[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)