Japanese Foods-- nomimono

[Hiroyuki]

Draft One, a "type 3" beer, got a big thumbs down.

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Draft One is a breakthrough in that it is made from peas. I've never been fascinated by its flavor, but its price is appealing.

[Evan]

What do you consider "real beer" in Japan?

Also, is the "slim beer" same as the light beers in the US?

All of the light beers in the US are just the watered down versions of the regular beer which is why the alcohol content is lowered.

If you asked me, the whole "light" beer thing is just a marketing scheme by the companies to increase profit from a single batch of beer.

[helenjp]

3rd category beers a quick overview of the newest attempt to dodge booze taxes - beer made without wheat or malt!

The mainstream these days is "happoushu", sometimes called low-malt beer. This is also designed to lower the tax cut.

"Real" beer is traditionally brewed beer made from traditional beer ingredients. However, if you look closely, some beers contain rice or corn in addition to wheat/barley and malt.

Microbrewed or "handmade" beer is a very new phenomenon here, because liquor manufacturing was only liberalized a couple of years ago. Most of those beers are not available at supermarket level, however - I'm surprised if I even see Ginga Kogen or Orion, such is the hold that Kirin/Asahi/Suntory/Sapporo have over the market.

As far as I know, there hasn't been a low-alcohol light beer boom here, which is why the low-calorie (low-sugar/low-carb) beers are attracting attention from women. Some super-low-alcohol beers were introduced about 10 years ago, but attracted neither drinkers nor non-drinkers.

My husband often complains that he can't find beer with an alcohol content below 5% in Japan, so the new low-calorie beers with alcohol content of 3.5 - 4.5% are quite a change. When we are in New Zealand, he often likes to drink a 4.5% beer, because he's at an age when a 6% beer packs quite a punch!

[torakris]

On a completed unrelated search I happened to run across this new beer

2005 Summer Shot

It is not classified as beer, happoushu, or even a 3rd category beer, rather it falls into the liquor category......

the ingredients list happoushu, spirits (wheat) and carbon dioxide

it is 5% alcohol

some interesting (Japanese) comments

[AzianBrewer]

Since some nominomos are sweety and salty, I like to pair it with a dark beer.

Cheers,

[dornachu]

I had this drink in Japan, they came in diff flavor, i like ordering the grapefruit one, but when i came back to the states, i've never seen it! But I saw something similiar on the menu "sho ju" (spelling), is that the same thing? Just wondering. Thanks.

[JasonTrue]

This is a "sour." I think the classic is a whiskey sour, and other drinks involve blending with a sweetened lemon-lime base, traditionally foamed with egg whites.

http://www.drinkstreet.com/category.cgi?category=24

Japanese seem to have extended the concept to be most fruit juices or oolong tea blended with shochu. (I might be a bit off on this).

I had this drink in Japan, they came in diff flavor, i like ordering the grapefruit one, but when i came back to the states, i've never seen it! But I saw something similiar on the menu "sho ju" (spelling), is that the same thing? Just wondering. Thanks.

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[torakris]

Sawa (sours) is just like Jason described, they can be anything blended with a basic liquor like shochu. My husband really likes sawas and makes them at home almost daily just by mixing shochu with grapefruit juice (his favorite), some restaurants have a sawa menu that can run an entire page.

[AmyDaniel]

dornachu, are you talking about the shochu drinks with soda and fresh fruit juices (I've seen drinks with Calpico too), or the canned "chu-hi" drinks you can find in convenience stores? I like the fresh shochu drinks better, but the chu-hi drinks are low in alcohol and girly-fun to drink with friends; unfortunately, I can't find them at all here!

[torakris]

today I picked up the new Canada Dry Italian Lime Fizz

this was good! I hope these keep this one for a while...

A little while back Canada Dry had a great ginger ale with cassis and it was only out for a short time.

[smallworld]

That looks great, Kristin.

Canada Dry also had a new, stronger ginger ale out some time ago. Forget what it was called but it was delicious and slightly ginger beery. Of course, the next time I went to the store it was gone...

[torakris]

Fanta's latest

YUZU!!

[torakris]

I can't believe it the yuzu one seems to be gone already...

The current flavor of the month for Fanta seems to be kiwi

I didn't care for that one at all but the kyoho grape soda on the right wasn't half bad.

[melonpan]

drinking some iced black coffee. ucc sumiyaki. a little bitter but its so hot i dont care.

[buffy]

I know Fall is coming when Kirin's Aki Aji beer hits the shelves! It's one of my favorites, but it always seems to be gone too soon.

