News

New review coming Nov. 16.

Hello?
Is anybody there?
It's the 17th. Where's the update for crying out loud?
Well, to answer your question... Unfortunately, there is no update.
Why not? Because I got overly ambitious and failed.

A lot of work goes into an update. First of all you have to drink something. Also you have to take a picture of the bottle AND, AND, don't forget, you have to write like a paragraph.

Please forgive me in my humiliating embarrassment. Believe me, there is plenty more Shrimp Coffee, Pork's Blood Tea, Green Yogurt Curd Juice, Bread Wine Water, and Bread Water Wine out there to try and write about. There's a lot to learn to. That being said, my suggestion to you: Get out there and research!

[KIRIN | Ice Lemon]

Quite similar to Pokka's Lemon Tea, but not quite as zesty .. I'm finding it difficult to not compare it to the Pokka, and reminisce about the zesty lemon, aah... it makes my respect for the honey'n'lemon so much deeper. :)

Kirin, although you make a good product, there's room for improvement here.

Taste (7)

Weirdness (2)

Satisfaction (6)

[Sangaria | Grape 100% 赤ぶどう]

i crack open the lid, and take a whiff... ah smells like grape bubblegum... take a sip..huh? take another sip... what's the deal... it's so watery.

yes, so a classic case of a potentially great flavour spoiled by watering it down... sangaria, what are you doing..? it would be understandable if it was a tea or 'grape water' but damn... that just ruinouses[sic] it for me.

i mean it's still refreshingly crisp and all that, but come on!

actually, on second tasting, and having now consumed most of it, it's starting to grow on me... what originally was a watery taste has given way to a much subtler but deeper flavour which is quite pleasant really.

the drink seems to based on "california ruby-red grapes" and is manufactured by Sangaria... go figure.

Taste (6..wait a minute 7.5)

Weirdness (6)

Satisfaction (6.5)

[Takeda | YOU C1000 Vitamin Lemon]

Tastes like solo (or lift), only a bit lemonier, it has vitamins B1, 1000mg of C, E and Niacinamide and comes in a small glass bottle. This one seems to be distributed under license solely for Australia and is distributed by "Sony Trading"... maybe the Japanese employees at Sony Australia couldn't live without a shot of their daily bitamin remon.

I reckon' this drink would taste better without carbonation, but that's just me. Overall, if you're feeling a bit flat (no pun intended), a shot of vitamins might be just what Dr. Takeda ordered.

Taste (8)

Weirdness (5) Sony?

Satisfaction (6)

[CALPIS | Apple & Carrot 「にんじんとりんごのカルピス」]

..so this is kinda the opposite of the fruit mix drink I reviewed earlier that tasted like carrot as this one has, as far as I'm concerned, no carrot flavour at all.

The drink is surprisingly - not bad - i was expecting the carrot to be rather unpleasant, and picked it out specifically with a potentially bad review in mind, gotta mix it up a bit.. but it's basically quite a tasty apple juice, and might even be actually good for ya.

It doesn't have the traditionally milky taste like other Calpis' and isn't too watery either. Overall a not-too-shabby beverage - from Japan.

Taste (7.5)

Weirdness (5.5) where's the carrot?

Satisfaction (6)

Big O [LOTTE | Cheju-Do Mountain Orange]

Not sure if that's the real name of the drink as I coudn't find any english related sites on this bevo. But after trawling the Korean site for this drink, I found a page on it here. Using AltaVista's Babel Fish translator, this is what I got (sounds like a pledge...):

It will use the feeling orange of the Cheju-Do mountain and the possibility which it will enjoy a freshness one taste in order to be, the feeling orange week which it made su with orange week su with there is a possibility of feeling the taste which is different unique.

Yeah, so... anyway it's a tasty OJ, don't know how that mountain really affects its taste, but I like it. The bottle here is a massive 1.5 litres, so that ought to last a few minutes.

Taste (8.5)

Weirdness (4.5) - the small grey dude on the bottle

Satisfaction (8)

Fantastic Feel! [LOTTE | MILKIS Orange Flavour]

I didn't really rant (or rave) about the plain milkis, but this orange one is pretty tasty... it has a bizarre fizzy orange flavour that's combined with a milky kinda sweetness, it's like a milked down version of fanta or some't, but not in a bad way.

asianbev reviewed this drink and the original milkis before and whilst i'm not as enthusiastic about the plain one, this one has potential.

For more info, check out the LOTTE website (밀키스) because milk... well it's just that milk..is... milkis. (Contains vitamin A, C&D)

Taste (7.5)

Weirdness (6)

Satisfaction (6.5)

Oxygen? [SANGARIA | O2]

Okay, so let's start with the basics, O2 is the symbol for Oxygen... so what would you expect to find in an aluminium bottle with the label O2 on it? Well if you're me, you'd be thinking sports or energy drink...?

Anyway so I opens the bottle and take a swig... water... plain water. Disappointment would be an understatement. Why would you import plain water, I mean I can understand evian and stuff like that, but even that's probably bottled in Australia.

Okay so not happy with the idea of going to all that trouble for plain bottled water I dig deeper and the reason it's O2 and not H2O, which would make sense, is because it's apparently Oxygen enriched water... H2O2? Nah... no idea how that would work, but it tasted pretty much like standard water.

I like the design of the bottle.. aluminium all the way!

Taste (1)

Weirdness (10)

Satisfaction (2)

75th Post!

It wasn't so along ago that we celebrated our 50th post by launching the site, dorinku.com to replace the old dorinku.blogspot.com address.

The blog only started in November last year and 71 of the 75 posts currently up were posted in the last 2 months of 2007.

