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Comment by AdamJacobMuller | Hacker News Reader

Because you're not paying for a company that cans water, you're paying for a company that has built an effective marketing apparatus which entices people to pay a premium for their canned water.

I know nothing about this companies operations (I only heard about them a few weeks ago) but I would wager money that they entirely outsource their production and distribution operations and what they consider their "secret sauce" or the actual thing which is actually valuable to future growth of the company is entirely their marketing and sales operation.

This is not (entirely) to be diminutive of what they are doing. Convincing people to spend $2/can for filtered tap water is impressive.

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I bought it only once. In fact the label made me think that it was carbonated water for some reason. I bought it and drank it and realized I was scammed. Since then I judge people who buy this crap.

Are you sure you didn't buy the wrong product?

https://liquiddeath.com/products/sparkling-water

That explains it. Chances are I saw the black cans but bought a white one thinking they are all the same.

They sell a carbonated version, and a few flavored versions.

I still buy the carbonated (black can) from time to time. I didn't buy it sooner because I was under the assumption that "Liquid Death" would also be caffeinated, and I couldn't imagine an unflavored caffeinated beverage tasting good.

Caffeine by itself does not taste good so you’d be right. I don’t know how to describe it other than metallicy and funky, neither of which are very helpful. But it doesn’t taste much like anything else I can think of.

Isn't caffeine one of the most bitter-tasting substance out there? Like, it's used to measure bitterness.

Not reading the can doesn't mean you were scammed.

Yeah I originally thought it was carbonated as well when I first saw it (which I drink a lot of). Never had the misfortune of buying one though.

The white can is the only flat water; the black can and the flavored ones are sparkling.

(I tend to drink more Waterloo or Spindrift when not at a bar, personally, but I've enjoyed the flavored Liquid Death that I've had.)

They do sell sparkling products, including IMO the best-tasting flavored sparkling waters on the market.

Agreed flat water out of a can is… not my favorite.

You just described every single beverage company in the world. Monster. Coke. Redbull got into F1 for marketing. The list goes on and on.

Liquid Death is literally paying for these hype op-ed pieces on top of their novelty marketing just to further convince people and create a self perpetuating feedback loop. Just like every other canned beverage company before them, and every other to come. No one has a secret sauce. It's marketing 24/7.

Slight difference in the companies listed all contain addictive substances and the other just contain water.

Coke and Monster manufacture their own beverages. So does Redbull (kind of).

It is spring water.

There is really not much competition. Aside from Fiji and Mountain Valley, almost everything else is filtered municipal supply.

> built an effective marketing apparatus which entices people to pay a premium for their canned water.

And they did that by calling it Liquid Death. Never makes sense to me, but I guess I'm not the target demographic.

>Convincing people to spend $2/can for filtered tap water is impressive.

In the same way that building a death star would be 'impressive'. ;0)

I would be massively impressed by anyone who could build a death star. Imagine what someone like that could accomplish if they put 10% or 1% of their ability and output towards something good.

Indeed. An awful lot of time and money go into things that degrade the environment while supplying little, if any, net benefit to humanity. Water in cans in areas where tap water is fine, is one of the less bad examples.

Yes and this explains everything. Not sure of the reason for your last sentence

I guess a can is better than cheap plastic that leeches into the water?

Cans are lined with plastic though. Now you could make an argument that less plastic is used but your water is still touching plastic.

Good to know!

See the thread below though; Liquid Death makes it a point to be free of this stuff, though I wish they just straight up had the sentence on their FAQ instead of implying it.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39749467

Did you, by any chance, ever wonder if they don't straight up say it because they're lying on what they're only implying?

I generally enjoy that usually companies who seriously lie in advertising end up facing the music often enough that I don't need to seriously consider such things.

I suspect this case, after reading about it in between actually working, that the claim is actually more scoped than I'd understood, because it is primarily about the recyclability of the can and not a literal claim of zero plastic.

That is, in fact, on me, but given that this isn't an aspect of the product I care about, not entirely shocking to me that I misunderstood. And I got to learn a fun fact about aluminum cans that I didn't know before!

You are not alone. It was not until I saw an experiment that dissolved the aluminum that I realized their was a plastic liner.

Cans are lined with plastic.

Canned water is a plastic membrane holding water with aluminum on the outside for structural integrity.

Same with boxed water but cardboard replaces the aluminum.

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