It goes without saying that staying hydrated is critical to one’s general well-being. Although, I suppose the flavour or lack thereof of plain water, on the other hand, is not to everyone’s liking.
With this in mind, Mio may be just what you’re searching for all in one bundle.
In a nutshell, most MiO products are caffeine-free, sweetened artificially, and fortified with vitamins B3, B6, and B12. In addition to 60mg of caffeine per serving, the MiO Energy product line features taurine, and guarana, among other things perfect for an energy blend.
But are they all you could possibly ask for?
Discover what Mio has to offer in this article I made.
What is Mio Energy Water Enhancer?
Mio Energy Water Enhancer is a liquid concentrate that is supposed to be mixed into water or sparkling water, in order to enhance the taste. It contains 60mg of caffeine per squeeze, but other than that, there are no significant differences compared to the original water enhancer.
Mio Energy Water Enhancer comes in 2 different product lines – the regular energy enhancer, and the coffee flavours.
Mio comes in three types – the Water Enhancer, Mio Energy, and Mio Vitamins, which are all supposed to enhance normal water.
As of 2019, Mio also launched a line of powdered beverages to complement their existing products.
Mio bottles are all the same size across the board, 1.62 fl. oz of liquid.
Where is Mio Energy Water Enhancer made?
Mio Liquid Water Enhancer is made by Kraft Foods, a company perhaps more well known for its products such as Jell-O, Kool-Aid, Kraft (mostly dairy products like Kraft Singles), Philadelphia Cream Cheese, and Velveeta.
The company is based in Chicago, Illinois.
Mio Energy Water Enhancer Ingredients
For a brief, here’s what typically goes inside Mio Energy Water Enhancer.
|
Content |
Amount |
|
Calories |
0 g |
|
Total Fat |
0 g |
|
Sodium |
0 g |
|
Total Carbohydrates |
0 g |
|
Sugar |
0 g |
|
Protein |
0 g |
From there, I think you could very well conclude that it is not a significant source of calories from fat, saturated fat, trans fat, cholesterol, dietary fibre, vitamin A, vitamin C, calcium, and iron.
However, it also contains trace amounts of:
- Water
- Malic Acid
- Citric Acid
- less than 2% of natural flavour
- Sucralose
- Acesulfame Potassium
- Potassium Citrate
- Gum Arabic
- Sucrose Acetate Isobutyrate
- Red 40
- Potassium Sorbate
At first glance, it doesn’t even make sense that this is a real product. Besides some artificial sweeteners and some added acid (not even in big enough amounts to be accounted for in the nutritional facts), what really is in Mio Liquid Water Enhancer besides food colouring?
Again, we have the sweetener culprits, sucralose and acesulfame potassium, which are both not particularly great or beneficial to your health.
In my opinion, you would get a much better taste with some fruit concentrate added to your water, which would help you avoid the artificial sweeteners in Mio.
Mio Energy Water Enhancer Flavours
Mio Energy Water Enhancer offers a plethora of flavours making sure that is very well suited to your own liking. Among them are as follows:
Fruit flavours:
- Wicked Blue Citrus
- Black Cherry
- Tropical Fusion
- Green Thunder
- Strawberry Pineapple Smash
- Acai Berry Storm
Coffee Flavours:
- Iced Vanilla Java
- Iced Mocha Java
I’m quite curious as to whether or not the coffee flavours are like adding a single shot to your drink. Is it meant to be added to water or to actual coffee?
It markets itself as an ‘iced coffee concentrate’, but I’m doubtful whether it actually tastes as good as regular coffee.
Mio Energy Water Enhancer Caffeine Content
Each ‘squeeze’ of Mio Energy Water is supposed to contain 60mg of caffeine.
Given that there are around 18 squeezes per bottle, which come out to about 1080mg of caffeine, this is a really concentrated amount!
With 60mg of caffeine per serving, Mio has much less caffeine than some of the strongest energy drinks on the market.
The best part about Mio is that you can control your intake and how strong you want the drink to be – if you’re not particularly sensitive to caffeine, you could add perhaps 2 to 3 squeezes for a single drink, but they do not recommend you drink the whole thing in one go, for obvious health reasons.
