Speaker 1: I'm Manny, I'm Noah.
Speaker 2: This is Devon and this is no such thing.
Speaker 3: The show where we settle our dumb arguments and yours
Speaker 3: by actually doing the research. On today's episode, why does
Speaker 3: the Sonny water taste like that?
Speaker 4: I could not believe that a company like Coca Cola
Speaker 4: believes conspiracy theorists. Quite interesting.
Speaker 1: No, there's no no such thing, no such thing, such thing.
Speaker 3: All right, show of hands, vocally, who here identifies as
Speaker 3: a real water drinker.
Speaker 5: I drink a lot. My hands raised, Yeah, my hands raised.
Speaker 1: Devin and Noah are water drinkers. I'm look, I'm I've
Speaker 1: gotten I'm way better than I used to be. I
Speaker 1: used to not drink any water, and now I realize
Speaker 1: how insane that is.
Speaker 5: That's crazy.
Speaker 1: But probably when I first moved to New York, like
Speaker 1: twenty fifteen, I would be getting my from like juices
Speaker 1: or you know, just was not drinking water by itself.
Speaker 5: Oh, I drink a lot of water. If I'm not
Speaker 5: drinking water, I'm drinking tea.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 5: So those are my two drink options.
Speaker 2: And usually at the same time.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I'll double fist it, you know, I get a
Speaker 5: I get a cup of tea. Get a cup of tea,
Speaker 5: get a cup of water. I get harassed at the dentist,
Speaker 5: you know.
Speaker 3: Yeah, well they always tell you need the water.
Speaker 2: I'm a coffee guy.
Speaker 5: Drink I'm like, okay, I got it. Yeah, I drink
Speaker 5: a lot of water.
Speaker 2: And growing up.
Speaker 5: Water, No, growing up, it was a little bit different. Okay,
Speaker 5: so back in my house, like growing up, we didn't
Speaker 5: have like water in the fridge. It was like soda
Speaker 5: and juice.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 5: I feel like middle school, high school we started introducing
Speaker 5: bottle of water, but it was still, you know, half
Speaker 5: the time, you're still drinking soda or juice. I think
Speaker 5: I transitioned to full on water college post college, because
Speaker 5: you're just like, it's too damn expensive to be buying
Speaker 5: juice and soda. Like I just like, it's you know,
Speaker 5: so you get the bread in a refrigerator, yep, and
Speaker 5: that's free. Yeah yeah, good outside of the filters. And
Speaker 5: then yeah, Now it's funny when my family comes to
Speaker 5: visit me, they like bring drinks because they're like, oh,
Speaker 5: he's only got freaking water.
Speaker 3: I mean, we never had soda in the house really,
Speaker 3: so water was basically especially for you know, dinner, meal time,
Speaker 3: you're gonna have water with it. Like otherwise it would
Speaker 3: be you know, a juice in the morning, that sort
Speaker 3: of thing.
Speaker 2: We'd have milk.
Speaker 5: Yeah, you were one of those have milk.
Speaker 3: But yeah, I mean for most of what I can
Speaker 3: think of is glasses of water.
Speaker 1: These days, I'm way better at drinking water. A few
Speaker 1: years ago, actually, when we were all at BI, I
Speaker 1: went to the doctor and like something was up and
Speaker 1: they were like, you need to drink way more water.
Speaker 1: So then I bought on Amazon, like one of those
Speaker 1: like sixty four ounce yeah water bottles, and it's got
Speaker 1: like the time, like you need to drink this much
Speaker 1: by noon, and it just made me feel like a baby.
Speaker 1: But yeah, I'm way better today.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean it's definitely exploded in the past few years,
Speaker 3: water bottles, that.
Speaker 5: Sort of thing. Oh my god.
Speaker 2: And we both have ours right now.
Speaker 3: But we're not I don't think we're on the extreme
Speaker 3: end of it. Like there's people, like you said, there's
Speaker 3: those huge ones or like I think there's people who
Speaker 3: probably drink too much water, like more than necessary?
Speaker 1: Is there too much?
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, babies can't have water. Crazy, But did not
Speaker 2: well you know.
Speaker 5: Who else didn't know that. My mom didn't know that
Speaker 5: because when I told you, she said, well fed more important.
Speaker 3: Like what you and even for even for adults, you
Speaker 3: can drink too much. All right, let's let's smooth forward
Speaker 3: a little bit. Bottled waters. You're going into pharmacy of
Speaker 3: your choice, Walgreens, Dwane Reid c CV.
Speaker 2: What are you what are you looking for?
Speaker 5: Number one? So I'm not First of all, I'm not
Speaker 5: a spend one hundred dollars on a water bottles, So
Speaker 5: I'm not getting any of those vans and all that stuff.
Speaker 5: That's that's out of the market for me.
Speaker 2: You're going for the every man.
Speaker 5: I'm going for every man. It's water. What are we
Speaker 5: doing here?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 5: Okay, it just needs to taste okay, mm hmmm. I
Speaker 5: think the best tasting budget water is poland spring.
Speaker 2: Yes, I agree, Number one, spring Man.
Speaker 1: All right, finish the reci your ring and then I've
Speaker 1: got some questions.
Speaker 5: Okay, yeah. Number two. Number two is like, uh, you know,
Speaker 5: we could do like a deer Park water solid an aquafina.
Speaker 1: I don't think I've ever had deer Park.
Speaker 2: It stands out less branding wise.
Speaker 5: It kind of looks like spring. Yeah. Okay, so that
Speaker 5: you know those are like in the middle Deer Park
Speaker 5: with some other like mid tier or budget waters.
