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Amidst reports of Tokyo mums buying up bottled water for their babies, let’s not overlook the vast array of flavoursome soft drinks on offer in Japan. Factoid of the day number
1 – there’s a vending machine for every 12 citizens in Japan (including a couple at the top of Mt Fuji).
2 – more new soft drink beverages hit the market in Japan than anywhere else in the world. In a country seemingly obsessed with hatsubai 発売 (new products), 300 to 1,000 new fresh and funky flavours appear annually. Most disappear faster than a J-Pop band member after her twentieth birthday, but some of the wackier ones end up selling millions a year. And when I say funky, I mean ‘slightly funny smelling’ as much as ‘wow, cool new flavour.’ Pepsi Ice Cucumber, anyone? Fair enough. Then can I tempt you with a Kimchee (Korean spice)-flavoured Coolpis?
Hunt among the many brand names – often amusing to an English speaker – in the local conveni and you’re bound to get hooked on one eventually. Pocari Sweat is a firm favourite, the makers claiming it’s Japan’s top-selling soft drink (is there a supercomputer attached to all those vending machines?) To some it’s electrolyte-filled manna from heaven on a hot humid day downtown; to the Urban Dictionary it tastes like ‘putting your tongue on the twin terminals of a 9v battery.’ If they mean it recharges you instantaneously when you’re hungover, they’re right. If they mean it tastes a bit funny, they obviously don’t have any of the more special flavours of Coolpis to compare it with.
Other enduring favourites include CC Lemon – the front label claims it’s got the juice of 70 lemons in it yet the back says it’s only 50% lemon – and the milk-based Calpis which comes in hot, cold and alcoholic forms. With so much to choose from it’s hard to work out what people are talking about when they say there’s shortages in Tokyo. Leave plain old bottled water for the kids and look cool and sophisticated with your new favourite funky flavoured soft drink product.
