Funky Japanese Drinks

Although the Japanese cannot quite rival the Taiwanese for funky drinks in total  (There are an unbelievable number of fruit, milk tea, pearl tea, etc. drinks that can be had everywhere in Taiwan.), the convenience store and vending machine drink selection in Japan is amazing and it keeps changing, with the season and with new products.  In summer, they get rid of all the hot drinks available in the vending machine to make room for more cold drinks.  I got this drink out of the vending machine at the train station nearest work.  It had mango juice and bits of mango jelly.  I was kind of expecting real mango fruit bits but I guess that wasn’t very practical for a vending machine canned drink.

I’ve also had some Mango Au Lait at work from the convenience store downstairs, basically a mango milk drink that’s pretty refreshing and yummy.  There’s also random flavors of Fanta and the usual variety of tea drinks.

As Henry and I discovered, Calpis Soda is pretty good, too.  Yes, you read right, Calpis.  Another funny drink name is, of course, the famous Pocari Sweat (it actually tastes a bit like Gatorade or any other sports drink).  And in Japan , there are the imitators of Pocari Sweat like Aquarius, all have a slightly different taste but basically the same.  Then, last night I saw and had to pick up a bottle of Coke with Green Tea flavor!  I had seen this in a segment of CNN, currently unique to the Japanese market.  Green tea and Coke – now that’s an interesting combo.  It pretty much tastes like regular Coke though, slight aftertaste since it’s got zero calories.  What will they think of next?