Billionaire investor Warren Buffett has captured global headlines once again after an anecdote surfaced revealing that the 96-year-old Berkshire Hathaway chief claims not to have consumed plain water in nearly five decades. The revelation re-emerged during an episode of the Equity Mates Investing podcast, where billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman recounted offering Buffett still or sparkling water during a private dinner, only for Buffett to politely turn it down in favour of a Cherry Coke while declaring he had gone 48 years without drinking water.
While market watchers often debate whether the legendary investor is being literal or merely exaggerating his dietary quirks, his daughter, Susie Buffett, previously corroborated the astonishing habit. In high-profile documentary profiles—including the 2009 film The World's Greatest Money Maker and HBO’s 2017 release Becoming Warren Buffett—she insisted on camera that her father's aversion to plain water is an absolute reality. "He doesn't drink water... I've never in my life—and I'm not kidding—seen the man drink a sip of water," she confirmed.
Buffett's liquid intake is almost exclusively fuelled by carbonated soda, famously averaging five 12-ounce cans of Coca-Cola products each day. The billionaire has frequently defended his high-sugar lifestyle with self-deprecating hummer, famously quipping in 2015 that he is effectively "one-quarter Coca-Cola" because the soda accounts for roughly a quarter of his daily 2,700-calorie intake. Defying traditional dietary guidelines, Buffett often credits his longevity to eating and drinking like a cheerful six-year-old.
The habit also marks one of the most lucrative corporate rivalries in corporate history. For the first five decades of his life, Buffett was actually a devoted Pepsi drinker until 1986, when former Coca-Cola executive and former neighbour Don Keough mailed him samples of the newly developed Cherry Coke. The product won Buffett over immediately, prompting him to switch allegiances, name Cherry Coke the official beverage of Berkshire Hathaway’s annual shareholder meetings, and eventually pour billions into accumulating a massive stake in the Coca-Cola Company.
Despite modern health recommendations stressing the vital importance of daily water hydration, Buffett’s decades-long soda regimen remains one of Wall Street's most enduring legends. By blending his personal tastes directly into his public brand and investment portfolio, the "Oracle of Omaha" continues to prove that his unconventional lifestyle choices are as unwavering as his long-term value investing philosophy.