Speaker 2: There's a crystal geezer.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's a lot of them are generic feeling. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 3: there's like another. There's a few others like that.
Speaker 1: Is it great geezer or geyser geyser crystal old man,
Speaker 1: we can cut that out. I was genuinely curious. I
Speaker 1: was like, wait, what We'll see there's a.
Speaker 5: Yeah, and then okay, so that's in the middle, and
Speaker 5: then there's a very long distance, a very long distance,
Speaker 5: and then at the very very bottom it's then yeah, wow,
Speaker 5: this sign if I'm getting this SANI, there's no other water.
Speaker 3: Event, but I'm going store brand over that. Yes, yes,
Speaker 3: I mean yeah, I mean I haven't had the SNI
Speaker 3: in years.
Speaker 5: It has to be the only option sometimes when you
Speaker 5: go to like a sporting event or something. Oh yeah,
Speaker 5: that's the only option, and so you can't do anything
Speaker 5: about it. But yeah, yeah, if I have to pick,
Speaker 5: it's like I said, poem spring number one, all the
Speaker 5: other ones in the middle, number two, and then very
Speaker 5: worst case scenario, worst case scenario I'm getting.
Speaker 3: I mean, I I've even had I've gone to a
Speaker 3: vending machine. See it's only dashani, and I'm just like,
Speaker 3: I'll get a soda, yeah, wow, something else, you know,
Speaker 3: a sporting event, like you know, I was gonna be good.
Speaker 3: I was gonna you know, not drink. But they're forcing
Speaker 3: me to buy an eighteen dollars beer now.
Speaker 2: Is because the only offering is soon now.
Speaker 5: They're making me an alcoholic.
Speaker 2: And it's their fall.
Speaker 1: Sni is the reason why my dad never came back.
Speaker 1: So I've heard this so much that people hate Dasani.
Speaker 5: You know.
Speaker 1: Part of me is like I can I can easily
Speaker 1: imagine that these waters have different tastes. I do wonder
Speaker 1: where the hell is the like the hate like like
Speaker 1: Sani is like disgusting or like.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it don't taste good to me.
Speaker 3: And this is like the fact that it stands out.
Speaker 2: That's the thing.
Speaker 3: I kind of privately or personally came to this, yes,
Speaker 3: and then I found out other people feel this way,
Speaker 3: so that proves to me it's real and not just like, oh,
Speaker 3: I didn't just see something like someone said, oh, Desny's
Speaker 3: like cheap water or taste bad. And then I was influenced, which,
Speaker 3: of course I can get influence by things, but no,
Speaker 3: like I decided on my own, I don't like the
Speaker 3: sony and then other people like Devin and the world.
Speaker 1: Yes, yeah, And I guess it's fair too because you
Speaker 1: guys grew up as water drinkers.
Speaker 2: Yes, as I'm maybe not.
Speaker 5: Exactly you know you ready, Yeah, you know, conversation happening
Speaker 5: about I'm to the differences. Yeah, It's just always been
Speaker 5: a thing for me where I'm like this, yeah, it
Speaker 5: tastes off, And like Noah was saying, I've been thinking
Speaker 5: about this since I was a kid when I couldn't
Speaker 5: you know, It's not like when you're a kid somebody
Speaker 5: hands you water. It's like water is water. You're not like, oh,
Speaker 5: this water tastes Yeah. I was just like, why is
Speaker 5: this water tastes weird?
Speaker 2: And it's not refreshing the same way.
Speaker 5: No, when I drink water, I wanted to be refreshing
Speaker 5: and I don't really want to notice it.
Speaker 3: For whatever reason, Desianni just never felt as thirst quenching
Speaker 3: the same way. Yeah, so it wasn't you know, in
Speaker 3: my mind, it's just not as satisfying to drink. So
Speaker 3: it's like I should just get juice or something else.
Speaker 1: I know, you ranked them already, but I'm so fascinated
Speaker 1: by Like, all right, can you describe the difference between
Speaker 1: Aquafina and Poland Spring.
Speaker 5: M I think Poland Spring to me is the most refreshing,
Speaker 5: Like I just have you know, when I think of
Speaker 5: a Poland Spring, it's like a cold bottle of water
Speaker 5: and a fridge. It's summer, you coming inside, and I
Speaker 5: don't even think about when they change the water bottles.
Speaker 2: That was that was huge, So that's something.
Speaker 3: Yeah, the water bottle shape is interesting because it's it's dumb.
Speaker 3: Obviously that that impacts how we taste it. But yeah,
Speaker 3: it's true because Desani has the thin, narrow bottle, which
Speaker 3: is kind of cool, Like I have to give respect
Speaker 3: to what they're trying to do something different there.
Speaker 5: It's like a sexy bottle.
Speaker 3: Yeah, slim, slim, thick sort of thing. Yeah, but it
Speaker 3: I think maybe because that it's almost like then my
Speaker 3: expectations are too high and I'm disappointed because here's a sleek, cool,
Speaker 3: modern bottle. And yeah, the taste is yeah, it's not
Speaker 3: ancient tasting and not a good way.
Speaker 5: Yeah, because Poland Spring, well remember when they started using
Speaker 5: less plastic.
Speaker 2: What about now? The caps are smaller. Yeah, they used
Speaker 2: to have something that pisses me off.
Speaker 5: You used to have some weight to them. You pick
Speaker 5: up a bottle of water, squeeze it a little bit
Speaker 5: and it wouldn't give now you knowing.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you drink some water that's barely there.
Speaker 5: It's like, what is this?
Speaker 2: Yeah, can hold it in? Yeah, I got it.