Also want to share a funny story regarding my first experience with Calpis. It was mid-July, I was 19 and flew into Narita to start a 6 month college exchange program. My Japanese was almost nil and this was my first visit to the country. I and a classmate were picked up at the airport by some Japanese friends who were students at our college in the US. I just remember how hot it was and how close all the houses were on the drive down to Yokohama.

The car wasn't air-conditioned (this was 1984) and we were all sweating pretty hard. My Japanese friends kept saying they would love to drink some Calpis and were were going to go to their favorite coffee shop in Yokohama to drink some refreshing Calpis. My friend and I kept glancing back at eachother a little terrified. Neither of us had ever heard of Calpis, so both of us were hearing cow-piss. So we asked questions like...does everyone drink cow-piss in the summer? What does it taste like? etc. etc.

We got to the coffee shop...Calpis was ordered for all.....my friend and I waited apprehensively. We both got a great laugh when the refreshing white Calpis arrived and it wasn't based on the liquid of a cow we were expecting! Yoghurt over cow urine anyday! Every time I drink it now I still remember that moment.

[dornachu]

I can't believe Sawa is actually just sours!!! How weird is that?? They don't taste the same in the states though....

I thought it was fruit juice mixed with shoujou... anyhow...

I am very jeolous of the yuzu fanta!!!!!

What's the diff between Shu Hi and Sawa then?

[torakris]

What's the diff between Shu Hi and Sawa then?

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I always thought that the difference was carbonation. Sours are mixed with non-carbonated juices/liquids, while chuu-hai's are mixed with carbonated beverages.

I could be off on this as I don't drink either....

Chuu-hai is a shortened form of shoCHU HIGHball.

[Hiroyuki]

From what I gather from various sources such as http://blog.melma.com/00139307/20050807120002 (Japanese only), sawa (sour) refers to a drink made with liquor with some sourness and sweetness added to it, while chuhai can now refer to any soft (i.e., low alcohol proof) alcoholic drink.

[torakris]

this was pretty gross.....

adzuki-matcha au lait

[chibirisu]

this was pretty gross.....

adzuki-matcha au lait

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Demonstrating yet again that while it may be physically possible to put adzuki and matcha flavors into everything on the planet, it is not always a good idea to do so... and not necessarily at the same time either!

I suspect the American equivalent would be the cooking-with-water-joe concept ("not wired enough yet? Make your espresso with caffeinated water and go for exponential levels of caffeination! Next step: mainlining No-doz!" @_@ Again, making coffee with water-joe is possible, and caffeine goes into everything around here, but it's not necessarily a good idea even though it's possible...)

[fenyx66]

Some of my favorite drinks are nihonshu (sake), and some of the beers are pretty good (Suntory Malt's and Kirin Classic Lager) but are really filling. At 7/11 Suntory has some frozen pouch cocktail drinks that are pretty nice for the summer like a frozen screwdriver, strawberry diaquiri etc. As for non-alcohol I really like Calpis and Active Diet Aquarius. I have been seeing a Muscat Sparkling drink in the cola section lately, has anyone tried it? If I see it again, I will try it and take a picture of the bottle.

[Kiem Hwa]

I saw an ad in a Japanese magazine for raspberry and apple flavored Asahi:

Raspberry

Apple

Other flavors are

Grapefruit

I cant find these products on the Asahi website though.

Has Anyone tried this? It looks interesting.

I still havent noticed Chu-Hi in the US, but I found a site showing Oolong-flavor Chu-Hi!

http://www.asahibeer.co.jp/products/sour/hiliki/

[torakris]

I saw an ad in a Japanese magazine for raspberry and apple flavored Asahi:

Raspberry

Apple

Other flavors are

Grapefruit

I cant find these products on the Asahi website though.

Has Anyone tried this?  It looks interesting.

I still havent noticed Chu-Hi in the US, but I found a site showing Oolong-flavor Chu-Hi!

http://www.asahibeer.co.jp/products/sour/hiliki/

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I don't think it was Asahi but I tried a fruit beer a couple months back at a restaurant here. I can't remember what fruit it was but it was red...

I hate beer! I can't even be in the same room beer is served in, but this was drinkable. It was much more similar in Chu-Hi to taste, I could only drink half of it though.

Oolong chu-hi is quite popular here and probably a regular on the chi-hi menu in restaurants. My husband mixes his shochu with green tea at home as he doesn't really care for oolong cha.

[torakris]

what's up with the new funky bottle shapes??

check out the newest 500ml bottles of fanta

and Pepsi has soemthing similar

[sanrensho]

what's up with the new funky bottle shapes??

An attempt to make less look like more?

Is the "bottle can" (2nd from left, Pepsi link) style starting to fade away?