poppi's Founders Are Back With Jetty, a $2.49 Everyday Hydration Drink

Remember when hydration meant a giant jug with times printed down the side?

You filled it every morning, promised yourself you’d finish it by 5 p.m., and left it half full in the car. Sports drinks felt like overkill unless you had just run a race. Most days, you were just thirsty at your desk.

What actually happened

Back in October, Allison Ellsworth was teasing a new brand called Jetty without saying what it was. Now we know. Allison and her husband, Stephen, the duo who sold poppi to PepsiCo for $1.95 billion last year, launched Jetty on Monday, Nov 9, with ready-to-drink bottles and ready-to-mix powder packets. You can find Jetty on shelves at Whole Foods and online at Amazon and Target.com. Bottles are $2.49, Modern Retail reports.

There are five flavors to start: Watermelon, Orange Mango, Fruit Punch, Black Raspberry and White Cherry. Each bottle has 6 grams of sugar and 45 calories, plus electrolytes, B vitamins and prebiotic fiber, the founders say. The pitch is hydration for regular days, not race days.

The idea started with Allison. After ten years of building poppi, she finally went to the doctor, started a GLP-1 medication and lost 60 pounds, she told CNBC. Stephen, now Jetty’s CEO, noticed she wasn’t drinking much, even after the gym. Allison, the chief brand officer, summed up the target customer in one line: “Like I woke up this morning, I didn’t run a marathon.”

This time the couple is paying for the launch themselves, with $2.5 million, and Allison says Jetty will likely raise outside money in 2027.

Like I woke up this morning, I didn't run a marathon.The WellWham perspective

Our read: hydration got a lifestyle makeover

This is our read. The electrolyte aisle was built for athletes, and now it is chasing millennial moms, Gen Z and GLP-1 users who simply forget to drink water. The Ellsworths already showed they can make a can of soda feel like a personality. Jetty runs that same playbook on your water bottle, in a crowded aisle where a lot of brands want the same shoppers.

The reality check

A famous exit and a self-funded launch are not proof that a drink does anything special for you. “Everyday hydration” is a positioning line, not a study result, and poppi paid $8.9 million to settle a class action over its gut health marketing, CNBC notes. Read the label for sugar and fiber if those matter to you, and know that Target is online only for now.

The close

The jug with the times printed down the side never really worked for most of us. Jetty is betting a $2.49 bottle with a cherry on it will.

Sources

Disclosure: WellWham has no affiliate links in this story.