Speaker 3: So it's Poland Spring, I think one say the name
Speaker 3: Poland Spring, yes, spring, Yes, this is real natural water
Speaker 3: it Yeah, beautiful artwork.
Speaker 5: I'm from.
Speaker 3: I'm from New England, so you know, it kind of
Speaker 3: takes me back. It's like, oh, yeah, this this tastes
Speaker 3: like home to me. Yeah, you know, this is where
Speaker 3: I'm from. So we're not alone on the dasagny thing.
Speaker 3: As I said before, But this was new to me
Speaker 3: when I started looking into this for the episode, because,
Speaker 3: like I said, I haven't had a design years. I
Speaker 3: swore off it and I knew that wasn't for me,
Speaker 3: So I was like, I'm not checking out for any
Speaker 3: updates on Thesani. But there's a lot of theories running
Speaker 3: around about why the SONI stands out taste wise. The
Speaker 3: main one is that the Coca Cola company adds salt
Speaker 3: like basic table salt to make people thirsty or so
Speaker 3: then they have to buy more to Sani.
Speaker 2: No way, come on, Yeah, we.
Speaker 5: Got the Soni.
Speaker 6: Now that Sony has magnesium sulfate and potassium chloride, But
Speaker 6: that's not even the worst part, because the Sani also
Speaker 6: has salt as design to.
Speaker 5: Make your mouth dry.
Speaker 6: And this is why every fast food restaurant sells to Sony,
Speaker 6: because if your mouth gets dry, you're just gonna buy
Speaker 6: another one, which makes the Sani in that restaurant more money.
Speaker 5: Y'all stay conscious?
Speaker 1: Who is that from info Wars.
Speaker 3: It's like kind of a prevailed that's kind of the
Speaker 3: prevailing theory on write it and TikTok And but then
Speaker 3: why would you.
Speaker 5: That works against it though, because then you're you're a
Speaker 5: whole it's a bad product. Yeah, if that's the whole
Speaker 5: thing that you're doing, then you're saying that people are
Speaker 5: going to drink my product, not be satisfied by my product,
Speaker 5: and hopefully buy more of my.
Speaker 3: Product, especially when it's like waters in most cases there's options.
Speaker 1: Yes, why would you make it so that, like if
Speaker 1: there was a water monopoly, I could.
Speaker 3: See, yes, exactly right, Yeah, But did you guys know
Speaker 3: that last year in twenty twenty four, Coca Cola to
Speaker 3: Sony's parent company, changed to the Sony formula. So do
Speaker 3: SONI today is different than what we used to have.
Speaker 5: This is exactly what I'm talking about. And this is
Speaker 5: going back to the earlier point. This is the biggest
Speaker 5: difference between the Sani. I would say Aquafina is in
Speaker 5: this camp as well and the other waters. If you
Speaker 5: told me Poland spring had a formula, I smack you
Speaker 5: in your face. What you means a formula. This is
Speaker 5: a spring, this comes from This is God's work. What
Speaker 5: are you talking about?
Speaker 1: That is a good question. What is a water formula?
Speaker 5: Formula?
Speaker 4: Right?
Speaker 1: But they're just like preserved Sani and Aquafina.
Speaker 5: They both have a like y'all did something in the
Speaker 5: lab to this. I don't think it's so, but it
Speaker 5: tastes like a soda company made water.
Speaker 2: All right. Well, I'm not a water expert. I'm simply
Speaker 2: a fan. So after the break, we're gonna find out.
Speaker 3: I'm gonna talk to some water experts, all.
Speaker 2: Right, and we're back.
Speaker 3: So I spoke to two water experts to get some
Speaker 3: intel on the Desni problem.
Speaker 2: My name is Johnny.
Speaker 7: Johnny Poujol started a company called tap Score about a
Speaker 7: little less than ten years ago, and we decided we
Speaker 7: wanted to make it really easy for people to test
Speaker 7: their drinking water at home.
Speaker 3: Johnny describes his company tap Score as the twenty three
Speaker 3: and meters of drinking water. So obviously their focus isn't
Speaker 3: on bottled water. It's more like you know your tap
Speaker 3: and water health and safety in that way.
Speaker 2: And here's my second expert.
Speaker 4: Hello, my name is Martin Reason. I'm your personal water somebody. Yes,
Speaker 4: I drink water professionally, and I like to hydrate people
Speaker 4: and bring water effects to people and like to debunk
Speaker 4: a lot of water mysteries.
Speaker 3: So that's Marian and the s is a water samelier.
Speaker 1: I wasn't expecting that accent. That's beautiful.
Speaker 3: So I asked these gentlemen to lay out what factors
Speaker 3: impact water taste, and as you can guess, it's a
Speaker 3: lot of different things.
Speaker 7: When you look at water quality and the taste and smells,
Speaker 7: it's broken down into things like salts and minerals. Dissolved
Speaker 7: gases like CO two obviously has a big influence, but
Speaker 7: oxygen can have an influence. You've got organic properties of
Speaker 7: the water or carbon hydrogen bonds in the water. Pulvic
Speaker 7: acids and humic acids are a major component there. You
Speaker 7: really shouldn't have a lot of microbial tastes and odors
Speaker 7: in bobbled water, but it does happen, especially with untreated waters.
Speaker 7: And then you have maybe the most kind of ubiquitously
Speaker 7: known and perhaps most notorious concerns like metals, iron, arsenic, copper, zinc, aluminum.
Speaker 7: These can all impart significant flavor to the water, whether
Speaker 7: they are present as salts or in some other format,
Speaker 7: they're gonna have usually kind of metallic or various tastes.
Speaker 3: And then you got things like more general properties like
Speaker 3: TVs and pH.
