SOMETIMES, when I see cool new things I think about the boardroom of marketing execs that put that idea together.

I picture the boss coming in with a problem and a group of people sitting around a table twiddling their thumbs and chewing their pen lid until one of them has a lightbulb moment and starts scribbling down ideas on a giant flipboard.

I assume something similar happened when the people behind Air Up got together for the first time. The boss said: “Let’s all think of ways we can get people to drink more water without adding a load of nasty stuff to it.”

Bingo – Air Up was born.

If you’ve been on social media in the last couple of months, then you’d have seen it taking over your feeds.

If you haven’t heard of it, to put it simply: Air Up makes your tap water taste like flavoured water without adding a thing.

All you need is a donut-shaped pod which doesn't taste like anything but is super smelly and fits over the top of your straw. 

The smell of the pod is meant to trick your brain into thinking you’re drinking flavoured water when in fact, you’re just drinking normal plain boring water from the tap.

I won’t pretend I’m clued up on the science behind it all, but have you ever eaten something you thought tasted horrible and held your nostrils together – like celebrities do when they’re forced to eat an eyeball on I’m A Celebrity.

It’s the same idea but instead of covering your nose to stop being able to taste it, you’re doing the opposite: smelling something on purpose so that you can taste it.

In fact, the idea is so simple – making your water smell like cola to trick your brain into thinking its cola – that I’m pretty sure the team of marketing execs in that boardroom laughed at the idea initially too.

It really is like something out of Charlie and The Chocolate Factory – but is it too good to be true?

On a mission to find out and armed with a cola flavoured pod, I put it to the test.

Here's what happened:

Wait, there's more:

Initially, I wasn’t convinced.

But as you can see, I did it wrong. Oops.

I didn’t read the instructions in full but when I did – it worked, strangely.

It’s not quite how you think it’s going to be. It’s really hard to explain but it does take a couple of sips to get used to.

Have you ever had really weak fruit-infused water or fruit tea – they both have striking similarities to this in the same way that it doesn’t taste plain or boring but it’s not full pf flavour and sugar. We all know that fruit tea smells much better than it tastes.  

The pods can last for around a week – I’m on half a week and the cola is still going. Every time I fill up my bottle I am shocked it still works. The only thing I don’t enjoy is having cola flavoured water with my breakfast. 

But even just testing out the pod for this story I’ve had around 10 bottles of the water – to check it’s all legitimate. This is more tap water than I’ve had all year. I wish I was joking.

There’s only one other thing I don’t like and it’s the sound. I’ve fiddled around with the straw countless times and there’s a little hole in the top bit. Unsure if this is part of the design, I took to TikTok to listen to people drinking Air Up and to see if I was alone. Turns out I’m not. It’s strange though – maybe the hole in the straw has something to do with the magic?