Tiktok “water chefs” have people shelling out for mermaid flavored drinks
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Tiktok “water chefs” have people shelling out for mermaid flavored drinks
You can get your water flat, sparkling, from a mountain or spring, and now thanks to a recent TikTok trend, mermaid flavored.
Recipes for flavored waters created by “water chefs” flooded TikTok this spring under the #Watertok. The hashtag is still going strong, with videos promoting hydration by making your water taste like Mountain Dew, cotton candy or a piña colada.
This isn’t the first time flavored water products have gained in popularity. Like earlier decades’ flavored water trends, the popular water recipes are connected to weight loss, hydration and health claims. But Watertok goes beyond promoting a single brand.
Instead, Watertok videos frequently feature $8 syrups alongside $50 tumblers and $500 ice machines to create the soft, yet chewable ice Watertokers call “nugget ice.”
The booming business behind Watertok reflects two larger trends in the beverage industry: social media-started fads and healthier options, said Brian Warrener, the director for the center for beverage education and innovation at Johnson and Wales University. While those trends are sticking around, most beverage trends, like Watertok, don’t last long, said Warrener. And the money pouring in from the viral water recipes is likely to run dry.
But for now, companies like Jordan’s Skinny Mixes still see waves of sales from the trend.
The sugar free syrup company would not confirm revenue figures, but said they sold 20 million bottles last year and added that their fruit syrup business grew 86% from Watertokers.
They partnered with popular influencers like Tonya Spanglo, a Watertoker with 1.2 million followers. Spanglo and other creators have affiliate codes with the syrup company and make commissions off of sales their accounts generate.
Many of Spanglo’s water recipe videos are filmed in front of what she calls her “water bar,” equipped with shelves full of Skinny Syrups and a caddy overflowing with flavor packets.
“I’m using two pumps of unicorn into 40 ounces of water and ice,” Spanglo said in a TikTok. “If you like it less sweet than you use less syrup. If you like it, balls to the wall sweet than baby you use more.”
Today, Spanglo profits from promoting tumblers, syrups and other Watertok products. But she started making drinks to meet her strict water goals after weight loss surgery and posted her first recipe in 2022 to help others with the same hydration requirement.
And then came the views.
“I was like this is about to be a thing. And I was right,” Spanglo said.
When Watertok first started gaining popularity in April, the company ran out of viral flavors like peach and mermaid, said Dana Paris, the chief marketing officer of Jordan’s Skinny Mixes.
TikTok trends often leave businesses to try and catch up to consumer demand, Warrener said.
“It used to be that you’d sit at a big table and decide what was coming next,” Warrener said. “Now you sit there and say, ‘Oops, we better get on this particular trend.’”
Catching up isn’t something brands associated with earlier flavored water trends had to worry about because they were starting the trend themselves.
When low-calorie drink mix brand, Crystal Light began its 1980s ad campaign complete with leotards, leg warmers and “Dynasty” star Linda Evans, the company could anticipate demand and stock grocery store shelves with enough low calorie drink mix to meet the buzz generated from their ads.
But today anyone can create content with brands’ products and brands can’t just rely on TV advertisements to help their products trend, said Jonathan Zhang, an associate professor of marketing at Colorado State University.
That’s partially because virality is hard to predict, Zhang said.
“Companies need to be more adaptive and more agile than before,” Zhang said.
While we can’t know exactly why flavored water mixes made a viral comeback, Watertok’s name alone likely helped the trend’s success, Warrener said.
“Calling a thing water as opposed to calling it Kool Aid I think resonates with consumers,” Warrener said.
Having water in the trend’s hashtag helps consumers associate the products with health, Warrener said.
Similar to how Crystal Lights ads prominently feature ‘80s aerobics gear alongside their beverages.
Not only does Watertok follow earlier flavored-water crazes, dozens of viral drink trends precede the popularity of unicorn water. Recipes for whipped coffee, tutorials on how to stream vodka through a Brita filter, putting olive oil in coffee, that time everyone started drinking coconut water with a spoon and calling it fruit cereal and what seems like hundreds of Starbucks secret menu hacks have already covered people’s “For You” page’s on TikTok.
While those trends may have generated some sales for beverage companies, they didn’t last long.
“I haven’t heard anybody mention drinking a cup of butter coffee in years at this point,” Warrener said, adding that the beverage industry is fickle.
“I can’t imagine that we’re gonna see long-term homemade Almond Joy flavored water being the thing that people are drinking on a regular basis,” Warrener said.
But water recipes might remain popular in the weight loss community that Spanglo posted her first water recipe hoping to reach.
“For the rest of our lives, we’re going to have a water goal that we have to meet every single day. And so for me, I will always make flavored water,” Spanglo said.
She’s already planned her next recipe for water that is crème brulée flavored.
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