More MiO

It has been a while since Mr. Tidbit spoke of the "liquid water enhancer" MiO, which is essentially a little squeeze bottle of artificially sweetened flavoring for bottled water. The heart-stoppingly important thing about MiO is that, unlike the many brands of individual packets of powdered flavoring sold for the same purpose, with MiO (and its more recent competitors, such as Dasani Drops) one can vary the amount of flavor by varying the number of drops one adds. Breathtaking.

And now, of course, in addition to the 11 flavors of regular MiO drops, there are two new kinds of MiO: MiO Fit and MiO Energy, each in two flavors.

MiO Fit has vitamins (10 percent of the daily value per "serving" of vitamins B3 [niacin], B6 and B12), and electrolytes (35 percent of the daily value of potassium and — wait for it — 3 percent of the daily value of that hard-to-obtain electrolyte, sodium).

MiO Energy contains 60 milligrams of caffeine per serving, as well as unlisted amounts of taurine, guarana and ginseng, plus 10 percent of the daily values of vitamins B3, B6 and B12.

An odd thing about the serving size of MiO: The 1.62-ounce bottles of original MiO are said to provide 24 servings. The same 1.62-ounce bottles of Fit and Energy are said to provide only 18 (larger) servings. All sell for the same price. The only explanation Mr. Tidbit can come up with is this: To minimize the cost of added vitamins but yield 10 percent daily value per serving, make the serving larger.

Al Sicherman