Speaker 7: Anyway, long story short, there's like different components to both
Speaker 7: the smell and taste wheel of bottled water, bloss of utility.
Speaker 3: Water, drinking water, well water in general, and drilling down
Speaker 3: into just bottled water.
Speaker 4: So not all bottled water are created equally one water brands.
Speaker 4: They're coming from other nature like spring waters and mineral waters.
Speaker 4: That means these waters getting their unique taste profiled due
Speaker 4: to nature. Was water's universal solvent, it will pour minerality
Speaker 4: out of the soil layers. On the other hand, you
Speaker 4: have water brands when it's called purified water or distilled
Speaker 4: water vapor distilled waters. These are water brands to most
Speaker 4: of the times coming from our taps. They're using the
Speaker 4: tap water as a base, filtering everything out and then
Speaker 4: adding back some minerals whatever the formulation is what they
Speaker 4: thought in a lap will be tasting good. So yes,
Speaker 4: these waters as well have minerals dissolved, but by mankind
Speaker 4: designed versus spring waters natures designed. That's a big two differences.
Speaker 3: Devon's making a very concerned and confused face. Let me
Speaker 3: simplify that a little bit and kind of reiterate. So
Speaker 3: there's basically two kind of groups we can break these into.
Speaker 3: So there's like spring in mineral waters, where the bottlers
Speaker 3: take the water from a natural spring or other source
Speaker 3: and basically just filter out enough to clean the water
Speaker 3: to make sure there's not any you know, bacteria or
Speaker 3: other dir other things in there, but keep all the
Speaker 3: natural minerals that sort of thing. And on the other hand,
Speaker 3: there's purified waters where they distill everything this water probably
Speaker 3: comes from a tap in their lab, strip everything out
Speaker 3: so there's nothing in it and then add stuff back in.
Speaker 2: To build that flavor profile.
Speaker 3: So what you guys were saying earlier before the break,
Speaker 3: we're talking about formulas. There are formulas, and they're trying
Speaker 3: to build taste. Because if you just had distilled water,
Speaker 3: which they say well for you know things, but we
Speaker 3: don't really drink it, would I don't think it would
Speaker 3: like linger in your mouth at all and probably wouldn't
Speaker 3: be very thirst quenching.
Speaker 5: Mm Okay, I do see this thing like half the
Speaker 5: products I use at home, like you should put the
Speaker 5: you should use to steal the water with. Yeah, I'm like,
Speaker 5: I'm just gonna put the water from the tap. It's
Speaker 5: crazy to me to think about. I guess this makes sense,
Speaker 5: but like I'm buying bottled water, which is you're taking
Speaker 5: water from the tap and then putting it in a
Speaker 5: bottle and then selling it to me. It makes sense.
Speaker 5: It's just weird to think of, like you know, Coca
Speaker 5: Cola being like turn on the tap and the same
Speaker 5: water we're getting in our houses. They're like stuff and
Speaker 5: then adding some stuff to it. Yeah, I just assume
Speaker 5: they all got it from some sort of water source
Speaker 5: and then their treatment was different of it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, that's what I thought too. So some examples
Speaker 3: eavy on Fiji and our goat pull and spring. Those
Speaker 3: are the former, so those are natural spring mineral waters,
Speaker 3: and then aquafine assentia and of course DESIGNI.
Speaker 2: They're the latter. So those are you know, lab design.
Speaker 3: They're starting basically, you're starting at the top or you're
Speaker 3: starting at the bottom and then finding your middle ground somewhere.
Speaker 1: I'm kind of surprised by the fact that these companies
Speaker 1: are taking not just taking tap water, but purifying it
Speaker 1: and then trying to make it taste like anything specific,
Speaker 1: trying to design the tastes. That's kind of mind belonged
Speaker 1: to me.
Speaker 5: Yeah, imagine being a water taste tester.
Speaker 2: Yeah, oh my god.
Speaker 1: You know, some people can't even tell the difference between
Speaker 1: coke and PEPSI. Now, these people in the labs are
Speaker 1: changing like the tiniest Yeah, you.
Speaker 2: Know, crazy.
Speaker 3: Before we get into kind of more about taste and flavor,
Speaker 3: I'm to zoom out a bit. Humans aren't the best tasters,
Speaker 3: and our taste receptors are changing all the time.
Speaker 2: Like long term, it's like why.
Speaker 3: Kids like sweets and then as you grow up you
Speaker 3: develop more of a taste for different flavor is like
Speaker 3: you might like vegetables now that you didn't before.
Speaker 2: Throw back to our recent episode on picky eating.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and even like on a short term timeline, Martin said,
Speaker 3: like every ten days, our taste receptors are new. But
Speaker 3: then also I think things like what you ate today
Speaker 3: is going to impact how you things taste to you,
Speaker 3: like water other things, especially because water is taking, pulling
Speaker 3: everything and then breaking it up is how these guys
Speaker 3: describe it.
Speaker 1: Just to kind of reiterate your guys's thoughts that I've
Speaker 1: that I didn't understand at the beginning of this episode,
Speaker 1: there are discernible distinguishable tastes from bottle to bottle, from
Speaker 1: brand to brand.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think, so we'll do a taste test later
Speaker 3: with different types. But yeah, I think I think it
Speaker 3: is the sort of thing where there's enough of a
Speaker 3: difference where not dramatically, and I don't think most people
Speaker 3: are gonna have very strong reactions except for maybe something
Speaker 3: like a desagni yes, right, but I think that's also
Speaker 3: like you get used to it. So actually, this next
Speaker 3: bit I want to play for Martin kind of goes
Speaker 3: into that a little bit, talking about difference between taste
Speaker 3: and flavor.
