Wandering on the internet, I saw the japanese site of Coca-Cola, and I saw the products section, there's a lot of weird products and products that we already know (Fanta and Sprite) but with different labels than the ones that were accustomed and with different versions, like Powerade that is yellow but I don't know how does it taste... and considering that the japanese commercials are really weird.

www.cocacola.co.jp/products/lineup/index.html

In the side of Pepsi, in fact there's no PepsiCo division in Japan, Suntory Ltd. is the company that makes Pepsi products in Japan (Pepsi, Diet Pepsi, Pepsi Twist, 7UP, Mountain Dew, and the new Pepsi Nex) the packaging is strange too...

www.pepsi.co.jp

I wonder how does the japanese sodas taste... specially Coke...

Have you ever tried a Japanese soda in your life?

[ 04-07-2006, 02:24 PM: Message edited by: Ramón Cokeaholic ]

I miss Japanese Pepsi Twist.... It actually tastes like real lemon.

I remember when C2 launched in Japan. It was huge. I was working for Japanese newspaper at the time, and the food carts outside were surrounded with sound stages, dancers, and banners advertising the stuff. They gave it out free for a week, and I didn't mind too much

Vanilla Coke and Pepsi Vanilla both flopped pretty hard. Japanese weren't too fond of the stuff, though I absolutely adore it. I actually found a cache of Diet Pepsi Vanilla today at a CVS in Scottsdale, and I snatched up all of the unexpired ones.

Canada Dry Ginger Ale definitely has a stronger ginger taste, which I enjoy. Kind of like Reed's (which, coincidentally, I discovered while attending Reed College). Ginger Ale in the US is a bit too weak for me, and if I do a side-by-side comparison, US Ginger Ale tastes almost like Sprite.

Winter Apple Fanta is absolutely gorgeous tasting. It's more like an apple cider. It's tart, not too sweet, and is highly carbonated, so it almost dances on your tongue.

I can't account for the strange phenomenon that is melon soda. For a nation who likes their beverages on the not-too-sweet side, melon soda is cloyingly sweet. Moreover, the color looks like green highlighter pen ink.

I wish I could say more about Japanese Coke and Pepsi. Although I'm a soda freak, I'm a tea fan at heart, and pretty much stuck to Suntory bottled oolong and green tea. And Gokuri, which is a lightly carbonated grapefruit soda with real grapefruit chunks. Mmm. It was like IZZE or The Switch, but thicker with the addition of pulp, so it was infinitely more satisfying.


I'll be back in Japan this summer to visit my family, so I'll be sure to come back with a report. They always have seasonal additions, which actually coincide with seasonal fruits, so it's always a pleasure to go back- Plus, summer is festival season, so I'll be drinking plenty of Ramune, traditional Japanese soda ('Ramune' comes from the Japanese phonetic pronunciation of 'lemonade'). The best is the winter offerings, with Matcha (tastes like concentrated green tea) Pocky and the aforementioned Winter Apple Fanta.

[ 04-07-2006, 05:45 PM: Message edited by: Techne ]

Thanks Techne for your comments!

Wow! C2 surely had a great advertising launch there, maybe that's one of the things that shows why is still in Japan... and wow!... C2 free for a week? It's like heaven!

I remember seeing once Vanilla Coca-Cola on the Japanese website and on sale on E-bay, but I noticed that suddenly when C2 came in, Vanilla came out... but one thing I didn't know was that Pepsi Vanilla was available in Japan too...

Now that you mention it, I don't think I've seen Pepsi Vanilla in Japan either... Thanks for pointing that out-


Forgot my favorite part about Japanese sodas... Aluminum 600mL bottles! Best of both words, the size of a bottle, with the chill and taste of aluminum. Chugging an ice cold Pepsi Twist from an aluminum bottle is by far the most effective hangover cure I've ever known.

[ 04-08-2006, 01:32 AM: Message edited by: Techne ]

WOW! did you all see the sprite graphics!
BAD A%&!

See more, man!

Japanese Sprite Site

and the Fanta bottle is really crazy!

[ 04-10-2006, 02:19 PM: Message edited by: Ramón Cokeaholic ]

I wonder if the Japanese make any soda with sea weed or fish?