Is Mio Energy Water Enhancer bad for you?
Seeing as there isn’t really much in it, I wouldn’t say that Mio Energy Water Enhancer is completely bad for you.
It isn’t an obvious source of carbs, sugar, or calories, but there are a couple of red flags:
Sucralose
Sucralose is an artificial sweetener that is supposed to replace natural sugars in food and drinks.
Although sucralose has been deemed safe by government authorities, there have been concerns about the side effects that occur after consuming this sweetener.
Sucralose is a simple sugar made from sugar in a chemical process where 3 hydrogen-oxygen groups are replaced with chlorine atoms.
Sucralose has been found to reduce good gut bacteria (the ones that help improve your digestion – this study found that up to 12 weeks after the experiment, the gut bacteria had still not returned).
It can also help you lose weight to some extent if you replace sugar in your diet with sucralose – but not enough evidence about the effects of long-term use of sucralose has been examined.
As with many modern chemicals, there often isn’t enough precedence for scientists and researchers to clearly state that these are side effects that are associated with the chemicals – only data collected over time will tell what effects the chemicals really have on the human body.
Red 40
Although this is a widely used colouring, Red 40 has been shown to have certain compounds, such as benzidine and 4-aminobiphenyl, that research has linked to cancer.
In addition to that, research has also shown that food dyes can impair learning in young children, create allergies, and increase hyperactivity, as well as irritability and aggressiveness.
More research definitely has to be done to determine the exact effects of food dye on children, but so far, the results don’t look very promising.
What is a water flavour enhancer?
A water flavour enhancer is supposed to do just that – enhance the flavour of your water, for those that can’t stand drinking regular water. They usually contain sugar, flavourings, and some colourings as well.
However, does adding Mio to water still count as ‘drinking water?
The short and simple answer is no.
Nothing can really be a true substitute for water, and even though Mio claims that it has ‘0 sugar’, it still contains artificial sweeteners, which affect your body in a whole host of different ways and have been shown to affect your gut bacteria (as in the study linked to above).
Sure, in the long run, it does count as consuming liquid that your body needs, but the flavours, sweeteners, and colourings are not supposed to be put in your body over an extended period of time.
Are water flavour enhancers healthy?
Not particularly. The ‘water’ aspect is certainly good, as it provides you with hydration, but in terms of nutritional value, besides the tiny amounts of vitamins, there isn’t really much there.
These enhancers might have zero calories, but what about the sweeteners? It’s probably a lot healthier to flavour your drinks with actual fruit, which you can do very easily just by getting a water bottle with a built-in infuser- you can add in the fruit of your choice, and your water will be delicious.
If you really want something that’s healthier than most energy drinks and energising at the same time, try REIZE, an energy drink in powder form that contains 1000mg of taurine.
REIZE also contains a sensible amount of caffeine, 50mg per sachet. That’s a refreshing change after trying a lot of energy drinks with 200mg (or more) of caffeine per can.
How much does Mio Energy Water Enhancer cost?
A single container of Mio Energy Water Enhancer costs about $3.79, and a 6 pack of Mio Energy Water costs $32.48.
$3.79 seems like quite a lot to pay for such a small bottle, but if you consider that you can make 18 drinks with one little carton, it comes up to about $0.21 per drink, which isn’t too bad!
I would say that the caffeine content is a little low considering the fact that it doesn’t contain any other energy-boosting ingredients. 60mg is half a cup of coffee, so you would likely need to put two to three squirts in a single drink in order to feel the full effects – as mentioned, caffeine is the only thing it has going for it here, there aren’t any other energy supplements to add to the energy boost.
From my experience, pure caffeine isn’t all that effective an energy boost without the B vitamins, taurine, and all the other good stuff you find in many of the best energy drinks.
Where to buy Mio Energy Water Enhancer?
You can buy Mio Energy Water Enhancer on Amazon, and also on eBay.
If you want to buy it in a physical store, try somewhere like Walgreens, Target, Walmart, or your local gas station.
Mio Energy vs REIZE
Mio and REIZE are more similar than you would think – although one is in liquid form and the other is in powdered form, both are supposed to be mixed into water or sparkling water in order to be consumed.
