drinks (540)
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Yifang Matcha Brown Sugar Bubble Tea: I was delighted to come across the Taiwanese bubble tea shop Yifang in Shin Okubo, the Koreatown of Shinuku in Tokyo. I wish I were able to read the menu of fruit tea options, but I had to go by the pictures and decided to try their matcha latte with brown sugar, a drink that has a fixed amount of sugar (unlike some other menu items, where you can adjust how sweet you'd like it to be). I did find the drink to be sweet for my taste, but the combination of bitter matcha with sweet brown suga... (read more) 4.0/5.0

recommended drinks tokyo taiwanese boba bubbletea yifang matcha brown sugar bubble tea 4.0
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Fanta Premier Peach Soda: Fanta has all sorts of flavors in Japan that you can't get in the US, including melon, pineapple, and now peach. It's made with 13% actual juice (Minute Maid branded) to give you a sense of a potential gap between packaging / marketing and actual contents. The soda has a champagne gold color and tastes very much like peach-flavored candies. In particular, I used to love eating Kasugai Japanese fruit gummies that came individually wrapped and were shaped like half domes; this drink is like... (read more) 3.0/5.0

soda japanese aeon fanta premier peach 3.0 drinks
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Tou Lan Tea Strawberry Latte with Boba: I had some bad experiences with several bubble tea shops when I first came to Japan (ones I didn't bother to review), but there was a highly rated spot not too far from the university that I decided to check out. They feature a handful of classic herbal teas along with a wider menu of fruit teas, smoothies, as well as a whole section of banana lattes (I'm not sure why!). The strawberry latte was excellent, like a milder and less sweet version of strawberry ice cream (I had it at their "les... (read more) 4.0/5.0

recommended drinks tokyo toulantea strawberry latte boba 4.0
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Otsuka Match Jelly: Match Jelly is a popular citrus soda that's the color of electric yellow Gatorade and is similarly fortified with "nutrition" like Vitamin B6, Niacin, and Vitamin C. I haven't actually had Match soda before, but it's a standard vending machine staple. While vending machines have full-sized bottles, they also usually have a small selection of half-size containers, which I like to buy when I'm thirsty but not wanting more than a single serving. I purchased this "jelly" version of Match f... (read more) 4.0/5.0

recommended drinks japanese vendingmachine otsuka match jelly 4.0
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Suntory Grape Gokuri Juice: I expected this drink to be carbonated, but it's more like a grape juice that contains pulpy bits of grape. It comes in a thin aluminum bottle with a screw top, which is pretty convenient because the drink is too sweet to want to drink in a single serving. Overall, it was a largely average drink, not something I would purchase again. 2.5/5.0

drinks japanese suntory grape gokuri juice 2.5
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Seijo Ishii Extra Spicy Ginger Ale: Ginger ale is my favorite soda, and I love ginger drinks that are particularly spicy, so I was excited to try this version claiming to be extra spicy. The bottle was a bit thicker than normal, which made me hopeful that it would contain especially carbonated soda. Overall, I found the ginger flavor to definitely be above average, probably in the top 40% of ginger ales I've had, but comparatively, it was just a bit spicier than Reed's Ginger Beer, which isn't as spicy as I would hope. On t... (read more) 3.5/5.0

recommended drinks gingerale japanese seijoishii extra spicy ginger ale 3.5