Smart Cups Review: World's First PRINTED Beverage?

Today I'm looking at a product called the Smart Cup which is advertised as the

world's first printed beverage. Does it really work? Let's find out in today's video

Now my friend Jaden first told me about this product on a Facebook post. It has a couple

hundred thousand views and like I said it's supposed to be the world's first printed beverage

So I ordered this pack of 10 9-ounce cups off Amazon for $20, so $2 a piece

I haven't opened it up yet. I picked the Tropical Punch flavor, which was the most popular on Amazon

so I figured that was probably the best chance of having one I like. It's kind of marketed as an energy drink, so I guess for $2 a piece it really isn't that bad

It's not one of those all-natural things. There's definitely a lot of ingredients that goes into it

The other thing is that it does state that there is 125 milligrams of caffeine in each cup

No sugar. It's vegan, low carb, low calories. And they say eco-friendly, which takes me to the

comments on the Facebook video that I saw. The Facebook video with 200,000 views has like 300

comments. I went through all of them. A lot of people were saying this is a single-use product

so it's very wasteful, but the company's frequently asked questions notes that it's

bioplastic and sustainable. So there seems to be a difference of opinion on whether this is a

wasteful product or not. Before I go further, let me just open this up and see what they look like

Interesting smell. Do not eat. Okay I can do that. I did just notice the packaging

says you should consume these within 21 days of opening the package which I'm not sure

everybody's going to like that. Now there's a blank cup included which there's a reason for

that and I can't remember what it was but that's the flavor which is printed into the cup. It's not

an overly large cup. They say this is bioplastic. What they don't say is what

about all this packaging? What's this made out of? They don't say that that's

bioplastic. I actually sent an email to the company asking about that and they

haven't responded yet but I'll let you know if they do respond. Now they state

that our cups are made of eco-friendly bioplastic because bioplastic is derived from a renewable resource. Plants, our cups, are sustainable. Plus

smart cups reduces the carbon footprint created by the added energy cost of transporting canned and bottled liquids

So they're trying to promote this as an environmentally friendly solution even

though it's a one-use cup. That's pretty bold. A few people asked how this is any

better than just a powdered energy drink that you add to a bottle. That's a good question. Others asked why you can't just print these as tablets you can add to a

water bottle without having a single cup That another good question too I don have the answer to that Someone in the comments said it a good idea for kids or for parties as opposed to a large container that kids can spill but others pointed out that there 125 milligrams

of caffeine here so maybe it's not a good idea for kids. Other people thought it was a great idea and they were excited about the prospect so opinions

are all over the place in this thing. I'll reserve judgment until I try the actual drink itself. The instructions say just add water and it stirs itself. I

don't know how it does that. Normally I would just go over to my fridge and fill it up there but since I'm trying to show you on camera I'm going to pour it from a cup

Here we go. It's a little bit like one of those Alka-Seltzers where you can see every

the bubbles coming from the bottom. Interesting. Well I'm just going to let this sit here for a minute until it's totally dissolved

It's not dissolved yet. I don't see anything in the bottom anymore

Oh yeah I do. It's been two minutes and it's still dissolving

I can still see those tablets if you want to call them tablets. They're not quite tablets

but that's, for lack of a better word, I'm going to call them flavor tablets. They're almost done. I'm just going to wait and try this when it's done

All right, total time is three minutes. I've got high hopes for you smart cups. You better come through

Not quite what I expected. It's a little bit blander than I expected

It almost has like a barely sweetened Gatorade taste to it. It's not a bad flavor, it's just not a very strong flavor

Well, I really can't decide if I like this or not, so let me bring in my son, Brand

We just finished a taste test of some Starbucks drinks on his channel. So, he's got his palate already cleansed for this, so let me bring Brand in here and see

what he thinks about it. Now get over here. Get over here. Hey, there he is

I used to call him the cameraman, but he's not on the cameraman anymore because he works all the time

You've got a tripod for that now. Yeah, the cameraman's my tripod. Try this drink

Oh, these are the Smart Cups you got. got yeah i remember when you got this in the mail yeah so they're like printed in the yeah they're

printed in the printed in the bottom that's so cool but does it like go away after it dissolves

yeah that's so cool i i just tried it i i didn't i haven't told him what i think about yet

okay i know exactly what this tastes like oh here we go this tastes kind of like a like a

crystal light packet you pour into like a water bottle it tastes kind of similar to that i didn't

And think about that, Crystal Light's pretty close, yeah. That's a pretty close comparison. I was saying a barely sugared Gatorade, but Crystal Light's probably even better

