Beverages

06/02/2002 English German

Edition # 40
San Francisco, 06-02-2002

Japan, Finally Aircraft as Arcade Tokyo Gastronomy Tokyo Fish Market Masks Beverages Beer Paper tissues Shuwattchi! Fashion Safety Technophilia Shinkansen Japanese speaking English Busy Bodies Rambunctious Youth Surveyed by Students Geishas Original and American knockoff Consumer Frenzy Japanese toilets Bicycles in Tokyo Train station in Tokyo Uniforms Taxis To Bow Shoes Off and Shoes On Hiroshima Ryokan Japanese Bath In the temple for AOL Koya-San Cemetery in Koya-San

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.