ACTIVATE Water: The Secret Is In The Cap

The unique delivery system helps vitamins stay fresh.

The evolution of bottled water is almost as intriguing as Apple products – there seems to be a new kind every week. And even though bottled water isn’t the best thing for the environment, there’s no stopping sports beverage brands when it comes to reinventing the wheel.

This time, Los Angeles-based ACTIVATE is jumping on the vitamin water bandwagon with their flavored line geared towards those who have a hard time of remembering to take their vitamins in pill form.

What makes the brand unique is the way they deliver their nutritional content: vitamins are stored in a chamber inside the cap in which consumers twist the cap and a small plastic blade cuts the sealed chamber to release the ingredients into the water. You shake the bottle to distribute the vitamins.

Founders Burke Eiteljorg and Anders Eisner, son of former Disney CEO Michael Eisner, saw the significant benefits of keeping the vitamins separate from the water in their research with an independent laboratory. They discovered that vitamins and other ingredients lose their potency as they sit in water over time. With the active ingredients stored inside the cap, the vitamins stay fresh.

“The founders were looking for a convenient way to take their vitamins [because] the hassle of dumping vitamin powder packets into water bottles and taking horse pills was not ideal,” said Jesse Merrill, vice president of ACTIVATE. “That then led to the development of a proprietary cap that offered a convenient all-in-one solution.”

Eiteljorg and Eisner became inspired to launch the brand after noticing the abundance of vitamin-enhanced waters loaded with calories and sugar. In their search for something better, the two created a product naturally sweetened with stevia. The bottles were recently released in sustainable packaging of 100 percent post-consumer recycled plastic.

The drinks come in five types of vitamin mixes for whatever your body needs: vitamin, immunity, antioxidant, energy and workout.

The verdict: A new-age Kool-Aid type of drink that’s refreshing and flavorful. You can taste the potency of the vitamins that are being released. Fair warning, a 12-pack can set you back $24.