Speaker 4: So first of all, we don't have the golden palette
Speaker 4: because it's changing all the time. Second, taste and flavor.
Speaker 4: Taste is what I just told you, what I can
Speaker 4: actually taste. But we do hear this all the time.
Speaker 4: Oh I love this red wine. The strawberry raspberry liquish effects. Yeah,
Speaker 4: there's no strawberry or raspbery in bed. That's the flavor
Speaker 4: of a wine. The flavor is connected with my nose,
Speaker 4: and we all know when I'm sick and my nose
Speaker 4: is completely filled up, I cannot taste anything. So I
Speaker 4: need my smell component as well to actually get the
Speaker 4: flavor out of beverage. And then another thing happened to flavor.
Speaker 4: If you're sitting in a beautiful restaurant with your friends,
Speaker 4: you just met a beautiful new partner, you just won
Speaker 4: the lottery a million dollars. You're drinking this amazing wine.
Speaker 4: You sink one. That's the best wine I ever tasted.
Speaker 4: Two years later, you're in the rain in Brooklyn, your
Speaker 4: your your partner you met for two years ago, told
Speaker 4: the two million dollars you won as well with them.
Speaker 4: You're on the street. You just lost your apartment, you're
Speaker 4: by yourself, but you find the same water, the same
Speaker 4: wine supply in a grocery store. You drink this out
Speaker 4: of a paper cup, it will it will be one
Speaker 4: of the worst wines you ever tasted. It's the same wine.
Speaker 4: So flavor is the surrounding even where we are. And
Speaker 4: that's the reason a lot of times tap water will
Speaker 4: win against bottled water. This has nothing to do with quality.
Speaker 4: This is just because you grew up on that particular
Speaker 4: tap water. Your brain tells you that is the taste
Speaker 4: of water, because this is how I grew up. This
Speaker 4: was the best taste what I always had as water.
Speaker 4: It might be from a quality standpoint, super bad, we
Speaker 4: still think it's amazing. So this whole taste testing, blind
Speaker 4: tasting waters, it's, in my opinion, all you know what,
Speaker 4: it's all playing games.
Speaker 1: Basic ideas that taste is like the constant, but flavor
Speaker 1: depends on what's going on.
Speaker 3: Also the way it intersects with smell too, and other factors.
Speaker 5: So, which is interesting because most water does smell like anything.
Speaker 3: Yeah so but yeah, so like if you're smelling something
Speaker 3: else around it, I guess or you know, or like
Speaker 3: I think this is where something like the metal can
Speaker 3: versus like he says, a paper cup versus glass. Yeah,
Speaker 3: or factor.
Speaker 1: If I just got done playing soccer, you know whatever
Speaker 1: water I drink is going to be incredible because I
Speaker 1: neat my body, Yeah, versus the same water the next day,
Speaker 1: maybe it won't be as good.
Speaker 3: All right, So I didn't want to waste these guys time.
Speaker 3: These are important water experts.
Speaker 5: I think I'll get back to talking about water so much.
Speaker 3: So I had to know why Desndy got such a
Speaker 3: bad rap.
Speaker 2: Hmm, I said, straight up, just tell me, do they
Speaker 2: really add salt to their water?
Speaker 5: Oh?
Speaker 2: And the short.
Speaker 3: Answer is yes.
Speaker 2: Oh, but it's not so simple.
Speaker 7: Yeah, there's a lot of misconception on salt because we're
Speaker 7: all comfortable familiar with using sodium table salt, right, But
Speaker 7: you can have salts of all different types. You can
Speaker 7: have potassium salts and they'll taste different than sodium salt's
Speaker 7: table salt, and so it will still have many the
Speaker 7: same properties of a salt. It's rapid dissociation, but it
Speaker 7: will taste differently. So when we talk about salts, we should,
Speaker 7: in any better world, all be somehow you know, remember
Speaker 7: chemistry one oh one. And we would remember that there's
Speaker 7: different types of salt, and the type of salt matters
Speaker 7: to the taste. But you know, understandably got other priorities.
Speaker 7: When we talk about salts, we usually just say salt,
Speaker 7: but yeah, there's many different types of salts and they
Speaker 7: have different flavors.
Speaker 4: And now let's come to the fact that minerals are
Speaker 4: salts and salts are electrolytes. So somehow, and I don't
Speaker 4: know why people getting a little confused about that, because
Speaker 4: the same people who are hating Dazani, well they're adding
Speaker 4: the salt to make your thirst year will buy smart Water, Well,
Speaker 4: they're adding electro lights. Sodium is an electro light. That
Speaker 4: is what it's in Dazagni. The TTS that means total
Speaker 4: the soft sort of the overall millicomposition is even the
Speaker 4: same by Doazanni and smart Water. There's barely anything in
Speaker 4: there because the TTS of smart Water is twenty eight
Speaker 4: and the last time I checked Doazanni is twenty seven.
Speaker 1: So it's like the conspiracy theorists were right, like on accident.
Speaker 3: Yeah, they're right in the sense that Thesani did have
Speaker 3: what we would call table saw in their formula, but
Speaker 3: that wasn't unusual.
Speaker 1: It's funny the idea of conspiracy theorists being right on accident,
Speaker 1: like if you thought, if you thought like the CIA
Speaker 1: killed JFK. But it turns out it was like a
Speaker 1: guy named like Chris Ian Alexander Year.
Speaker 3: After all of these salt theories and backlash, Desani did
Speaker 3: change their formula, like I said, and their label now
Speaker 3: proudly says now without salt asterisk as the old version
Speaker 3: did have. You could look at the ingredients and it said,
Speaker 3: you know, it's all these everythings and it had salt
Speaker 3: on it.
