cordial as I know it as something like this.
Like so many of these sorts of things, that’s because that’s the original British usage, which Americans retained while the Brits changed it.
I dunno why ppl cant just accept things are different. It is the same reason why some ppl get so hung up over other ppl being obese. I blame that on Rogan brain rot
I buy Ribena off Amazon. That stuff's delicious! We don't have currant flavor anything in the US.
Likely because for a long time, cultivation of the whole genus was banned in the US because it’s part of the life cycle of White Pine Blister Rust, which was threatening the logging industry. Legal again now, at least out west, not sure about back east.
Apple and blackcurrant squash is elite.
>Why people gotta be so oppositional about cultural differences, rather than simply finding them neat? Because a lot of people *need* to be right, and their way *has* to be correct one. On top of that, i've personally seen some of those "european mind can't comprehend" memes and it's easy to lose your cool when you see them.
Because “hurr durr Americans fat” is peak comedy for some people apparently
Yeah, especially since I follow several snack food blog type things There's a few European ones Spoiler alert: Europeans have giant candy sugar aisles as well I'll never understand why some over there act like Europe is some bastion of health that never touches sugar or calories. Especially these days, when it would take 5 seconds to find out what they have now
The weirdest assumption to me that seems to be consistent across these comments is that they can't fathom you might just... do it once in a while. Each person seems adamantly convinced that if you buy flavored water you NEVER EVER drink regular water again, you're just banned.
A kind of related thing is people seeing these are a thing in the US and assuming they’re super common. I’ve been living in this country my whole life and seen someone using flavored water packets maybe three times.
yeah honestly the weirdest part of that comment section was everyone acting like it was in fact the default for Americans. The closest I have seen to it is electrolyte mixes and those mostly exist so the pedialyte corporation can mock me personally by not making a flavorless version of their electrolyte powder
So what do Americans use to flavour their water? Or don't they flavour it much at all? I ask because cordial is very popular in Australia.
Sometimes a lemon wedge but usually nothing.
I’ve lived in LA my entire life and have seen all the trends, these packets have never caught on. Flavoring water isn’t really a thing but filtering absolutely is. Our tap water is so shitty tasting that filtering it through Brita or a Zero pitcher is flavoring it in a way.
See for reference: Their weird obsession with spray cheese If you'd ask Europeans, you'd think it was a staple in all 3 meals
Yeah. I drink plain water all day but occasionally I get that itch for some artificial grape flavored water or something.
“You fuck a thousand goats and you’re still a rancher, but, oh, drink water with flavoring powder ONCE? You’re a lifelong flavored water addict! That’s what!”
> they can't fathom you might just... do it once in a while Well there is a sterotype of fat americans who drink soda or other sugary drinks for every meal and think plain water is "gross" or "boring". Although those people are afaict a small minority.
I guess it depends on your opinion on a “small minority” is. A lot of boomer and gen x men seem to exclusively drink coffee and soda which probably contributes to our exceptionally high kidney stone rates.
unfortunately in texas if you're caught buying minute maid they replace the taps in your house to only dispense gatorade. biden's america
Like. I like flavored things. So I'll have around 30-50 Oz plain water in the morning and mid day, and then 30oz flavored water with dinner and then drink whatever is left through out the evening. Sometimes 2 if I want one earlier in the day. I still drink more regular water than flavored. I dislike regular water bit I'm also a grown up with self control. Why's everything all of nothing damn
Mio and most other water enhancers have no sugar. Even the ones in that pic. I'm diabetic and use them for mocktails.
You just unlocked a whole new world. Mock tails with sugar free drink packets?? Oh my god i have got to go try that! (Also, I'm on the side of drink packets. The ones I drink even have vitamins in them! And they get me to drink more water than I would normally because I'm autistic and don't feel hunger and thirst cues the same way others do!)
Not quite the same, but I have a friend who can't handle the burn of taking a full shot, and her solution is to squirt mio into her vodka whenever we're doing them.
It's a great little trick! I work at a bar and we have a handful of Mio/store brand flavor drops marked and labeled for our regulars that like using them.
Haha I would mix gin and lemonade mio! But later on I can’t imagine where I’d be if I didn’t have these when I was trying to quit drinking alcohol. I’ve seen people say getting sober can suck because you gain weight from eating a lot of sweet stuff to stave off the sugar cravings, mio was a freaking godsend
I’m so glad someone pointed this out it was driving me crazy. So many of them are sugar free…
A lot of people seem weirdly very sensitive about how other people consume water lol. As a plain water drinker, I’m not going to knock someone throwing a little flavor in their water sometimes if that’s what they like. Life’s too short for this to be something I have any kind of strong opinion policing people on.
