When I was young and didn’t want to take cough medicine my grandma would pinch my nose, pour a spoonful of syrup into my mouth and tell me to swallow. She’d follow the yucky experience with, “See, you didn’t taste anything.”
Makers of The Right Cup are using my grandma’s technique in reverse — rather than cut off scent and therefore taste, this cup adds scent, to trick the brain into tasting something that isn’t there.
The idea is that consumers will drink water over sugary drinks if their nose tells them the water has an appealing flavor.
The company’s website says co-founder and CEO Isaac Lavi was diagnosed with diabetes when he was 30 years old. This led him to conceive of The Right Cup.
>> How it works: Fill the cup with water — tap, mineral or carbonated — and drink. The cups come in five scents/flavors: apple, grape, orange, mixed berry and cola (which one co-worker said smelled a lot like cinnamon). The idea is that with each use, “the brain learns to better understand the taste experience, the result being an increased enhanced flavor experience each time you drink.”
>> Does it work? Well … I love water and 99 percent of the time I will choose it over soda or juice. So while I enjoyed drinking from the orange- scented cup, I can’t say it would make me drink more water. My co-workers could tell they were drinking water and one even craved soda after drinking from the cola-flavored cup. But they only tried the cup once or twice and none of us started with a “clean palate” — the makers suggest cutting out all added sugars and artificial sweeteners from your whole diet two weeks prior to using the cup.
Also, the website notes: “It is important to understand that taste perception is subjective and differs from person to person.”
Since we’re a jaded bunch, I tried the cup on a 2-year-old. She wasn’t fooled, either, and the scented cup couldn’t take the place of her Shopkins cup or other sippy cups.
Lavi did say this isn’t a “miracle cup.” And he stressed that with continued use the brain will associate the cup’s flavor and scents with water, thus making drinking water more enjoyable.
>> Pros: I like the idea that Lavi is trying to make a healthier world. I also enjoyed the refreshing aroma of the orange-scented cup.
>> Cons: It takes a while to retrain the brain. “Aromatic food-grade flavors and ingredients” are added to the cup’s BPA-free plastic, but I didn’t taste any in my samples (orange and cola). Must be hand-washed and stored upside down to preserve the scent and flavor as long as possible. Holds 11 ounces, which is too small for me. I’d need at least a 16-ounce size.
>> Cost and availability: $26.90 plus $4.95 shipping at therightcup.com (economy packages available), $29.95 with free shipping on amazon.com.
>> Worth it?: If you are addicted to sugary drinks and under orders from your doctor to switch to water, the price would be worth paying.
Got a gadget that you love? Curious about one you’d like us to test? Email crave@staradvertiser.com or write Crave, Honolulu Star-Advertiser, 7 Waterfront Plaza, Suite 210, Honolulu 96813.