Speaker 1: That is the funniest, like corporate ready to say something
Speaker 1: now without salt ash.
Speaker 3: So then mariin the water some of the a he
Speaker 3: has some critiques of this new DESIGNI.
Speaker 4: What I think my theory is actually the wrong way.
Speaker 4: It's the other way around. They need to add more
Speaker 4: salt to make the water actually tastey good. It's the
Speaker 4: same like you cook in your soup. No salt in
Speaker 4: your soup not good taste. Too much salt not good taste.
Speaker 4: You need to find a sweet spot. So the Dazagni
Speaker 4: problem is what everybody thinking they're getting thirstier for this
Speaker 4: dry mouth field. So you drink Dazani and you have
Speaker 4: this dry mouthfield on your palate, and you think, like
Speaker 4: that's weird. I just drunk water. They should not be
Speaker 4: a dry mouth field. That actually happens to all waters
Speaker 4: when they're very low in minerality white, because again water
Speaker 4: is universe, is solvent. There's barely any minerals. As often
Speaker 4: that water, it will find minerals in your sliver, it
Speaker 4: will pull off from your sliver or all these minerals,
Speaker 4: and now you have this dry mouthfeel afterwards. So I
Speaker 4: can fix Dazani for Warracola happy when they're reaching out
Speaker 4: to me. I can actually fix it to make it
Speaker 4: very good tasting. But they choose, as a billion dollar
Speaker 4: company to go the reddid way to listen to conspiracy
Speaker 4: theorists that they're adding salt to make it the water
Speaker 4: people thirst year. What is actually the opposite? That is
Speaker 4: a crazy path, that is an insane pub. When I
Speaker 4: saw the new DESIGNI I could not believe that a
Speaker 4: company like Covra Cola believes conspiracy theorists quite interesting.
Speaker 3: So he thinks the Sanni is even worse now with
Speaker 3: the new formula. He told me he reached out to
Speaker 3: Coca Cola to discuss the new formula, but they said
Speaker 3: it's a trade secret.
Speaker 4: They told me it's a secret. It's like a secret.
Speaker 4: A recipe in water is a secret. Dazani is as
Speaker 4: like it's like short Knox, I need to like, really,
Speaker 4: you're not allowed to be on the same plane. Who
Speaker 4: knows the formulation of darzani? Really that's not a flex.
Speaker 4: I'm sorry, I was laughing. I was like, I cannot
Speaker 4: believe you guys telling me this. I like, this is
Speaker 4: this is completely insane. Light Now like everybody with like
Speaker 4: a with's like an easy like an easy let can
Speaker 4: figure out immediately what's in there. I figured out by
Speaker 4: myself with that five dollars divide how much TDS that
Speaker 4: water has. So to tell me it's a recipe secret,
Speaker 4: completely nonsense, to.
Speaker 1: Be honest, that is it is hilarious concept of like who,
Speaker 1: like what would I do if I did know the
Speaker 1: recipe with you?
Speaker 3: So luckily for us, Johnny's company, tap Score ran an
Speaker 3: analysis of the new Desaanni and here's what they found.
Speaker 3: So compared to the old version, the pH chloride and
Speaker 3: potassium levels went up, while the sodium went down. So
Speaker 3: while they did add salt with the potassium, which is
Speaker 3: also an electrolyte, they cut the sodium to fix the
Speaker 3: table saw issue from the conspiracy theorists, and higher pH
Speaker 3: levels may also make for a smoother taste. That's basically
Speaker 3: where we're at now.
Speaker 5: So Martin's criticism is like, hey, you guys are letting
Speaker 5: the you know, the Reddit public perception of your brand
Speaker 5: dictate what you're doing with your formula versus just trying
Speaker 5: to make the thing taste as good as possible. In
Speaker 5: being like, Reddit's not going to decide what this thing
Speaker 5: tastes like.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that seems to be his main contention, where it's like,
Speaker 3: the issue isn't that there's salt in the water, It's
Speaker 3: about finding the right balance with other flavors or other
Speaker 3: factors that can make it make it taste better.
Speaker 5: I agree, but I also disagree. I think part of
Speaker 5: the issue is that it's a little too late that
Speaker 5: the SNY is trying to do something, so everyone has
Speaker 5: a preconceived notion of like the SANI sucks, so like
Speaker 5: they need to change something. And if we think it's
Speaker 5: you know, where our mouths are dry, If we think
Speaker 5: it has less salt, then maybe that's better, even if
Speaker 5: that's not actually the case.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 5: The issue now is just, yeah, there's just a public
Speaker 5: perception of them, and they're just gonna do whatever they
Speaker 5: need to change the public perception, even if that's not
Speaker 5: actually making it taste better.
Speaker 3: Yeah, because like I mean, like I said, I haven't
Speaker 3: touched with Sonny in years. I didn't know about this
Speaker 3: formula change, and in my head it wasn't a saltiness.
Speaker 3: Though maybe if I had done a real close tasting
Speaker 3: of it, I would have thought that. So then if
Speaker 3: I had that on my head and I saw the
Speaker 3: new thing that says no slaw added asterisk, yeah, maybe
Speaker 3: I'd give it a shot.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I'm thinking as a marketing guy, if I had
Speaker 5: to signal to somebody that this water is different, you
Speaker 5: have to put new formula on a bottle of water,
Speaker 5: because then you're like, what form Yeah right, it's like
Speaker 5: we took out the salt. That's one thing, but like
Speaker 5: new formula.
