Dasani really seems like the black sheep of the Coca-Cola corporate family. Coke is one of the best-known trademarks on Earth, Sprite is the top-selling lemon-lime soda, and Dasani…isn’t even in the top 10 water brands sold globally. And it didn’t make our list of the best bottled waters. Between the statistics and our personal experiences, we’ve established a pretty consistent opinion: Nobody loves Dasani. Whether you tolerate it or you hate it, chances are you’ll agree on one key factor: Dasani is salty. From the first sip, you can tell they salted the water. For many people (including myself), that underlying salt taste is a major turn-off.
Earlier this month, Coca-Cola announced what in hindsight seems like a pretty obvious fix to these near unanimous bad reviews: They took out the salt. Seriously, it was that easy! Coca-Cola said it themselves in their press release: “DASANI also is tweaking its formulation in response to consumer feedback, by removing sodium chloride (salt) for a clean, crisp taste loyal fans are sure to love.” They also changed the packaging. But that’s not why you’re here. You want to know what new Dasani tastes like. Read on to find out.
- Dasani (2024 Version)
-
Finding this new Dasani when I did was pure serendipity. My local Target had stocked a case of the new Dasani formula (signified by a slightly redesigned label and logo) two days before the press release came out announcing the formula change! As a mover and shaker in all things drinkable, I had been tipped off early by someone in the know that a rebrand-reformulation combo was coming—but I certainly wasn’t expecting to find it in the wild as soon as I did.
Pros: Take me to a hilltop and I’ll start singing, ”I’d like to buy the world a Dasani.” They fixed it, y’all. Coca-Cola really fixed my problem with Dasani: It actually tastes like water now! New Dasani tastes as good as any other standard (aka, not $4+) bottled water I’ve ever had. Is it better than Fiji Water? No! Should anyone expect it to be? No! It’s just water, but tasting like “just water” has eluded Dasani so long that this truly feels like an accomplishment.
Cons: Why did it take this long? I have been hearing the same complaint about Dasani being too salty for my entire life, and it took them this long to fix it by just…taking out the thing everyone said they didn’t like. A large group of people got paid a lot of money to figure out how to make this water taste good and the answer was obvious to anyone with a tongue.
Credit: Liv Averett / Coca-Cola
