Super Happy Asian Drink Hour is upon us! (Plus HFCS Rant)

Greetings, friends. I'd like to preface our Japanese drink reviews with a quick word or two.

As you may remember from our flagship post, we said we would not review anything with HFCS unless we had a bloody good reason to turn a blind eye to it. A majority of these Japanese drinks do have a substance somewhat like HFCS (though it's not corn syrup, necessarily - they use all kinds of sources). Bear with me as I explain our bloody good reasons for reviewing them.

The Japanese have an interesting way of distinguishing sweetener ingredients. They are labeled specifically as glucose-fructose syrup and fructose-glucose syrup, depending on the ratio. (The one possessing a higher percentage comes first in the title.)

Quick review: regular sugar is about a 1:1 mix of fructose and glucose. Usual soft-drink type HFCS is about 55% fructose to 45% glucose. Seems not all that bad until you consider just how much is consumed in a day by the average person. So that particular mix percentage would be labeled fructose-glucose syrup in Japan. (Here's an interesting bonus fact - honey is actually the same amount of fructose to glucose, 55 to 45 percent. ) But here's the big kicker:

In Japan, they have another ingredient that is called "High Fructose Syrup", which entails at least 90% fructose. Now that's whatcha gotta watch out for! In America, we require no such delineation, we are only told that the 55-45 mix is the "typical" ingredient.

I found only one drink in Japan that possessed this super-fructose mix. And you know what? It was manufactured by Coca-Cola. What a surprise! I wish there was a way to keep a closer eye on the actual amounts of fructose gracing our palettes here in the States. If Coke can get away with it in health-conscious Japan, I definitely wouldn't put it past them to sneak it in over here, too.

So anyway, for those of you who like lists, this is why we're reviewing these drinks:

Less overall sugar content
Clearer delineation of fructose-glucose ratio
Unusual and original flavors
'Cause they're Japanese and insane

Good enough? Good. Stay tuned for wackiness.