Speaker 3: Yeah, a lot of new questions for people who don't
Speaker 3: know about these things.
Speaker 1: So basically, Desagny made changes to its formula to address
Speaker 1: a specific complaint by consumers, but the consumers didn't understand
Speaker 1: why it tasted weird to them. So they basically made
Speaker 1: a big change to appease people. But the change doesn't
Speaker 1: it's not science bad, make it better.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they just did it, which.
Speaker 5: Seems to be a recurring issue. And you know in
Speaker 5: this podcast is people responding to critics, but not not
Speaker 5: ye listening to science.
Speaker 3: So to sum up, the Sauni did indeed add salt
Speaker 3: to their water. But this isn't unusual. It wasn't a
Speaker 3: conspiracy to get you to buy more water. Yeah, and
Speaker 3: they still add salt, just different salts.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 3: All of that said, Martin thinks Coca Cola made this
Speaker 3: formula change in part to fight back against those allegations.
Speaker 5: And to be fair, we don't know if that's the case. Yeah,
Speaker 5: we don't know, speculating So that's that's.
Speaker 3: The basic answers, the basic question of why do Saanny
Speaker 3: tastes different than other waters? Yeah, but now I think
Speaker 3: we need to do a little tastest ourselves and see
Speaker 3: if we notice anything. So after the break, let's do
Speaker 3: a little blind taste test to see how Desni fares.
Speaker 1: I'm Manny, I'm Noah, and it's time for a taste
Speaker 1: test for a test. We're going to taste three waters
Speaker 1: of various TDS levels.
Speaker 3: TDS stands for total dissolved solids.
Speaker 2: This measures the dissolved.
Speaker 3: Combined content of inorganic and organic substances in a liquid.
Speaker 3: This includes things like calcium, phosphates, sodium, potassium chloride, and more.
Speaker 3: TDS is measured in parts per million. We're going to
Speaker 3: compare distilled water, which of course has absolutely nothing in it,
Speaker 3: so that's totally stripped down, should taste like pure nothing.
Speaker 3: Number two designy so that's a purified water with a
Speaker 3: measure TDS total dissolved sidellids around twenty five. And number
Speaker 3: three is evy on, which is a natural spring water,
Speaker 3: and that has a TDS of three p forty, so
Speaker 3: we should be able to taste the stuff going on
Speaker 3: in there, so the natural minerals that sort of thing.
Speaker 5: And then just to clarify, the stale water has a
Speaker 5: TDS of zero. Yes, that's the most pure exactly.
Speaker 3: Okay, yeah, okay, So we'll see how sensitive our palates
Speaker 3: are to see if we can guess which ones which for.
Speaker 5: The audience, we do not know which is which will
Speaker 5: be revealed.
Speaker 3: By fance rebottled these waters into other bottles labeled them
Speaker 3: and gave me our key that I'll be revealing afterwards. Okay,
Speaker 3: don't know this either, So let's start with a and
Speaker 3: per our experts instructions, we're going to have the stuff
Speaker 3: at room temperature, since ice or colder temperatures can number
Speaker 3: senses a bit.
Speaker 2: Oh so we want the real flavor.
Speaker 3: Gosh, and we're drinking out of wineglasses, so you know
Speaker 3: the water can open up and you know, really breathe
Speaker 3: a little bit crazy.
Speaker 5: Okay, so this is a cheers following cheers cheers.
Speaker 2: Okay, I mean it tastes like water.
Speaker 3: I'm not getting a lot.
Speaker 2: Of flavor in the no.
Speaker 5: I feel like this is distilled.
Speaker 3: I know, first I don't know, but then I'm I'm
Speaker 3: kind of like in there, maybe I might think this
Speaker 3: is the san I mean, I'm looking for like salt, now.
Speaker 5: You know what this is?
Speaker 3: Trying to think how long it's lingering in my mouth?
Speaker 3: I think it's I'll say it's it's not bad. I'm
Speaker 3: not loving it, though, I feel like the distilled is
Speaker 3: gonna be a'm I'm looking.
Speaker 1: I don't like this. I'm looking for, you know, for
Speaker 1: my own preference. I have like a crispi er fresher.
Speaker 1: You know, I want less taste based on how you
Speaker 1: guys hate Dashani. I think this is the SON.
Speaker 5: I think it's that's my guess.
Speaker 2: I know. I think I'll go to SONI too.
Speaker 5: Okay, all right, so.
Speaker 2: We're gonna move on to B.
Speaker 1: All right, a little less funky.
Speaker 5: To me, I'm not.
Speaker 1: Getting much from any.
Speaker 3: Maybe this is distilled.
Speaker 5: I think this may be distilled.
Speaker 3: I think I'm not tasting anything, and it feels like
Speaker 3: it's disappearing really fast. Yeah, I think, But it's not
Speaker 3: so far off from the A.
Speaker 2: So that's why I think B is distilled.
Speaker 3: I think now it's like better be crazy. I guess
Speaker 3: we get.
Speaker 5: But this feels like distilled.
Speaker 1: To me. This had less taste than the previous one.
Speaker 5: Yeah, and my mouth feels less different. Yeah, exactly, Like it.
Speaker 3: Feels like as soon as I swallow, it's gone, it's.
Speaker 2: Gone bottle boom. So all right, B we think is distilled.
Speaker 2: All right, now we're having C.
Speaker 5: All right, you're C Yeah, mmm mm hmmm.
Speaker 1: Is this one like creamier almost?
Speaker 2: I think I think this. I think we got it right.
Speaker 2: I think it's evy on.
Speaker 5: You know what this is crazy because I don't really
Speaker 5: have AVI on so this.
