Coca-Cola Strawberry Coke: I saw this bottle at Family Mart, and while I typically drink diet soda, I decided this was too interesting to pass on. Strawberry coke is a Japan-only product introduced only earlier this year in January. Since I enjoy cherry coke, I was interested in the soda giant’s take on a beloved fruit, particularly in Japan (I’ve seen several boxes of light pink strawberries going for an inordinate sum here). In color, the coke looks exactly the same as regular Coca-Cola, but the taste is undeniab... (read more) 4.0/5.0
recommended soda drinks japanese familymart cocacola strawberry coke 4.0
Vivit's Peach Mix Soda: This was a vending machine purchase made out of dehydration. In the US, I had solely associated Ito En with calorie-free bottles of ice tea, but they own a wide variety of brands of sweet drinks in Japan. This one is extremely sweet and reminds me a lot of ramune, but tasting of peach instead of pear. It's also very fizzy and one of the more carbonated drinks I've had here. Maybe it's the nostalgia of drinking ramune as a kid, but I really liked this one, even though I could tell it was ... (read more) 4.0/5.0
drinks recommended vendingmachine itoen vivits peach mix soda 4.0 japanese
Seijo Ishii Green Curry Senbei Rice Crackers: This is a supermarket-branded rice cracker snack flavored like Thai green curry. The bag is not resealable, which I'm guessing means that it could be opened and eaten in a single sitting (with a group of people, though - even for me, it was about 4 servings). The crackers are Senbei Japanese rice crackers, shaped like miniature pancakes typically with a glazed coating, but the flavoring on this one was a powdered seasoning. It actually did taste remarkably like green curry, with a little ... (read more) 4.0/5.0
senbei japanese seijoishii green curry rice crackers 4.0
Gua Maral Sea Berry Lactis: Purchased this miniature bottle of juice from the Tsukuba train station at a shop dedicated to local products. From the illustration, I gather that it's sea-buckthorn juice, and it was super tart and a little milky, almost like a yogurt drink in consistency. I've had sea-buckthorn a few times, mostly at Nordic shops and restaurants, and it has a very unique sour flavor. I love it, but I can also see how it might not be to everyone's taste. Would want to have it with breakfast every day, per... (read more) 4.0/5.0
recommended juice seabuckthorn berries japanese guamaral sea berry lactis 4.0
Bec Cola Organic Cola with Maple Syrup: Bec is a Montreal-based soda company whose original product is the Bec Cola pictured here. It contains just a few recognizable ingredients: carbonated water, organic maple syrup, sugar, citric acid, and cola flavour. Typically, I find maple syrup-based drinks to be overly sweet, but this one is very judicious - it contains 27g of sugar, so it's sweet but not too sweet, and it tastes first of cola with just a finish of rich maple syrup flavor. Definitely recommend! 4.0/5.0
canadian Recommend drinks soda maplesyrup beccola organic cola maple syrup 4.0
Nico Sweet potato donut: There's a pocket-sized store close to the train station that sells freshly made donuts about the size of a Montreal bagel. They're a bit pricy relatively, compared to how inexpensive most things are in Japan, but a purple Japanese sweet potato donut caught my eye, and I purchased one at about $2.50. The texture of the donut was very unique, not crumbly like cake donuts, but also not oily at all like heavily fried donuts. Almost like a very light pound cake, but barely sweetened. In fact, th... (read more) 4.0/5.0
recommended tokyo japanese dessert nico sweet potato donut 4.0