Hate Drinking Water? These Scented Cups Could Do the Trick. The fruity invention enlists your nose to fool your tongue, and its makers say it's totally safe.
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
If you're trying to kick the soda habit and drink more water instead, The Right Cup for you might have just come along on Indiegogo.
Isaac Lavi, aka "Dr. Scent," is banking on it. After six years of prototype and patent yoga, the Israeli inventor-entrepreneur has created a fruit-scented (and -flavored) line of plastic cups that play games with your head. They trick your nose into thinking the plain water you're drinking is a sugary-sweet libation, minus the calories and guilt. All you have to do is pour water in them and drink up.
Billed as The Right Cup (we weren't just being cute), the product is closing in on its $50,000 crowdfunding funding goal, with all of 29 days left to go. Only three days into the campaign, as of press time, some $48,000 has already been raised.
Related: This Designer Water-Bottle Startup Is Making Millions Thanks to a Shrewd Merchandising Strategy
Lavi hopes the aromatic cup will entice people to drink more water and, ultimately, help curb obesity and diabetes (Lavi himself was diagnosed with diabetes at age 30). The mind over matter magic is in the cup's brightly colored rim, which is infused with FDA-approved fruit flavors and scents commonly found in sweetened drinks. Have your pick. They come in orange, mixed berry, lemon-lime and apple.
Related: Don't Drink Enough Water? This Water Bottle Will Remind You.
The cup's curved lip, which, yep, has food-grade flavors baked right into it, is designed to position your nose right over the opening (uh, like regular, old cups, we think?). This, Lavi claims, makes your sniffer pick up "the aroma while your tongue flirts with a hint of sweet taste." Merely a flirty hint, mind you. Make that a carb-, preservative- and sugar-free hint, apparently just enough to make you think the water inside tastes like juice.
We'd love to try these clever cups on our kids, the pickiest peck of critics, to see if Lavi's claim holds water. If it does, we're all in, especially because the cups are BPA free.
If the fruity cups hit their funding goal, and it looks like they will any minute, they're slated to ship out to Indiegogo backers in April 2016. If you want to sweetly sip "Adam's ale" from your own The Right Cup, hold your wallet, you'll have to part with $78 for four, $39 for two and $25 for one.