Speaker 2: Is I don't really know. And the natural spring, Yeah.
Speaker 5: I think this is because there's nothing I've tasted before.
Speaker 1: So high t d s to me would mean that
Speaker 1: it was it has more of a taste.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, this is like you go to a beautiful spring.
Speaker 3: An opening in the in the woods is the waterfall.
Speaker 3: It's good, go down, put your put your hands, and
Speaker 3: then drink out of it.
Speaker 2: All right, should I read?
Speaker 5: Yeah, let's go to the key.
Speaker 2: All right, let me over the key.
Speaker 5: It's like the Oscar this movement.
Speaker 2: All right.
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, that was B distilled. And see.
Speaker 1: And I'm saying A is the saani, B is avion,
Speaker 1: and C is distilled.
Speaker 2: Alright, folks, the answer.
Speaker 1: Devin and I are right, yeah, damn mean to me,
Speaker 1: the third one tastes the cleanest to me.
Speaker 5: Yes, it tastes the cleanest because it's the most naked.
Speaker 5: Its natural.
Speaker 2: That's how you should be drinking water.
Speaker 5: In my opinion, that's the most refreshing.
Speaker 1: I thought distilled more clean tasting than that.
Speaker 5: No, because it's not. It's not more we're used to drinking.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah, but it's funny too because It's like Evan
Speaker 3: does market itself as like this luxury thing, and it's
Speaker 3: like here we are loving it.
Speaker 5: The purpose of this is can we tell the difference
Speaker 5: between the water and you can? Yeah? Yeah, I'm actually.
Speaker 3: Surprised, honestly that I that we we all have the
Speaker 3: real tell the difference the real heads.
Speaker 1: I feel like we know if a Desaani lawyer is
Speaker 1: listening to this, I actually quite liked.
Speaker 3: It, and listen, We're open to any sponsorships. Hey, Coke,
Speaker 3: I would love Poland Spring sponsorship, but I'm I'm ready
Speaker 3: to convert.
Speaker 5: It's probably more money in the coke world.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't know, it's definitely most likely we do
Speaker 3: end up with a Coke sponsorship. And you're probably gonna
Speaker 3: make us delete this episode. Oh yeah, okay, So now
Speaker 3: that we did the taste test, have either you've been
Speaker 3: converted to sony.
Speaker 1: Converted to.
Speaker 7: No.
Speaker 1: In fact, you know I I at the beginning of this,
Speaker 1: I started as like, how can you.
Speaker 2: Hate and get your agnostic?
Speaker 1: And I don't hate it, but I did notice like, Okay,
Speaker 1: that's tastes so much different than the other ones, and
Speaker 1: I can easily see how someone would not.
Speaker 5: Like that, and It's funny that you know, we picked
Speaker 5: up on that before even you know, Noah told us
Speaker 5: all this information. It's just like the Sani felt like
Speaker 5: it was trying to be someone that is not you know,
Speaker 5: like I would rather designy almost just be distilled water,
Speaker 5: just like, don't add anything to it, just be straight
Speaker 5: up because you're not spring, but you're trying to trick
Speaker 5: me a little bit into being spring. Sure, you're in
Speaker 5: this weird in between. It just makes me feel great
Speaker 5: about my choices in life. It makes me feel validated. Yeah,
Speaker 5: I feel validated, you know, I because I am somebody
Speaker 5: similar to you know. If I go and I don't
Speaker 5: see the type of water that I want, I just
Speaker 5: get something else, and so I will continue formula. Apologies
Speaker 5: to the signing, but it's not for me. I'm sticking
Speaker 5: with my Poland springs. Maybe I'll even get you know,
Speaker 5: it's my first time have an ammon in quite some time. Yeah,
Speaker 5: maybe I'm a Maybe I have a couple more dollars,
Speaker 5: you know, make a while, Yeah, and you get a
Speaker 5: little more expensive one.
Speaker 3: Now that I know the process stuff, I think I'll
Speaker 3: probably try to buy a spring water just because I
Speaker 3: know I like that already, I'll say, though the designy
Speaker 3: wasn't as bad, So I don't know if it's because
Speaker 3: the formula change or or just the setting room. So
Speaker 3: I can't say I would never buy a DESAGNI like
Speaker 3: I think maybe if I'm in a situation where I'm thirsty,
Speaker 3: I need the water, and I go to the venue
Speaker 3: machine and it's only Dasani, I'll say this, I'll give
Speaker 3: it a shot. I'm not going to prioritize the sony
Speaker 3: or any kind of purified one, to be honest, like,
Speaker 3: I like the spring.
Speaker 2: I like the idea of this.
Speaker 5: I like to taste spring or dot.
Speaker 2: Spring, spring or die. All right, thanks for listening to
Speaker 2: no such thing.
Speaker 3: The show is produced by Noah Friedman, Devin Joseph, and
Speaker 3: Manny Fidel.
Speaker 2: Theme music is by Manny.
Speaker 3: Additional research of this episode by Scott Davis, and our
Speaker 3: guests were Johnny Poujol and Martin Reese.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much.
Speaker 3: For more information, please subscribe to our newsletter at www
Speaker 3: dot nosuch Thing dot show. And if you have any
Speaker 3: feedback or have an argument you want us to settle,
Speaker 3: shoot us an email at Manny Noah Deevin at gmail
Speaker 3: dot com that's d E v A n. Lastly, if
Speaker 3: you like the show, please give us a five star
Speaker 3: rating and write a nice review. And just a quick
Speaker 3: heads up, you can now tell Alexa to play the
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Speaker 2: Thanks and stay hydrated.
Speaker 3: We'll see you next week.
Speaker 1: Att