March 05

Tags

Soft Drink Flavors I Do Not Want To Try

Posted by on March 5, 2019 in Food, Why, Japan, Why? | 2 Comments

In the scraping-the-bottom-of-the-flavor-idea-barrel sweepstakes, a clear winner. As if banana-flavored soda isn’t nauseating enough, they paired it with that nasty sour-milk yogurt flavor for good measure

This yogurt-banana mash-up surfs in on the enduring popularity of the local favorite soft drink, Calpis, which inexplicably established sweetened sour milk as a delightful flavor in Japan.

In a close second, peach-flavored Coke. Even if the western peach flavor in any way resembled a real peach, the combination with Coke’s cola flavor in no way improves it

Peach Coke is just a blatant season grab. Here, eating “seasonal” fruits and vegetables delivers wave after wave of short-term binge buying on the part of consumers, and since there is no “cola” season, Coke wanted to cash in on that.

Yes, it’s a drink made from aloe, that prickly succulent you keep around to rub on burns

Let’s get a closer look at that appetizing ingredient, shall we?

And aloe, eek. How many times have Japanese friends vehemently assured me that slimy foods are essential for health? I supposed that number is about the same number of times I’ve weaseled out of eating stinky fermented soybeans and the hair-in-slime seaweed known as mozuku.

•

While sipping strange Japanese soft drinks, Jonelle Patrick writes novels set in Tokyo

In the wake of a deadly earthquake, fans erupt in a frenzy of mourning when it’s discovered that their favorite pop star is among the dead. But when Detective Kenji Nakamura is sent to investigate a death at a local shrine, he finds evidence that suggests the impossible: How could the head priest have been murdered by…read more