Jurokucha - Taste & Review

About
Jurokucha is a tea blend that was originally developed by Chanson Cosmetics in 1985 and was sold Japanese brewer and soft drinks company, Asahi as a bottled beverage in 1993. According to Chanson Cosmetics, the idea of Jurokucha is based on the philosophy of Kampo(Traditional Chinese medicine in Japan) and is marketed as a healthy drink.
In Japanese, "Juuroku" literally means "16" while "cha" means, "tea". The naming derives from the fact that the drink is brewed using 16 ingredients. The blend of ingredients change from time to time, and the ingredients inside the newest version(2015) are as follows:
Job's tears(hato mugi)
Barley
Habu
Brown rice
Germinated barley
Loquat leaves(biwa leaves)
Corn
Black Soybeans(Kuromame)
Chamecrista nomame
Germinated Brown Rice
Kelp
Shiitake mushrooms
Guava leaves
Mulberry leaves
Jujube
Young balrley leaves

Coca Cola Japan's "Sokenbicha", a blended tea drink similar to Jurokucha, was released following the success of Jurokucha.

Taste
The taste of the drink is much like barley tea but the added ingredients give the drink a distinct and sophisticated flavor. It is non-caffeinated and makes for a good drink on hot summers.

Reference
http://www.chanson.co.jp/product/16/16cha.html

Gokuri Rich Apple

About
Gokuri Rich Apple is a fruit beverage sold by Japanese brewer and bevrages company, Suntory. It is one of the products that make up their lineup of "Gokuri" drinks.
24% of the drink consists of apple juice, so what sets it apart from plain apple juice? 
The answer is the apple fibers that are inside the drink. The fibers give the impression that you are actually drinking freshly squeezed apple. These fibers are what all the Gokuri drinks share in common with each other.

Compared with the other Gokuri drinks, Rich Apple may not have as much impact, but it still is a good drink.

KIRIN World Kitchen - Salty Lime Soda

About
Salty Lime Soda is a carbonated drink sold on June 16 of this year by Japanese brewer and beverage company, KIRIN.
The drink draws its inspiration from Mexico, where lime and salt are often added to drinks and cuisine. The label's design is inspired from "papel picado", a type of decorative paper from Mexico.
Inside KIRIN's Salty Lime Soda is lime and grapefruit juice, with rock salt from Lorraine. The drink also claims to have 1700mg of Vitamin C inside.

Taste
The drink has a strong flavor of lime but is not very sour. You can taste a little salt inside, which adds a nice accent to the drink. Although the drink is sweetened, the sweetness is just right and not excessive at all.
Overall, it's a well-balanced and tasty drink.

KIRIN World Kitchen - Harecha

About
Kirin Harecha is an unsweetened tea drink sold by KIRIN under their "World Kitchen" brand. Inside Harecha are four herbs, lemongrass, mint, rosemary, and geranium, mixed with green tea.
On the label is a passage about how housewives in Greece include lots of herbs inside their cooking. This is supposedly where the inspiration of this drink came from.

Taste
The taste is slightly bitter and you can definitely taste the herbs that are inside the drink. I could clearly taste the mint and rosemary, while the lemongrass was quite subtle. I could not distinguish the taste of geranium since I do not know what it tastes like.
Although very unique as it is unsweet, the taste wasn't unexpected at all.　It tastes like what you would expect an herbal green tea to taste like.

Lemongina - Does it taste like dirt? - Taste & Review

Although it has the French national flag printed on the label, Lemongina is available only in Japan. It was sold on March 31st, 2015 by Japanese brewer and beverages company, Suntory, which also owns the Orangina brand of beverages. Suntory claims that its researchers, in association with Orangina Snapple, spent over two years in France developing a lemon peel extract suited to the tastes of the Japanese consumer.

Taste
Upon release, many consumers claimed that the taste of Lemongina resembled that of "dirt". However, I did not taste "dirt" in the drink; instead, I felt a strong lemon peel flavor, and a genuine lemon taste, much like that of homemade lemonade. My theory is that since lemons are not so widely used in Japan, many people may have associated the flavor of the lemon peel with their experiences of smelling "dirt".

Lemongina contains actual lemon juice, along with grapefruit juice and orange juice, and is not so sweet. Although many carbonated drinks taste artificial, Lemongina tastes very natural and does not have much fizz to it.

In conclusion, I would describe Lemongina as "carbonated homemade lemonade".

References
http://www.suntory.co.jp/softdrink/news/pr/d/sbf0228.html