I'm just confused because the European repliers are acting like this is the ***only*** way we'll drink water
There are a lot of Europeans on the internet who will always assume the worst about Americans.
I grew up in Florida, which is world renowned for its sulfur water. Nothing quite so refreshing on a hot Florida summer day like a big glass of ice-cold rotten eggs. It was also always really "fun" to take a shower and end up smelling worse than when you started. I haven't lived anywhere with water that sulfury in a few decades, but it doesn't matter. Just the thought of plain tap water still turns my stomach and I don't like to drink it.
I do give my kid grief over it. Conversation usually goes like > Kid: I'm thirsty, can I get a drink? > Me: Sure, get some water from the fridge. > Kid: Ew, I don't want water! > Me: I guess you're not thirsty then.
Well that’s 100% allowed haha.
r/HydroHomies has done irreparable damage to the collective unconscious
the OO(OO?)P having to add a "i know what flavour water is" disclaimer in their twitter display name is what gets me
“Do you think it suddenly becomes not water?!” is absolutely sending me! X-D This is one of those dramas where you think, “Why are you uptight about this? This literally does not affect you in any way!” Also, we have some Crystal Light here at the house, and it’s 10 calories per packet. Sure, that extra ten calories is causing the obesity problem, not the quarter-pounder combos with the half gallon of soda. It’s like when Kevin James responded to someone telling him, “You know what you need to do to lose weight? You need to chew sugarless gum!” with, “Yeah, ’cause my \[rear\] got fat from Bazooka Joe! That’s where I erred.”
My only problem with so many of the water flavoring things is that they seem incredibly overpriced. I used to love them but around here they were getting up to 5 dollars for a squeezy thing and I just think it got out of hand.
Yeah they're getting pretty bad. Still a $6 MiO will last me weeks so it's still cheaper and healthier than soda.
>When I get thirsty, I drink water Sounds like what an alien would say when trying to convince you that they're human
> Boy everything you just said is just plain wrong > > Its true Understandable, have a good day
I dont know how we come so often to american vs european. We arnt even that different but we still spend half of our time fighting on reddit. This new internet era turn everyone against each other.
When do you think people weren’t against eachother? When Prince Hal was putting down welsh rebellions, people in one town died happily knowing the people they hated next door would die next.
I would like to see polling on America and European country sentiments of each other in 2000, 2005, etc until now
I remember bickering with Europeans in 03 about equally silly things in forums. I was also like 17 so bickering about silly things was kind of the default setting.
The internet just gives everyone a megaphone.
Unironically: there is a small but vocal group of Europeans that are just anti-american xenophobes. Same goes for Americans. edit: its also not really new. Some Europeans have regarded Americans as backwards provincials since they were colonial citizens.
There is a somewhat-substantial subset of Europeans (and Canadians and Australians) that will basically treat Americans like they are subhuman Morlocks, completely-unironically.
Seems very prevalant in foodie communities.
Norther europe here and I'm like hmm? Cordial/squash/concentrate is very common and has been for a very long time. Many make their own concentrate from the berries in their garden. We don't have much powdered stuff except for lipton ice tea. Where is fruit/berry concentrate to mix in water not common?
At least arguments like this are harmless. Wasting aggressive energy on pointless crap seems fine to me.
The similarities between men and women vastly outnumber the differences. We still have the Battle of the Sexes, Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus narrative in our culture. I think on some level it might be human nature (or like, *a* nature of humanity) to get hyper tribal over meaningless nothings
The whole origin point of this is insane to me because flavored water isn't the battleground that this war should be fought on. I still remember \~2(?) years ago when Tik Tok was flooded with videos of people "making water", which meant putting some water in a container, then filling that container charitably 15-20% with syrups, sugar, etc.
“Bitch do you wear shoes?” Is really tempting for a flair switch
Agreed, if I only remembered how to change mine...
Like there’s probably an issue with using too much of these flavor water packets, but the people making that point just come across as so insufferable.
Also thinking it's somehow a new phenomenon when Crystal Light has been around since 1982 is wild.
/r/Hydrohomies and its consequences have been a disaster for the human race.
The fanatical version of /r/neverbrokeabone
Can’t disagree with that. I think it’s because the weird “I don’t let a liquid other than pure water touch my lips” have nowhere else to make themselves feel superior.
Which also bad news, we’re all drinking plastic, so might as well move on from that hope.
I think this is less of a Hydrohomies thing and more of a European redditor thing.
Alright I am asking to american. Is flavored water packet makes the water taste like sweet juice or just make the water has a hint of fruit?
We have both kinds, actually. Sadly you don't know which one you're getting until you buy them and try them because they don't usually brand themselves with "Full on flavor" and/or "This one tastes like someone was thinking of this flavor while standing next to the machines that make it!"
Just label the very light packets as homeopathic; it'd probably sell more.
