Kirin Tropicana Coconut Water

 

About
Kirin Tropicana Coconut Water is a non-carbonated sweetened drink that contains 15% coconut juice. This "renewed" version was first sold on April 21st of 2015, after the previous version was sold on July of 2014.
Kirin Tropicana is a joint venture between Kirin, a famous Japanese brewer and the famous PepsiCo of the United States.

Taste
The taste is smooth and velvety, just like what you would expect from coconut juice. It is a bit sour, compared to regular coconut juice, perhaps due to the citric acid.
Since I've tasted real, 100% coconut juice, I must say that this drink is a bit watery and sour in comparison. However, if you look at it as "coconut water", the wateriness can be justified.

Kirin Tropicana Squeeze - Key Lime

The drink recommends that you flip
it upside down once before drinking.

About
Tropicana Squeeze Key Lime is a carbonated soft drink sold by Kirin-Tropicana, a joint venture between Pepsico, Inc. and Kirin Holdings Company, Limited.
The drink contains 11% lime juice and uses only sugar as a sweetener.

Taste
The drink is not so sweet and the taste of the key lime is fragrant and strong. The slight bitterness of the zest can also be tasted as well. It tastes natural, and does not taste artificial at all.

Review
Overall, I got the impression of a gourmet drink, a drink you might find in a restaurant or bar, made with freshly squeezed lime. I think it's definitely worth buying for the price.

Caffeine Zero Namacha (カフェインゼロ生茶)

About
Namacha is a brand of bottled green tea sold by Japanese beverage company, Kirin. Namacha was first sold on March, 2000 while the caffeine-less version was sold on April, 2014.
Shown here is the "Caffeine-Zero Namacha". On the label, it is printed that they now use 1.6 times more tea leaves than before and brew the tea at 70°C. It is also claimed on the label that Namacha is the world's first bottled green tea to have less than 0.001g/100ml of caffeine.

Taste
Compared to other bottled green tea brands, Namacha seems to have a smooth, velvety taste and also has a subtlely sweet aftertaste. It's a good drink, but don't expect bottled green tea to taste like freshly brewed green tea; the taste is a little different. The same can be said for other bottled green tea brands as well.
Compared with the normal Namacha, there seems to be no difference in taste.

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.

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.

Gogo No Koucha(午後の紅茶) Straight Tea

Gogo No Koucha, which literally means "Tea in the Afternoon", is a line of tea drinks sold by KIRIN in Japan, mainland China, and Taiwan.
The "Straight Tea(ストレートティー)" is one of their main products in their lineup and has been sold in Japan since 1984, the year Gogo No Koucha was first introduced into the market.

Ingredients & Taste
Gogo No Koucha Straight Tea uses 100% Ceylon tea leaves from the Dimbula region in Sri Lanka. It also contains a hefty amount of sugar so it's quite sweet. KIRIN claims that the Dimbula tea has a rose-like flavor, and I must admit, the product actually does have flowery and rose-like taste.
Overall, it's a well-made drink, and the flowery taste goes well with the sweetness from the sugars. For those who don't like sweetened tea, there is also Gogo No Koucha Oishi Mutou, which is unsweetened.

KIRIN - World Kitchen Elderflower & Lemon Peel

KIRIN World Kitchen Elderflower & Lemon Peel is one of the newest lineups in the "World Kitchen" series.
On the label of the bottle there is a short passage that describes where the product got its concept from. The passage is about how a lady in Morocco makes "flower water" by distilling water in a contraption where a layer of flowers are placed over a vat of hot water(picture depicted on the bottom right corner of the photo above).
It also goes on to say that the product was made by adding distilled water from lemon peel and sparkling water on top of the elderflower water to make a refreshing and fragrant sparkling water.

What's Inside?
Other than the elderflower and lemon peel, there seems to be less than 1% of lemon juice and grape juice inside the drink. There is absolutely no sugar or sweeteners added in the drink.

Taste
The most striking characteristic about this drink is that it is not sweet at all. It's basically flavored sparkling water.
So what kind of flavor is it?
The flavor itself is quite faint to be honest. It is slightly bitter, likely from the lemon peel, and is quite fragrant from the elderflower. I guess "Fancy & Unconventional" would be the words I would use to describe this drink.
Overall, it is a drink that will go well with food, but not as an everyday drink. It lacks the impact to leave a strong impression and I would not consider buying this product once more for the price it is(140 yen).

KIRIN World Kitchen Salty Lychee - A Japanese Hit

KIRIN World Kitchen Salty Lychee is a popular drink among young people in Japan, to an extent where it is now considered a hit. The producer, KIRIN has even introduced a 1.5-liter bottle version of the drink, a first in the "World Kitchen" lineup.
On the bottle is some interesting text that tells about how the drink got its concept from a Thai dessert called ローイ・ゲーオ(probably: Loy Kaew) from a lady in Thailand. It also includes the lady's quote that "Fruit becomes more delicious with salt" and that they(World Kitchen) used that wisdom to produce this drink, which uses salt from Okinawa.

What's Inside?
The drink contains less than 10% of fruit juice, which includes lychee, grapes, and grapefruit, so it's mostly water. On top of that, the drink contains salt from Okinawa, sugar, and herbs.

Taste
Despite the fact that it's less than 10% juice, you can definitely taste the lychee in there. You can also taste the slight saltiness which gives the drink a nice zest to it. The drink tastes best when it's chilled, and one can understand why it's such a hit. It's unusual, unique, and tastes great.