“This is a hard product to rate. I'm giving it 5 stars because when I do get it to work it is very refreshing and very enjoyable.
First, let me talk about the water bottle. I love the design. The shape is comfortable in hand, and the texture, as well as the look, of the mat black is very satisfying. The rubber mouth piece and draw from bottle is a wonderful experience. Overall the bottle is great as a standalone bottle, but you have to have the pod in order to use it as normal bottle which I'll touch upon later.
Second, is the pods. I got two great flavors (watch reviews of flavors on YouTube because some are more potent than others), and they're both delicious and refreshing. The idea, in my opinion, is based on what is called aromatic carbons. This system basically fills your mouth with a blast of flavor in hopes that the aromatics are covering the taste receptors in the mouth and the back of the throat. For this to work you need air as well as water to enter the mouth at the same time. This is where I admire the creativeness and simplicity of the implementation. There is a small hole that will line up with the pod when it is in the up/activated position. The hole provides the head of the bottle a way to draw in air through the pod and get water at the same time, and because the hole is located at the top you should get an initial blast before the water hits the mouth. Theoretically this is awesome, but some may not enjoy this. Essentially what ends up happening is you feel as if you're drinking through a straw that has a slit in it because the water sputters into your mouth due to the airflow. I like it because I understand the idea behind it, but others might not expect this.
Now, lets talk about using it and getting the maximum flavor. This product is unique, and I would give it a lower review but you have to play around with how you drink it. I feel like too many individuals are going to expect to drink this like a normal bottle of water and get this tangy, awesome, real flavor and that might not be the case. First, you need to create enough room in your mouth for the aromatics to sufficiently cover enough surface inside the mouth. That means sips or smaller/shorter draws are going to be more enjoyable than longer draws that fill your mouth with water. If you fill your mouth with water you really won't get much flavor or any flavor at all (at least in my case). Second, you have to draw the water into your mouth like you're puffing on a something akin to a cigar. If you "puff" on the water bottle as well as take a breath through your nose you will taste the flavor. What this does is get the flavor in your mouth and attempts to get the flavor to stick to the back of the throat before the water goes down. As a final step I'll take a tiny breath out through my nose to push the scent into my sinuses for a bit more of a flavor experience before I swallow the water. I FOUND THIS WORKS FOR ME, and this was after about two days of figuring out the bottle and how it works.
Essentially the cons come down to experimenting with the bottle to get maximum flavor, and the fact it's going to be a different experience than drinking from a normal water bottle. Oh, and because there is a hole in the straw (by design for the flavor pod), if there is no pod in the down/deactivated position it will not act normal but rather give you that constant sputter. If you run out flavor in your last pod and are waiting for an order you might want to keep that dead one for functionality.
Final verdict is that I f***ing love it after figuring out how to get it to work for myself. I can't put it down. The trick is to get your brain to think you are drinking flavored water, so I'm still trying to figure out how to get it perfect. I can get the flavor to coat my mouth but my brain expects that same mouth feel of the flavor I'm using which is hard to deceive. YOU CAN PUT SPARKLING WATER IN THIS AND AIR UP SAYS SO TOO(some water bottles like the Stanley advise against this, or so I'm told). I found with plain sparkling water (I personally like Canada Dry's plain sparkling water) I can get a better full flavor experience including mouth feel.”
