Ice Ice Latte [KIRIN | ESPRESSO TEA]

What seems like a fairly harmless, perhaps even novel yet odd idea--tea in a can--espresso style... forget it.

At my first sip I thought for sure I had a dud product, it tasted like regular kirin milk tea with the addition of funky grapefruit. Automatically I assumed it must have passed it's use-by date or since I had made a buffoon of myself in the convenience store by dropping it on the ground that perhaps I had wrecked the can.

But no, apparently not. After a quick google I find that yes indeed it does have a bitter taste which some review as pleasant, but honestly I can't believe it. It is still sitting on my desk with only one sip taken and I'm not sure I want to go for another, but I must!

I check the can again for a picture of grapefruit, but find no such reference. At first swilling it around in your mouth it could be described as a really burnt flavour which I suppose is espresso-ish, but really, it seems overdone and unpleasant and now I just have a grapefruit-tea aftertaste.

If you're adventurous and/or bored, go for it. I gave it a 1/10 for satisfiction(sic) in the knowledge that it was not expired, damaged or grapefruit inspired. I found mine on the discount table and was sure I was going to be spraying it out after the first sip due to it being expired.


Taste (-6)
Weirdness (4)
Satisfaction (1)

キレートレモン [Clean & Lemon | Pokka]

Gonna keep this simple like the drink. OISHIIIII!!!

Probably the best lightly-carbonated lemon drink out of Japan... and I've not even had more than 2-3 ever. That'll have to change.

Weirdness, not much, it's hyper-tangy which is weirdish, and the name Clean & Lemon also advertised as clean & healthy is slightly quirky.

Find more here.

Main drink series site here: http://pokka.jp/kire-to/


Taste (10)
Weirdness (1)
Satisfaction (10)

Yogur de Saliva [Pineapple | with Aloe Vera]

That's right folks, Yogur de Saliva... now you don't even need your own saliva to digest or enjoy this tasty beverage, it's done for you, pre-digested in a bottle.

If only--I wish--actually it's Yogur de Savila... which is Portuguese for Youghurt of Saliva... hey awesome, so it is saliva after all...

No no... unfortunately Savila translates as Vera and I have no idea if it's portguese, apparently, so no luck with that... how do I know, because on the other side of the bottle they have the potentially "English" version of the name, Yogo Vera...

Okay, about to open the fridge door, take it out and have my first gulp...

Oh jesus... i think i just threw up in my mouth a little... no wait, i think i just took a sip of someoen else throwing up into my mouth a little..notice the lowercase "i's"... my body is suddenly drained of life as i try to refrain from barfing.

Why oh why would they sell a drink that is made up of someone else's predigested goodness?

Okay, maybe I exaggerate, you are immediately hit with a very tangy pineapple yoghurt tang, did i mention it was tangy? Anyway so after recovering from the tang you get hit with a wall of pure glucose, though i'm yet to understand what all the hype about "with Aloe Vera" is all about.

But hey, it's proudly a "PRODUCT OF SOUTH KOREA" and that's okay with me.

Okay, second and third sips now and once you get over the tang, it's basically cloudy pineapple juice. It has chunks in it which at first I think might be pineapple but they're probably vera.

Now I just shook it and had finally tasting gulp... I recommend you shake it before consuming, now there are a lot of chunks, chunks of someone else's pre-digested salival efforts, but well worth y
our effort.


Ta(ng)ste (7.5)
Weirdness (6) 
Satisfaction (6.5)

Let's get physical [House Wellness | C1000]

House Wellness C1000 claims itself to be a physical drink (whatever that means). It was a hands-on experience – I give it that, but it was no more physical than any experience I’ve ever had with a Coca-Cola Classic.

It’s red and yellow coloration immediately reminded me of McDonald’s, but that is where my familiarity ceased. I believe it is called C1000 because it contains 1000mg of vitamin C (16% of your daily recommended allotment). “vitamin DRINK” is written largely across the center of the bottle, so this may be the actual name. I am unsure if the drink contains any other vitamins because the only other recognizable character on the bottle is the number 8 displayed between some Japanese characters and followed by an explanation point. 8!!!! GREAT!!! 8 vitamins maybe? Vitamin C, vitamin big-eyed boy that looks like a girl, vitamin bear driving car?

The actual drink was carbonated. It tasted like a milder (less medicine-tasting) red bull with a stronger citrus taste. The drink tasted average to me. There was nothing bad about it, but it just got boring after a while.

Taste (4)
Weirdness (3)
Satisfaction (3.5)

[LOTTE | 2% Lemon]

Earlier I reviewed another drink in the 2% line which was a favourable review... this time however, I'm gonna have to give this one a thumbs down...

Why? Do you enjoy drinking dish-water? If your answer was yes, then read no further, this drink is for you and I congratulate you on finally finding your one true drink.

If your answer was a rationally resounding NO, then this drink unfortunately is not for you, which is what I discovered as I drained the can into my osophagus[sic].

Manufactured yet again by our brethren at LOTTE (like the last several posts), this drink was a disappointment from start to finish. You'd think as they'd gotten the subtle flavours right for the 2 percent peach that they'd nail the 2 percent lemon - but no.

Like a really dodgy watered down lemon dish washing detergent in a can, that's what you get. (Can looks nice though ;)

Taste (2)

Weirdness (1)

Satisfaction (0)

Technorati Profile

[CALPIS | THE PREMIUM CALPIS]

Aaah yeah... that's what i'm talkin about, tasty tasty tasty... this is what all calpis should taste like... it's so much more yoghurty and flava flavasome. refreshing yoghurty tang and an elegantly designed bottle. just a bit pricey at the most expensive imported drink i've pur-chased at AU$4.90.

Since pur-chasing the above mentioned beveraged, i pur-chased a second one as it's so good. if you were blind-folded and drinking it, i'd like to think you'd be forgiven for thinking it has a slightly orangey taste which i didn't notice before... then again, it might just be me.

calpis.co.jp, calpis.co.jp/english or calpis.net are the places to go to find more info. enjoy!

Taste (9.5) nearly a 10

Weirdness (3.5)

Satisfaction (8)

Oishii! [CALPIS | Strawberry Calpis]

This one is part of the "Fruit Calpis" range and as my first drink in this range I am impressed. The flavour is unmistakably strawberry and unlike some of the other fruit drinks actually tastes like real fruit. The bottle is a good size at 500ml and goes down easy.

It's a really enjoyable drink, probably one of the best I've reviewed lately and the only complaint I would have if any is that there isn't enough. The drink is slightly watery, but that's what you come to expect from Calpis drinks, a watery milky drink.

The only Calpis drink I've had before is the plain canned variety and that was pretty good.

If you wanna find out more about what we thought of Calpis, also known as Calpico be sure to check out asianbev's great video review and his other reviews here and here.

Taste (9.5) Oishii!

Weirdness (4.5)

Satisfaction (9)

変なアジアの飲料。

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)