To celebrate the 75th post we've added Digg It! and Add a del.icio.us bookmark options to each post, so go ahead and digg us! or add our delicious drinks to your favourite social bookmarking site.

If you end up digging a bunch of our posts we might offer up a rewarding surprise for ya in the form of some official Dorinku merchandise (subject to availability and restricted to residents of the USA and Australia, all terms and conditions strictly at the discretion of the dorinku.com reviewers).

Drop us a comment to this post if you're a digger!

Good Olde [Pokka | Milk Coffee - Real Brewed]

This drink, or at least one very similar to it, was reviewed earlier by asianbev. As you can see the can pictured above is quite different from the one asianbev reviewed, but it would be hard to believe that Pokka would make two different versions of canned coffee and use the same slogan "Real Brewed" on them.

The coffee was quite mild, however it had an authentic coffee taste to it, not too sweet, and thus the 'real brewed' slogan has some pull to it.

Personally I can't get past Suntory BOSS canned coffee and am yet to review the milk coffee version of that drink.

However as far as canned coffee from Japan or anywhere else in Asia goes, this one fares well and would be one I would drink again in lieu of BOSS.

There's a lightly amusing yet not necessarily related coffee animation at the Pokka website showing the evolution of the character featured on the alternative can who seemingly has aged along with the coffee over the years, see it here.

Taste (8)

Weirdness (2)

Satisfaction (7)

[Pokka | Cappucino]

..it has a creamy flavour, and a hint of vanilla or something... but yeh, nice, it tastes great and comes in a taller than usual can so you get a few extra mouthfulls to gulp down, which is totally appreciated. I don't exactly know what it is about this coffee, but it does have a different taste to say boss and let's be..

Interesting...

Taste (7.5)

Weirdness (3)

Satisfaction (6.5)

A bit unfruity [SANGARIA | Oishii 100% Mikkusu Juice]

You'd think the combination of apple, orange, peach, pineapple and grape flavours would create a really fruitful taste, but alak alas not.

On first sip I have to say I was disappointed with Sangaria's Oishii 100% 'Mix' Juice (おいしい100％ジュース - Oishii means Tasty). What seemed to be an exciting discovery of a new beverage in the local Japanese/Korean grocery (have so far reviewed 99% of the imported asian drinks there) turned out to be a slight disappointment.

The reason for the disappointment is quite simple and is as follows - it tastes like carrot juice.

Other than that it's okay, it still meets the requirements of being refreshing and juicy, but the flavour does not match the packaging.

Taste (6)

Weirdness (5) antiWYSIWYG

Satisfaction (6.5)

Rehash [LOTTE | Milkis - New Feeling of Soda Beverage]

We've done a couple of reviews (and here) of this drink before, so I won't carry on about it.

You may or may not have ever left a carton of milk to its own devices, but if you have and you were unfortunate enough to try and drink it, you'll notice one of two things, it's either gone lumpy and/or it's got a fizzy taste to it. It's the latter of these two things that Milkis more resembles. It's a fizzy milky sweet drink with a rather bizarre slogan, "new feeling of soda beverage" - they got that right... fizzy milk is a new feeling, unless you are one of the unfortunate ones as outlined earlier.

Don't know that Milkis is really my cup of p1ss, but some people seem to enjoy it enough to buy a six pack of the orange flavoured version...

Taste (6.5)

Weirdness (6.5)

Satisfaction (5)

Calpico Can [Calpis | Water]

Calpis Water, also know as Calpico Water, or カルピスウォーター (Karupisu Uaataa) is a Japanese beverage that has been reviewed on this site several times by asianbev.

Please read his reviews on Calpis Flavors or Bottled Hello Kitty Calpico Water and his most recent excellent video review on Calpis Concentrate. There is Wikipedia entry on the drink here.

My take on the can version of the drink is this, if you take water and you add milk to it, it doesn't matter how much sugar you add it's a gross concept... However, it's a seriously popular drink and I don't mind downing the odd can when I'm having Ramen or Katsu-don at my favourite Japanese Noodle Bar, Ichi-ban Boshi (That's where the can pictured is from). It has a very sweet taste, and although I'm sure it has some kind of milk in it, I wouldn't describe the flavour as milky at all.

The drink is very refreshing and as asianbev has demonstrated, comes in a variety of flavors, including; strawberry, grape, guava, mango, pineapple, orange, melon, peach and others (sited from Wikipedia). The official Calpis website has a US English version that contains info on their various products.

The flavour is kinda tangy and probably created by the inclusion of lactobacilli which is some kind of yoghurt culture/bacteria I believe, although I wouldn't necessarily have noticed the yoghurty taste. It's interesting enough to make me want to drink it again, and unique enough to ensure that I won't be buying other brands.

Taste (7)

Weirdness (5)

Satisfaction (8)

Same same? [Woongjin | Green Plum]

The beverage featured above is very similar if not identical to a drink I reviewed earlier by Haitai under the name "Ume Plum".

This drink was almost sickly sweet and not possible to consume in one sitting. It is a much larger quantity than the Haitai brand version and also seems to be sweeter and more artificial/brewed tasting. As the Haitai version reviewed earlier comes in a small can the drink seems a lot more enjoyable as you savour each sip knowing the next might be your last.

Having said that, I did enjoy this drink and it had a much more potent flavour than the aforementioned. During cherry blossom season in Japan, a fermented version of Ume plum wine is very popular, and having been in Japan during the celebrations a couple of years ago I can tell you that it's good stuff. This beverage reminded me much more of the wine than the Haitai version, so each has it's niche market I suppose.

In order to enjoy this beverage to it's maximum, I suggest consuming it at as colder temperature as possible.

Taste (7)

Weirdness (4)

Satisfaction (6.5)