REVIEW – I am always trying to drink more water, which is not an uncommon goal for many of us. On a painfully hot and humid day, plain old cold water is easy to grab and go to. However, I find it hard to motivate myself in the winter to drink anything cold and water is not on my radar, especially plain water with no flavoring. Enter into the picture the Selah Flavored Water Bottle, an easy and convenient way to add flavoring directly into your water bottle.
What is it?
The Selah water bottle is a water bottle is not an ordinary water bottle. This bottle has 2 compartments that can be loaded with flavor pods to create your custom beverage with just a push of a button. Selah’s mission is to help you drink more water while reducing your carbon footprint.
What’s included?
- 1 Selah 20 oz water bottle (pink)
- 9 flavor pods
- Quickstart tips card
Design and features
The Selah Flavored Water Bottle, BPA-free and dishwasher safe (top shelf), comes in 4 main base color and 4 coordinating lid colors. When purchasing directly on the Selah website, you have a few options of mixing and matching your lid vs base colors as seen in the chart below. Not all combos are available, which I’m not exactly sure why the website isn’t set up to choose a base and then a lid, but thus these are your 8 options of colors for your bottle. For my review, I received the pink option.
Selah does a great job of communicating how to use the water bottle and flavor pods. The box itself features directions (see the above what’s in the box photo), a handy quicktip guide card, and a quickstart guide with the same information in one of the flavor compartments.
The Selah water bottle itself even has printed instructions in the flavor pod compartments. Selah makes sure there is no confusion on how to work the water bottle, insert the flavor pods and use the flavored water bottle.
The Selah lid features a loop, perfect for holding the bottle securely when carrying it. The sipper cover twists closed and open and has a very tight seal. I haven’t had any issues with leaking. The lid feature that I appreciate the most is the ability to lock that top back as pictured below and keep it completely out of the way when sipping.
The Selah flavored water bottle does fit in my car cup holders. Also pictured is another gadget of review, the Cell Phone Seat, in case you want to check that out.
Now that we have covered the design of the Selah bottle, let’s talk a little bit about how it works.
Open one of your flavor compartment doors, make sure the long grey rod is pushed all the way down and the pod keeper plastic piece is clicked back. Open your flavor pod packaging removing the seal or grab on of your already opened pods. Insert your pod, making sure that the side with the arrow on the cap is facing you. Lay the pod FLAT (not at an angle) and slide up until it clicks and is snug. Close that plastic pod keeper piece, this will lock right under your pod. Then push the rod up between the printed start line or until you feel resistance. It is important to do this gently, if you push too hard you will waste flavor. Then close the door and repeat for the other flavor chamber.
Now that your pods are loaded and ready, you can fill your water bottle with water. You will push the button on the outside of your Selah bottle to add flavor. It is a click up and not down. It does take one or two clicks to start/prime your pod before flavor goes in the pod. It is important to look closely at the top of the water to see when the flavor is actually clicked into the water. It is hard to tell if the flavor has been added or not without watching closely at the top of the water. For me, it was not consistent if click 2 added the flavor after prepping and it definitely took until click 3 on some occassions.
The Flavors
Perhaps the most important thing to note is how the flavor pods stack up. Did they indeed make my water less boring? How did they taste? Which ones do I recommend? Let’s chat!
All the Selah flavor pod formulas are advertised as naturally sourced and containing zero calories, zero sugar, zero artificial flavors, zero artificial sweeteners (some pods contain high-quality stevia), zero artificial colors, and are kosher-certified (CRC), and vegan.
You can add as much or as little flavor as you wish. You can also mix and match with the two flavor pods to create your own favorite flavoring. IMPORTANT TO NOTE: even if you only want to use one flavor, you must have another cartridge in the other flavor compartment, or the bottle will leak. Selah does disclose that on the QuickStart card. With two pods loaded, I never had any issues with leaking.
There are ten flavors currently available at the time of this review. I received one of each of the Selah flavor pods, except the Watermelon Sport, which I would assume tastes similar to the watermelon, just has added electrolytes.
There are four categories of flavor pods: vitamins, unsweetened, sports, and energy.
The white-packaged options are unsweetened; lightning on the package signifies it is energy, which contains caffeine. The colored packages are the vitamin-enhanced options (they contain B Vitamins, Vitamin C, and Zinc and are sweetened with a proprietary stevia blend), and the black-packaged flavor pods are the sports category, which is vitamin-enhanced with electrolytes.
Here is my personal rankings based on flavor:
- Fruit Punch (Vitamin)
- Orange Sport (Sport)
- Berry Blast Energy (Energy)
- Apple (Vitamin)
- Strawberry Lemonade (Vitamin)
- Watermelon (Vitamin)
- Pineapple (Unsweetened)
- Lemon (Unsweetened)
- Peach Iced Tea (Vitamin)
The top four were ranked that high based on taste, and I only needed one click to enjoy my nonboring water. Numbers 5-8, I really needed two clicks to taste and enjoy. Then, the peach iced tea never had a chance, as I do not like peaches.
Flavor pods are priced at $4.99 each on Selah’s website and you must order a minimum of 4 pods. The better deal is the auto ship option. This allows you to choose 8, 12, 16 or 24 pods every 2, 4 ,or 6 weeks. With every 4 pods, you get an added flavor pod for free. With the auto ship, you can swap flavors, pause or cancel anytime. Free shipping on all U.S. orders on the company’s website.
New pod flavor drops are noted as coming soon. Selah says that coming soon, every Monday, WE (the consumers) get to vote and choose the newest flavor. On the first Monday of each month, Selah will text and ask us to choose between 4 potential new flavors. At the end of the month, the winning flavor will be available to purchase. Sign up here to get in on the fun to be able to vote when available.
What I like about Selah Flavored Water Bottle
- Simple to use
- Stylish and simple to carry, with several color choices
- Fits in a car cup holder
- ZERO calories and sugar
- NO artificial flavoring, colors or sweeteners
What needs to be improved?
- More flavor options for flavor pods (sounds like this is coming soon)
- Add a straw lid option
- Lower cost on flavor pods or more flavor shots per pod
- Better insulation to keep water cold longer
Final thoughts
The Selah flavored water bottle has so many features which I love. Having a water bottle with the convenience of the flavor pods built-in, making it easy to elevate your plain water with a click of a button, is a game changer. Making those pods have zero calories and no artificial flavoring or sweeteners is also ideal. If I’m drinking water, I want to drink water that is healthy and not something I have made into a sugary drink. With that being said, I like my water cold and the Selah is not really insulated to keep the water cold for an extended time. I also think the price per pod vs the amount of flavor per pod is not as cost-effective as I would hope, and I don’t find the convenience worth the expense. Overall, I love the concept and idea of the Selah bottle, and I have enjoyed my use of it, but I can’t see myself continuing to purchase flavor pods at the current cost to use it past the review supplies.
Price: $29.99 starter set for 1 bottle + 2 flavor pods (pods sold separately at $4.99 each)
Where to buy: Selah and Amazon
Source: The sample of this product was provided for free by Selah. Selah did not have a final say on the review and did not preview the review before it was published.
