Gokuri Grapefruit

About
Gokuri Grapefruit is a fruit drink sold by Japanese beverage company, Suntory, under their "Gokuri" lineup of fruit drinks. It is one of the most popular Gokuri flavors and has been a long-selling item.
The drink used to contain 30% grapefruit juice, but now contains 22% grapefruit juice.

Taste
The drink is sweet and bitter much like when you eat a real grapefruit. The drink also contains fibers from the fruit, which gives the impression like you are drinking a freshly-squeezed grapefruit. Overall, it's a very tasty drink.

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

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.

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

KIRIN World Kitchen - Vitamina

KIRIN World Kitchen's Vitamina is a non-carbonated drink made with 5 types of berries, blackcurrant, raspberries, blueberries, strawberries, and cranberries. The drink also contains grape, grapefruit, and acelola juices and contains 450mg of vitamin C.
On the label of the drink, there is some text that describes how a mother in Sweden makes a syrup called "Saft" from berries picked during the summer. It goes on to say that Vitamina is made by mixing water and other fruit juices with Saft.


Taste
The drink is sufficiently sweet and has a very strong berry taste. Out of the berries, I found the raspberry to taste the strongest. Overall, it's an unusual and interesting drink to have.

Calpis Welch's Crush Muscat

Calpis Welch's Crush Muscat is a carbonated, muscat-grape-flovored drink sold by Calpis in Japan. It's quite unique in that it contains 20% real muscat grape juice; most drinks only have a few percent of juice contained inside.

Taste
The first impression I got from the drink was that it was a very fruity drink with a strong muscat flavor. The drink contains sweeteners and is very sweet; personally, I find it a little too sweet. There is some fizz to the drink, but not much.
Overall, I would describe it as "sweetened carbonated muscat grape juice".

Ramune Desuyo

"Ramune Desuyo" is a Ramune drink sold in PET bottle form.

What is Ramune?
The word "Ramune" comes from the English word, "lemonade", and in the past, Ramune actually used to taste like lemonade. Nowadays, "Ramune" is distinguished from "Lemonade" and has a unique taste of its own.
Ramune usually comes in a distinctive glass bottle where a marble must be pushed down to open it. The bottle for this drink however, is made from plastic whereas the marble is glass like it usually is.
Ramune is usually consumed in the summer and is often sold in matsuri and firework festivals.

The glass marble inside

Taste

The taste of "Ramune Desuyo" is what it is, Ramune. With a refreshing and somewhat-citrus taste, it goes well with the hot Japanese summers.

Mitsuya Fruit Cider Lychee

Introduced in June of this year, this drink is "Mitsuya Fruit Cider Lychee" sold by Asahi.

Taste
Despite the fact that the drink only contains 1% lychee juice, the taste of lychee is strong and goes well with the taste of Mitsuya Cider. The carbonation is not that strong, which makes for one easy-to-drink soft drink.
Overall, it's one fruity and tasty drink that I might consider buying again.

Sokenbicha Sukkiri Blend

Sokenbicha(爽健美茶) is the most popular blended tea drink sold in Japan. It was originally introduced into the market as a rival product to Asahi's "Jurokucha".

A New Blend
Last year, a vote was held to decide whether or not the new "Sukkiri Blend" tasted better than the old, original blend. Personally, I preferred the original blend as the new blend tasted a bit watery and light. That was not surprising as, "Sukkiri(すっきり)" literally means "clear / refreshing". The new blend incorporates 2 new ingredients, yomogi and black sesame, while ridding of pu-erh, green tea, biwa leaves, tochu leaves, and germinated brown rice. By ridding of green tea and pu-erh, the the new drink has become caffeine-free.
The results of the voring, announced May last year, was 824,441votes for the new taste and 716,504 votes for the old one.
So now, only the new Sokenbicha can be seen around Japan.

Taste
Sokenbicha tastes mainly of barley and brown rice, but the other ingredients give it a nice flowery and aromatic taste to it. This can be said for both the new and old tastes of Sokenbicha.
Since Sokenbicha has such a unique flavor, the best way to find out about the taste is to drink it yourself.

Comment
Even after the change in blend, Sokenbicha is still one of my favorite drinks. Healthy, aromatic and refrshing, Sokenbicha is something I would likely buy on a hot summer day.