That what it tastes like too Crystal Light yeah yeah How funny I like it though Do you like it There caffeine in there too Ooh sweet I didn know that It not very sweet though

I thought it was going to be this, like, overly sweet, like, Kool-Aid flavor. No, it's kind of subdued

Would you pay two bucks for that? I don't know about that. That full cup of that, would you pay two bucks for it

I don't think so. Uh-oh. Is it worth the same as a monster? Maybe

I don't know. I think he's hopping off the bandwagon now. I think it's cool, though. Well, I like the idea of having the drink 3D printed onto the bottom

That's really cool. Well, you might get the rest of these for work because I'm probably not going to drink that. Oh, okay

All right, well, thanks for your pen. All right, here you go. All right, now go edit your Starbucks video. Get out of here

Yeah, the Crystal Light, that's actually a pretty good comparison. I didn't drink a lot of Crystal Light because that was kind of after my time

but that's pretty close, yeah. It's like a caffeinated Crystal Light. For two bucks for a cup

I don't know about that. Now they said if you're not thorough about the taste, which the taste is okay to me. I don't think the taste is necessarily the problem

You could try adding juice or tea or sparkling water. I'm going to get my Perrier water and see how that reacts with it

Drink number two. Here we go. Whoa. All right. It's doing something

This is how I check to make sure it's done. I check the bottom to see if they're there or not

right now it's still dissolving. Last time it took three minutes. Let's see how long this takes

I'm also going to try some cranberry juice. Let's try that as well. That doesn't look like it's dissolving. All right. Just for comparison's sake

I've added water from my fridge to a third one. So I've got three of them

going at the same time. Here are the contestants. Perrier water. Water from the fridge and cranberry juice. Cranberry juice still dissolving. Water from

the fridge. Still dissolving. Perrier water done. Let's try this out. Taste test number two for the

Perrier water. It should taste the same with some bubbles in it. Let's see. You know what? I kind of like that a little bit better. It's still not a very bold flavor. It's

kind of a lightly sweetened, like you said, crystal light flavor with 125 milligrams of

caffeine in it. In a cup that's supposed to be bio-friendly, it comes in a package that I'm not

sure if it is or not. It's a very strange product. You know what's weird is that the water I added

about a minute after the cranberry juice and the cranberry juice, it's still dissolving but the

water is already done. I'm not really sure why because they're both about the same temperature

so I don know Plain water Sparkling water Yeah sparkling water is better by far for some reason The juice takes a lot longer They did say if you don like the flavor to try juice So that their instructions not mine Alright the cranberry juice is finally dissolved in here It took about five minutes Let try it out

Hmm. All I taste is cranberry juice. Do I need a $2 cup with some flavoring in there for cranberry juice

Probably not. This is basically caffeinated cranberry juice to me. Alright, let me bring Brandon back in here one more time and see what he thinks about

the three flavors. Brandon, get back in here. Alright, you thought you were done, didn't you? Eat back in here again one more time

That's right. It's very important. We're trying smart cups here. Alright, you had the regular water

Try the regular water one more time. Alright? Okay. Now this is with Perrier water

Same flavor. Oh, drinking water? Yep. Okay. Okay. And this is cranberry juice

I want to see if he has the same conclusion that I do

I already got it. Alright. What do you think? Go. Cranberry juice is the best, tap water is second, sparkling water is third

Oh wow. That's completely different than I thought. Really? Yeah. I think sparkling water is the best

I think the cranberry juice was good, but all I tasted was cranberry juice. I don't need a cup for that cranberry juice flavor

Did you even taste the other flavor in there? No, I did. Did you? Okay

Yeah, I tasted both in there. Okay, well. That just shows that this is going to be one of those things that there's no consensus to, I think

All right, thanks. All right. Get out of here again. All right, I've got to come to some sort of a conclusion on the smart cups

I think that technology-wise it's pretty impressive that you can print a flavor into a cup. Very cool

I think that even though it's bioplastic, the concerns about it being a single-use product are valid

I think the people that say that you could just print these as tablets and drop them in any cup have a valid point

but then there's already products like that. So this wouldn't be so high-tech if that were the case

That's probably why they have to do that. I think taste-wise it was alright. When you add other drinks to it it masks the

otherwise somewhat weak flavor. It is caffeinated so probably not a good idea

for kids. So I think some people are gonna really like the idea and some

people won't. I'm glad I tried it. It's something that I think a lot of

people would probably want to try at least once. I'm not sure if I'll buy these again though. What do you think about a product like this? Is it bad

environmentally or is it actually sustainable like they say it is? Is $2 too much for something like that or is it on par with other energy drinks

What do you guys think? Please follow my social profiles for progress pictures videos as I go

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