I don't have a sweet tooth. Never have. I can — and regularly do — drink a glass of water with the juice of a whole lemon squeezed into it, no sugar, no honey, nothing to take the edge off. A lot of people can't manage that. I quite like it.

Which turns out to be the whole story of this water flavourings review.

I try to drink three litres of water a day — a target that's easy enough in August and a genuine struggle by January. Most of it's already accounted for: a litre to a litre and a half of green tea, no milk, no sugar, and half a litre of water with fresh lemon. That still leaves a litre, sometimes a litre and a half, that needs to go down as water, and plain water and I have a complicated relationship in the colder months.

So: a water flavourings review. Three brands, tried honestly, none of them sent to me, none of them chasing a copy before I'd even opened the box. I bought all three, paid for all three, and I'm telling you what I found.

One thing worth saying before I get into the products themselves: "0% sugar" is a nutritional claim, not a taste claim. It tells you what's not in the drink, not what it tastes like. Manufacturers lean on it because it sounds virtuous, but zero sugar says nothing about sweetness intensity — if anything, sweeteners are often used at concentrations designed to mimic or exceed sugar's sweetness, precisely so the product doesn't taste thin once the sugar's gone. Keep that in mind as you read on.

Bolero — Water Flavouring Powder from Bulgaria

What I paid: €7.40 delivered (24 sachets, Amazon) — about 31 cents a serving.

Made in: Sofia, Bulgaria.

As water flavourings reviews go, this one starts well on paper and disappoints on taste.

Bolero was the first one I tried — stevia-sweetened, sugar-free, sold on "advanced hydration" and a big range of flavours. Mine was the Sticks Mix presentation pack: 24 sachets, assorted flavours, a lot more thought gone into the packaging than a sugar-free drink powder strictly needs.

The problem was the first sip. Made up at the strength the packet suggests, it's far too sweet for me. I ended up making each sachet up into 1.5 litres of water instead of the standard amount, or cutting a full-strength litre with fresh lemon juice to bring it down a notch. Both workarounds made it drinkable. Neither should have been necessary.

At 31 cents a serving it's the cheapest of the three by some distance — so if you're happy tinkering with concentration, at least it's cheap to tinker with. Everything else about Bolero was faultless: delivery was timely, packaging arrived in perfect condition, and if you like your drinks properly sweet you may well get on with it far better than I did. I didn't. I won't be buying it again.

Life Pro Samba — Water Flavouring Powder from Spain

What I paid: €16.98 total — two packs of 12 sachets (€9.80), a branded shaker (€2.20), and €4.99 shipping from Spain. Strip out the shipping and the product itself works out at about 50 cents a serving.

Made in: Spain.

The sweetest product in this water flavourings review, by some margin.

Life Pro is a Spanish brand, and the Samba drinks came with a nice bit of extra kit — a branded shaker alongside the sachets. Mine was Ultra Green flavour: kiwi and lime, sugar-free, low calorie, a source of vitamin C, gluten-free. On paper, what's not to like?

First taste: sweeter than Bolero. Genuinely surprising, given the "sugar free, low calorie" framing on the front of the box. A look at the ingredients explained why — Samba uses two sweeteners together, sucralose and steviol glycosides, rather than Bolero's steviol glycosides alone. Sucralose is intensely sweet gram-for-gram, and stacking two sweeteners is a common way to round out flavour without leaning on sugar — but for someone with my palate, it meant an even bigger mismatch than Bolero, despite arriving under a "healthy for family and friends" banner.

There was no dilution trick that saved this one. Made up at 600ml with a full sachet in the shaker, it went straight in the bin. The shaker, which I didn't need for a product I couldn't drink, is now doing duty elsewhere.

Worth a factual note while I'm on the ingredients: the label carries the standard EU-mandated tartrazine warning ("may have an adverse effect on activity and attention in children"). That's not a criticism specific to Life Pro — it's required wording on any product containing E102 — but it's the kind of thing worth flagging plainly for anyone buying this for family use, given how it's marketed.

As with Bolero, the operational side was fine: packaging was good, delivery was timely. The product itself just isn't for me.

Waterdrop — Water Flavouring Cubes from Austria

What I paid: €36.96 for five boxes of 12 cubes — about 62 cents a serving.

Company: Vienna, Austria. Made in: Germany. Ships from: Czech Republic.

Three countries for one small cube. Make of that what you will.

Getting hold of it was its own small saga, covered in detail elsewhere. The short version: I ordered, waited, chased, waited some more, and eventually it arrived — FedEx, from central Europe, a few weeks later than it should have. The boxes, when they finally landed, are neat little things. Five flavours: Orange, Evergreen Fusion, Mojito, Grapefruit and Apple.

The sweetener is sucralose — the same one that made Life Pro Samba undrinkable for me. I mention this because it matters. Same sweetener, completely different result. Drop a Waterdrop cube into 600ml of water and what you get is palatable — present, flavoured, not the synthetic sugar-hammer of the other two. My working theory is the format: a cube dissolving slowly into water delivers the sweetener at a different concentration and pace than a powder sachet stirred in. Whether that's the whole explanation I can't say with certainty, but something in the delivery mechanism is doing useful work here.

Four of the five flavours passed without comment: Orange, Mojito, Evergreen Fusion, Grapefruit — all fine, all drinkable at 600ml without adjustment. Apple was the outlier, noticeably sweeter than the others, which makes sense. Apple as a flavour has less natural bitterness or citrus acid to push back against the sweetener, so the sucralose sits more exposed. If you share my palate, start with Grapefruit or Mojito. Leave Apple for later, if at all.

The Verdict

Two for three in this water flavourings review, one category observation worth making plainly.

If you don't have a sweet tooth, Bolero and Life Pro Samba are not for you. Bolero is workable with significant dilution — at 31 cents a serving it's the cheapest of the three, so at least it's cheap to work around. Samba isn't workable at all, at any dilution I could find, and at 50 cents a serving for a product that goes straight in the bin it's the worst value of the three regardless of what the price looks like on paper.

Waterdrop is different — not because of the sweetener (it's the same one Samba uses), and not because of the sugar content (all three are zero sugar), but because of the format. The cube delivers its sweetness more gently than a powder sachet, and that difference is enough to make it actually useful. Four out of five flavours I'd buy again. At 62 cents a serving it sits between the other two on price, and unlike the other two it earns it.

The broader point: "zero sugar" and "not sweet" are not the same thing. If you're buying water flavourings because you don't want sweetness, read the ingredients before you commit. The category largely assumes you want something that tastes like a soft drink without the sugar. If you don't — if, like me, you're looking for something that makes plain water marginally more interesting without replacing it with something else entirely — Waterdrop is currently the only one of these three I'd point you towards.

Whether that's a recommendation or a category verdict depends on how many more I try. For now: Waterdrop yes, the other two no, and check the ingredients on anything that calls itself "zero sugar" before it ends up in your bin, and that's the honest conclusion of this water flavourings review.

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