06/02/2002   English German
  Edition # 40  
San Francisco, 06-02-2002

Beverages
Figure [1]: Vending machine at night

Michael In Japanese cities, there are vending machines on almost every street corner offering drinks of all kinds: from soft drinks like Coca Cola to cans of cold coffee and even beer and whiskey, you can find everything you want there, 24 hours a day. You read that right: there's even beer in the vending machines, and we've also seen whiskey. The machines accept up to 500 yen coins (about 4.30 euros) and even 1000 yen bills (about 9 euros) and reliably return the change. A small keg of Asahi beer and a bottle of whiskey for about 20 euros were the most expensive products I saw; otherwise, a can costs about 140 yen (1.20 euros).

In the USA, such a vending machine would have an average lifespan of a few hours before someone broke into it, but in Japan, this system seems to work brilliantly; people even throw the drink cans into the appropriate trash containers after use -— unheard of!

Figure [2]: Japanese drinks

Different countries, different drinking customs: I have tried out the most exciting new flavors of the local drink selection for you. In illustration 2, we move from the top left to the bottom right:

Chinese Tea by Coca Cola (1): Unfermented Chinese tea, not quite as harsh in aftertaste as its original green counterparts. A bit friendlier for the Western palate. Kirin Fire (2) and Kirin Super Fire (3): Chilled coffee with milk and sugar, nicely rounded in flavor, with a long, fine finish. Georgia Emerald Mountain Blend (4): Chilled coffee with milk, pleasantly spicy, but with a slightly fishy aftertaste. Natua (5): A milk-like refreshing drink tasting like thin kefir, without any other recognizable additives, similar to Turkish Ayran. Acerola Drink (6): A drink tasting like artificial cherries with vitamins, without carbonation. Takes some getting used to. Kirin Kiki-Chi-ya (7): Oolong tea, somewhat unusual for Western palates, with a strong tannin aftertaste. Unlike unfermented green tea and fermented black tea, Oolong tea is semi-fermented and therefore tastes a bit less grassy than green tea. Calpis Cool Soda (8): Lemonade tasting like Chabeso. Suntory Green Tea (9): Cold green tea. Takes some getting used to, but very refreshing. Suntory Gokuri (10): A delicious grapefruit drink, with an exceptionally pure, fresh taste, pleasant, balanced sweetness, not as overly sweet as the American stuff. I strongly suspect this will be a future Japanese export hit, and as always, you read it here first in the newsletter. Green Tea by Kirin (11): Cold green tea, drinkable. Kirin Milk Tea (12): A mild chilled black tea with milk. Unpleasant UHT milk aftertaste.

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