Super Happy Asian Drink Hour - Ramune!

Ramune on Glass Table.
(Sorry I forgot to attach the pic on the first post)

*Wise Guise and I assembled a panel of friends, all possessing varied amounts of experience with foreign drinks, and had them try seven wacky/tasty/exotic drinks from Japan! We cleansed our palates with Japanese salty snacks in-between drinks.*

The name "Ramune" comes from the English word "lemonade". It has been sold in Japan for well over 100 years. The unique bottle design has been around from the beginning - the most prominent feature is its marble stopper, which is pushed down into the bottle's neck in order to open the drink. (The plastic mouth at the top of the bottle is too small for the marble to go through, thus avoiding any unfortunate soda-related choking deaths.) It can take some practice to drink from this bottle without having the marble roll back up into the mouth and block the flow of beverage. It's the perfect sipping drink, mostly because the bottle makes it literally impossible to chug!

Ramune comes in dozens of flavors, some of which rotate on a seasonal basis.

Joe (limited experience): "Tastes more like bubble gum. Melony bubble gum I like it, though. That gets my second vote."

Wise_Guise (moderate experience): "It's more of an apple flavor than a lemon flavor. It's a little too much carbonation for me."

Danithius (advanced experience): "Classic. Tasty Summer drink."

Adam (moderate experience): "Yep, that's Ramune"

Crystal (limited experience): "I feel like [Danithius] is trying to get us drunk. I like this one, though, it tastes a lot like Sprite."

Consensus: Melon-apple fizzy bubble gum sorta-lemony old-school Japanese soda! Worth a try even just for the unique bottle experience!

Super Happy Asian Drink Hour - Gokuri King of Mango!

*Wise Guise and I assembled a panel of friends, all possessing varied amounts of experience with foreign drinks, and had them try seven wacky/tasty/exotic drinks from Japan! We cleansed our palates with Japanese salty snacks in-between drinks.*

Gokuri is a line of drinks produced by the Suntory Co., which has been in the alcoholic beverages industry since 1899. Some years later it branched off into other beverages. They also produce CC Lemon, one of the most popular soft drinks in all of Japan.

Joe (limited experience): "This one's my favorite so far. That's the goods."

Wise_Guise (moderate experience): "I like the bottle, it's cool. (After tasting) Oh yeah, that's mango, baby."

Danithius (advanced experience): "15% juice, that's good. And it takes that real strong, cutting mango flavor and smooths it out. It's got more mango in it than sugar, too."

Adam (moderate experience): "It's thick. Yep, I could see drinking this."

Crystal (limited experience): "That is good! Tastes like one of those candies...a Haichu...but liquid."

Consensus: Damn, it is the King of Mango!

Super Happy Asian Drink Hour - Pocari Sweat!

*Wise Guise and I assembled a panel of friends, all possessing varied amounts of experience with foreign drinks, and had them try seven wacky/tasty/exotic drinks from Japan! We cleansed our palates with Japanese salty snacks in-between drinks.*

Joe (limited experience): "A non-carbonated Squirt, plus something...is there ginseng in that? I like this. This is good."

Wise_Guise (moderate experience): "Now this stuff you can pound. It's very refreshing."

Danithius (advanced experience): "A very light grapefruit flavor. And the greatest name ever for a sports drink."

Adam (moderate experience): "It has a more bland...or like, light flavor."

Crystal (limited experience): "I don't think I like this one very much."

Consensus: Light, slightly citrus-y, great as a sports-chugger.

Super Happy Asian Drink Hour - Skal Water!

*Wise Guise and I assembled a panel of friends, all possessing varied amounts of experience with foreign drinks, and had them try seven wacky/tasty/exotic drinks from Japan! We cleansed our palates with Japanese salty snacks in-between drinks.*

The mighty SKAL Water is a "Milk based soft drink. Tender to your mouth. Nicer to your mind. Skal Water always takes you to the cow-mooing meadow." (Actual quote from the front of the bottle.)

Skal Water is a major competitor with Calpis water in Japan.

Joe (limited experience): "It's not bad. It's like a sweet lime. A sherbet-lime. Not bad, but I like the first one (Calpis Water) better."

Wise_Guise (moderate experience): "Smells a little more lemony than Calpis does."

Danithius (advanced experience): "It's more like a Sprite flavor."

Adam (moderate experience): "A lot more citrus-y, little more soda-y"

Crystal (limited experience): "It's like flat Sprite, like what you drink when you get sick."

Consensus: Not so much a cow-mooing meadow, more like a flat, slightly creamy Sprite.

Super Happy Asian Drink Hour - Calpis Water!

*Wise Guise and I assembled a panel of friends, all possessing varied amounts of experience with foreign drinks, and had them try seven wacky/tasty/exotic drinks from Japan! We cleansed our palates with Japanese salty snacks in-between drinks.*

Say this to an unsuspecting friend:

"Ah, I love drinking fresh Calpis on a hot Summer day!"

And then you will see why Calpis chose to market themselves under a different name in the States: Calpico.

This is one of the first truly Japanese soft drinks I ever tasted in Japan. I wasn't sure about it at first, but it has grown on me steadily ever since that time, making it into my top 3 Far East Favorites. It's made with a process similar to yogurt, and has a lightly sweet, yogurt-lemon-milk flavor.

Joe (limited experience): "It's pretty good, actually...It's not milky, it's almost fruity. I couldn't see myself pounding this. It's like a melted sherbet-creamsicle taste."

Danithius (advanced experience): "It's kind of a sipping drink... It has a little bit of sour, like a lemon or a citric acid aftertaste."

Wise Guise (moderate experience): "Kind of a yogurty, milky taste. It's great, I like it."

Adam (moderate experience): "Tangy. Little bit grapefruity."

Crystal (limited experience): "It is a little grapefruity."

Consensus: Happy Refresh!

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.