A man who only ever drinks water is making viral TikToks of himself trying other beverages for the first time

• A man who says he only drinks milk and water posts viral TikTok videos trying new beverages.
• Davey Jarrell told Insider the phobia started early in life and he has carried it through adulthood.

On TikTok, you'd expect a dance trend, food recipe, or useful hack to go viral — but for Davey Jarrell, receiving millions of views for simply trying drinks on camera was unexpected.

Jarrell, a 27-year-old Nickelodeon storyboard artist in Los Angeles, told Insider a friend convinced him to break his lifelong habit of only drinking milk and water and suggested that they film him trying different beverages.

Jarrell, who said he's also a part-time comedian, reluctantly agreed and created his TikTok page, @doodledoodledavey, which has over 96,000 followers as of Friday.

His first video from June 16 has over 21 million views and shows Jarrell squirming and wincing as he tries Gatorade, Mountain Dew, Fanta Orange, Dr Pepper, a 7-Eleven Slurpee, and 7-Select Farmers Grove Lemonade.

Jarrell ranked all of the drinks out of 10 in the video, with Gatorade receiving the highest score of five, and Dr Pepper coming in last place with a score of minus one. He ranked Mountain Dew one and Fanta and lemonade zero, while the Slurpee didn't even qualify for a score.

After ranking the drinks but not enjoying any of them, Jarrell went on to film more videos. In one from June 24, which has over 2.2 million views, Jarrell tries to guess which brand of water is in each glass and says that people assume he'll be good at identifying brands because he's "such a hardcore water drinker," but he's not.

Also among the water is a disguised glass of vodka, which he tries for the first time. Jarrell immediately spits it out and it continues to streak down his reddened, shocked face before he asks his friend to stop rolling. Outside of his recent TikTok filming, Jarrell told Insider he'd never consumed alcohol before.

Another video from July 4 shows Jarrell trying McDonald's Sprite for the first time, which has been viewed over 675,000 times. The clip shows him looking overwhelmed by the drink, before stating that "it really doesn't taste bad." He concluded: "I still never want it again."

Jarrell says he has a phobia of colorful drinks

A fear of colored and flavored drinks is not a formally recognized phobia, Jarrell said, but he invented the unofficial name "chromohydrophobia" when he was in middle school.

"I've gotten a lot of messages from people over the last few weeks saying they're the exact same way. Obviously, this condition does exist," he told Insider.

Jarrell told Insider his phobia presented itself early on in life as he was a picky eater in school which also extended to drinks — he would only have water, 2% milk, and apple juice concealed in a carton. This changed when Jarrell saw apple juice outside of a carton and learned its true color, he said.

"I saw the color and what it looked like for the first time, and it made me want to throw up. I've just had an aversion to drinking anything that isn't water ever since," he said.

Jarrell said he's always had a mental block toward drinks regardless of whether they might taste nice or not, and instead turns to food for flavor. He added that growing up, his house was in no way restrictive with sodas and sugary drinks and that he's very much an outlier among his family.

Jarrell says responses to his videos have been mixed

He said he's "received every kind of comment you can imagine, good and bad," ranging from people saying he's brave for trying new drinks and that it's a healthy phobia, to those calling it childish or saying he's "lying for views."

"It's too weird and specific to have been made up. If you were to make something up, wouldn't you come up with something a little weirder than that? This is just so lukewarm weird that it has to be true," Jarrell said. "One comment that made me laugh was, 'Ladies and gentlemen, this is what virginity looks like."

As long as there's an audience to serve, Jarrell said he'll keep trying new drinks and that fans can expect a hot drinks edition soon. Spoiler alert — he said tea "wasn't that bad." But outside of entertaining his new followers, Jarrell told Insider he'll continue sticking to water and some milk for daily consumption.

Jarrell also said a number of people have reached out to him to say they have the same fear of drinks: "I guess it's up to me to start the group chat."