Caffeine
Mio contains 60mg of caffeine per drink, while REIZE has 50mg of caffeine per serving.
What REIZE lacks in caffeine it makes up for elsewhere, with added vitamins, taurine, and ginseng to give the drink an extra boost and nutritional value.
Mio doesn’t have much nutritional value in comparison, and there doesn’t seem to be much point in adding it to your water in comparison.
Sugar
Mio does not contain any sugar, and neither does REIZE.
Mio uses sucralose, the artificial sweetener, while REIZE uses acesulfame potassium and aspartame, the same combination as another well-known drink, Coke Zero.
Price
REIZE is about $1 for a single drink, but Mio is $3.12 for a bottle, that is supposed to contain 18 servings.
Although REIZE seems more expensive than Mio, I think that REIZE is definitely worth more, as the efficiency levels are the same, but the taste and overall nutritional value are a lot better.
REIZE also gets its energy from taurine, a natural body chemical compound, so it’s not as harmful to your body as just consuming a ton of caffeine and sugar as you’ll find in many energy drinks.
Mio Energy Water Enhancer Review
* All opinions expressed in this review are mine.*
Visuals
The bottle was surprisingly small – I didn’t realize that such a small container could actually have 18 drinks’ worth of liquid in it!
I also thought that the design was really cute – it was like a teardrop, which really tied into the whole idea of it being a water enhancer.
Nice.
The colour of the drink was a really alarming shade of red, that I would actually call neon. Not a fan of putting that into my body, to be honest, but this was all for science. After drinking some of it, there was a distinct red tinge on my teeth but I might have been imagining things.
Taste
Very, very plastic. That’s the only word I can use to describe it. It smelt like a children’s vitamin gummy, and the colour was just as bright.
I didn’t feel like it added anything to the water except an unpleasant sweetness, and it had a really strange sugary aftertaste as well. Honestly, I prefer the taste of water to this strange, barely-flavoured concoction.
I think the sweeteners actually made it worse, rather than better, in this case.
Effect
Not really as effective as I had imagined – about an hour after taking it, I was still yawning and trying to stay awake.
I decided to take a nap anyway and drink a real glass of water after my disappointing experience.
I’m not sure that it actually did much, to be honest, and I wouldn’t really be in a rush to try it again.
Final Roundup
Overall, I don’t think that the taste is great unless you’re a fan of artificial-tasting things.
The effect is not as energising as you would expect, and for the price, you could get a single, efficient and great-tasting energy drink that actually does the job.
Or a few energy drinks if you know where to find some more affordable options.
(Wink wink)
Mio doesn’t particularly give you many health benefits and does not really taste that good, but if you’re bored of your regular water, it’s a way to spice things up.
Alternatives to Mio Energy Water Enhancer
There are lots of great energy drinks on the market. If you’re looking for some ready-to-drink energy drinks that give a bit more energy than Mio, take a look at:
- Monster
- Red Bull
- Rockstar
- Celsius
- XS
- Monster Import (different to the original Monster)
- Rip It
- Bing
- Bang (not to be confused with Bing!)
- Guru
- Xyience
Powdered energy drinks are also an option, and they tend to be more convenient and also more affordable than a lot of the market-leading energy drinks, but with the same great flavour and efficacy:
- Gfuel
- Zipfizz
- Advocare Spark
- REIZE (10 out of 10)
You could also take a look at Vivarin caffeine pills if you are looking for something that’s quick and easy to take. The energy boost may not be up to scratch with some of the above-mentioned energy drinks though.
There are lots of great energy drinks out there that could be a good substitute for Mio. In particular, REIZE is a powdered energy drink that is easy to carry around and to make – just add water.
At 50mg of caffeine, REIZE contains around the same amount of caffeine as a single serving of Mio, but in addition to that, it also contains some other great energy-boosting ingredients.
REIZE (10 out of 10)
REIZE is just as convenient and versatile since you can add it to all types of drinks – soda, hot water, cold water, flavoured juice, it’s up to you.
REIZE ships right to your door for around $1 per drink, more affordable than most energy drinks on the market.
Give REIZE a try today and you might just find that you prefer it to Mio.