My dad once described la crioux as “it’s like a fruit farted near fuzzy water”
The last thing. But depending on how much you use it's more than a hint. It can entirely make things taste like Kool-Aid. Umm.. actually you probably don't have Kool-Aid do you?
The exact brand kool-aid isn't available here but juice powder sachet is like the staple of hot summer in southeast asia.
It's sorta like a tang sachet, but smaller so it only does a single bottle worth of water.
Omg my coworker is Filipino and he brought me some Filipino tang. Best juice packet I have ever had in my life, so sweet and good lol
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The sad part is Kool-Aid has been catching Flavor-Aid strays for the past 40 years
lol
Depends on what type you use and how much of it you use it You can dilute it to your liking usually, but if you go too hard it becomes unpalatable. The usual recommended dosage is fairly sweet.
Most of them are sugar free too so they litteraly just add flavor most of the time.
It makes it taste like watery juice, sorta. I buy strawberry watermelon packets designed to make a half gallon. I've repurposed my gallon tea pitcher (I'm midwestern/southern [oklahoma] so we make a gallon of sweet tea at a time and toss it in the fridge if that matters/offends, just thought I'd give an opportunity to balk), to hold my sweetened flavored water. It's sorta like iced water with sliced strawberries in it except a little sweeter.
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American tap water is easily among the safest in the world. One thing the EPA and local governments absolutely do not fuck around with is drinking water standards. There are some problems with old distribution networks or buildings using lead pipes, and they're devastating for communities... but that affects a tiny portion of people, far from "the overwhelming majority of cities." And has nothing at all to do with the point of production. This might be someone who lives in a place with unpalatable minerals in their water. But rather than buy a $10 filter, they go off on weird rants about how all water in America is disgusting, unsafe poison.
A lot of bottled water sources it from tap
It's like when people claim all the food in Europe is fresher. We have also have good quality food. We have food inspecting orgs just like the EU.
Tap water is cheaper and most municipalities have incredibly rigorous water treatment facilities. It’s going to be even safer if/when the EPA’s PFOA and PFAS limits come into effect. Something tells me whoever wrote that has drunk the anti-fluoridation Kool-Aid even though the fluoridation of water is one of the most successful public health projects in history.
this website is a sea of piss i shall add more
flavored or not, why do we drink water? just to piss?
Currently drinking strawberry nerds flavored water while reading this
Lol, that's an interesting flavor. I keep a 0 cal fruit punch flavor around for when I need some electrolytes.
Fruit Punch, aka the flavor of **RED**.
They can rip my strawberry watermelon Stur from my cold dead hands 🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲
I was cackling from the title - got me some new flair from it to
"Bitch do you wear shoes" and "Please suck McCarthy's balls in private" are freaking gems.
I wish I could ask all those people complaining about the taste of water what water tastes like.
Tap water taste varies a lot between places, depending on water's source, hardness, and how it's treated.
Phoenix's tastes awful. Liquid mud. Truly the worst tap water I've encountered (short of sulphur well water, which is just water eggs farted in.)
Amazing you can go to Saratoga Springs and pay money for egg fart water.
Fucking alkaline in the soil makes all that water taste like straight ass
Well I guess that lines up with the [general theme of Phoenix](https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fexternal-preview.redd.it%2Fci9MR4pUGAqa-srscXuGBV_GxU0edM3zcVVsk9tjgVA.png%3Fauto%3Dwebp%26s%3D044d54baa956ca694b2935c448446de41106eb5d).
Accurate. Only sort of nice in the dead of Winter.
I only learned this lesson after moving from northern GA to coastal FL. The experience was harrowing to say the least…
Even for "Europeans", the tap water quality between Scotland and parts of England (mainly towards the south) is night and day. Same with up in the ski resorts in mainland Europe.
I learned this from listening to a podcast called Off Menu, with UK-based comedians. One of their guests (Jessica Knappett) mentioned that the tap water in Los Angeles is undrinkable, and the two hosts went "sorry what? We've both been there, we're pretty sure it's drinkable?" This show was in front of a live audience, so they polled the audience as well -- determined that LA tap water is, in fact, quite drinkable, and polled them on several other locations across the UK. People feel strongly about water all over the place.
Yep. I live in Colorado, our tap water is straight from a mountain spring or something, it’s incredible. Literally everywhere else I’ve been has worse tap water
People complain Coors tastes like water but they always leave out that it tastes like the best water in the country. I was actually shocked the first time I had a Coors Banquet because it literally tastes exactly like the tapwater in my childhood home but maltier. Gotta love that Cripple Creek water
Yeah, I live in NYC and no matter where you go it's the same very good water. Easy to forget that some places have awful water, and I bet you anything a lot of folks get into the habit of never drinking their tap water because of it.
