Tuesday, September 23, 2014

Fanta Mango ファンタ豊潤マンゴー

Fanta Houjun Mango is a mango-flavored Fanta drink sold in Japan since 2014.

Taste
Despite having no mango juice inside, the taste of the drink is not artificial at all. This maybe due to the drink not using any artificial sweeteners. Overall, it's a fruity drink that tastes like carbonated mango juice.

Monday, September 22, 2014

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.



Friday, September 19, 2014

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.

Tuesday, September 16, 2014

HI-C Peach

HI-C Peach is a non-carbonated, sweetened, peach drink sold by Coca Cola Japan. The product was reintroduced in 2014.

The drink contains 20% peach juice, and is very fruity as a result. The sweetness of the drink is just shy of being too sweet, which makes for one nice drink to consume when chilled.

Saturday, September 6, 2014

Gokuri Sweet Pineapple

Gokuri Sweet Pineapple is a fruit drink sold by Suntory in Japan, and is part of the "Gokuri" series. The drink contains 15% juice consisting of pineapple and lemon juice, sugar, fruit fibers, and fruit extract.

Taste
The fruit fibers give the drink an impression of freshly squeezed pineapple juice. However, since the drink is not 100% juice, it is not as viscous and is easier to drink than pure juice.
This makes the drink an excellent thirst-quencher during the hot Japanese summers.

Sunday, August 31, 2014

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".

Wednesday, August 27, 2014

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.