Agua Con: Lemon and Lime

AguaCon’s Lima y Limon (aka lemon and lime) is a lemon and lime flavored essence water that is very lightly sweetened with stevia. Despite the addition of stevia, there isn’t really much in the way of sweetness to this product, making it have minimal differentiation compared with the unsweetened essence waters like Hint's and Ayala’s. While there’s some decent lemon and lime flavor to the body of the drink, it unravels a bit when you hit the finish, which has a note of stevia and the added acid. Visually, we’re somewhat confused by this product. Based on the Spanish naming, we’re assuming that it’s pronounced agua-”cone” (Spanish for “water with”). However, we think that your average consumer will call it agua “con”, which is a seemingly random name for a product like this. Otherwise, the label feels very simple and plain, with type treatments and formatting that could be created by anyone with a basic word processor. Forgetting that image and branding are important on a product like this seems like a big mistake. Ultimately, we’re left feeling as though this is a value brand -- a dangerous place for a startup to play, especially in the water category. Overall, it’s a decent start, but improvements to the flavor and branding are needed.