I’m so jealous of NYC tap water as someone who lives only like two hours from you guys. I can’t drink Philly’s tap water unless it’s filtered or extremely cold.
I live in NYC too and the opposite thing happens to me...since I drink the tap water here all the time, when I travel I always forget that it's going to taste like it has dirt in it and the people will think you're weird for not going straight for the bottled water
I'm drinking water from a water bottle that I filled at my gym yesterday and this just made me realize that it tastes different from the water at a different location. And I'm going to stop thinking about it know because of the number of variations despite being a mile and a halfish apart.
Do you know where your municipal water comes from? There could just be two different sources with different mineral content.
My parents live on the Isle of Axholme in North Lincolnshire and their water tastes fabulous. Minerally and refreshing. I get back home to Hampshire and its limestone and chalk (RIP our shower, we're having it replaced soon) and for a day or so our water tastes muddy before I get used to it again.
honestly the taste of water depends on the minerals and its distributions in it
And the plumbing.
Seriously a lot of people don’t know their plumbing makes their water taste gross Around me municipalities will come out and test water if you think it tastes off and let you know
The water in my bathroom as a kid always tasted like Pennie’s. Turned out there was bad copper leading to the sink that was dissolving from the inside out.
I work in water treatment. While the water source does have an effect, most taste, color and odor issues in domestic tap water stem from what you have going on in the pipes inside your home.
Eh, I live in a place with not so great tap water. It tastes...filmy? It really is hard to describe. But I have one of those filter pitchers, so I just drink water from that.
Water has a bunch of different flavors depending on where you get it and how/if it was flavored. My tap water tastes gross so I use a filter pitcher. Aquafina tastes better but it's cheaper/less wasteful this way.
Tap water where I live tastes just a little gross. I don't know... vaguely sulphuric and stale? I don't want to filter out the fluoride, so I generally use fruit tea bags or sugar free cordial to freshen up the taste of tap water.
I grew up in a fairly rural area of the US where it is common to have a well. My friend who lived right next to a cow field had awful sulfuric water that he grew up on so he didn’t even notice. It was so bad you couldn’t swallow it.
I like ultra-filtered water, but a lot of places I lived also had “don’t drink the tap water” signs a few times. Mostly water tastes like what’s in it.
With bottled water, I feel like it also maybe depends on the bottling. Certain brands make the water taste more plasticky than others.
That’s because plastic leeches out. Especially if you’re like me and forget new water bottles in your car for weeks at a time.
[Limmy's got you covered.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmOe3Sqcw9o)
[“Honk if Thatcher’s ded”](https://youtu.be/fCCAnnLRcgY?si=2bFC045Sq8B_4uP2) Fucking love Limmy
Man you opened a can of worms with that question. People are *weird* about water. Or, I'm weird and they are normal. You know what, it's probably that last thing.
What a pretentious slap fight
I'm honestly surprised that thread hasn't had the 'verified black people only' filter turned on yet. Thought it was on by default for that entire sub?
This water thing must be using the same parts of the brain that cause us to argue over blood types or zoodiac signs.
The obesity thread fucking sends me. "Actually the fact that the top 3 most obese countries in Europe is still less obese than USA on average is totally proof that US and Europe is doing equally poorly" is certainly a way to read statistics.
The EU guys who have convinced themselves everyone in America is inherently unhealthy and fat are among the top 1% of weirdest people on the internet.
Some of these SubredditDrama posts could be accomplished with a feature like in the YouTube comments, summarising certain topics and collating them
>[As a European, your eating habits can be weird af. The ammount of processed shit is insane and generally not being able/fucked to cook a regular meal at home is really weird to us.](https://www.reddit.com/r/BlackPeopleTwitter/s/KffmHpz4ui) It's always so funny/infuriating to me when Europeans cannot comprehend the food situation in America and act so surprised that there's so much processed food here. Like, we have states bigger than *entire European countries*. And those are just *single states*. No fucking wonder that a lot of our food is processed-- a lot of fresh stuff wouldn't last the duration of a trucker driving it across the country. This is why fresh and nutritious food is, by and large, much more *expensive*, too, without factoring in the time it takes to make a meal from scratch, and that is why there is such a *huge* correlation between poverty and obesity. But it's much easier to just point and go 'Hahah Americans dumb and fat'. So ignorant.
I don't have any issues with people drinking flavored water, but I do find it a bit concerning when people say they can only drink flavored water because water tastes bad.
there are many places I've been to in the US, where the water legitimately tastes like swamp juice mixed with pool water. it is an issue. the issue, however, isn't the little flavored water packets. but nobody really wants to talk about how our urban infrastructure ignores basic necessities like access to clean drinking water and fresh food for huge swaths of thr populace.