Clone [JT | Miss Parlor 「桃の天然水」]

This drink is either identical to LOTTE's 2% that I reviewed earlier, or then it's so similar that I would have to have them sitting next to each other to taste the diffrence.

They're both peach perfumed waters, or water with a very light peach flavour. Miss Parlor is tasty drink and if I was to pick out any difference between it and 2%, then perhaps this one was a little bit more candy like in taste. Otherwise it was quite refreshing and satsiftying.

It is manufactured in Japan by JT under the branding "Miss Parlor". The latter is a dedicated interactive flash site to the branding obviously aimed at kids or freaks.

The Japanese text at the top translates to "Peach Natural Water", enjoy.




Taste (7)

Weirdness (6.5) for the website

Satisfaction (7.5)

Tea? [LOTTE | 녹차]

Not sure about this one... it was a bit of a gamble when I picked it out of the fridge at the local Korean/Japanese grocery ... I guess it's some kind of green tea, but it's different from other green teas I've had before.

Produced by Lotte Chilsung, their website had the following to say about the drink, "Chaoolin Green Tea contains non-fermented ingredients and is the closest to a natural, fresh-tasting beverage that one can get." Maybe the lack of fermentation explains the taste difference? I'm ready to concede that other green teas I've had may not have been up to scratch, so this review will have to remain somewhat ambiguous.

In any case, green tea is green tea, it can be a refreshing drink and the antioxidants will always be good for you. In this case I was taking a risk as I've mentioned before I'm not really a big fan of green tea, so my reviews of green tea will generally be a bit biased. Don't get me wrong though, add a bit of lemon'n'honey or make it an icecream and I'm all over it.


Taste (5.5)

Weirdness (2.5)

Satisfaction (5)

Gureepu [Sangaria | シュワシュワ グレープ]

I previously reviewed a green grape bevo, which is personally my favourite kinda grape, but here we have a purple/red grape drink manufactured by Sangaria of Japan.

It's quite a sweet bevo, and lightly carbonated. I think it's actually the first carbonated drink that I've reviewed so far, and to be honest I think it would have been better without the carbonation. Easily solved after shaking it vigorously and letting out the CO2..

The drink is presented in an aluminium bottle, I think these things are cool, as they seem to keep the drink very cold, like a standard canned drink.

The flavour is very bubblegum like and doesn't necessarily taste like grape juice, although using the bubblegum analogy you will get there.

I think this drink will probably have to take a second sitting as the taste is just somewhat ambiguous, not sure whether I really like it or not yet.

Taste (6.5)

Weirdness (3)

Satisfaction (7)

[Chin Chin | Assam Milk Tea]

This is the second drink bottled by Chin Chin I have tried. Previously I reviewed their Grass Jelly drink. Chin Chin is a division of King Lucky - a Taiwanese company that makes many varieties of drinks and soups.

This is also my second Assam Tea review. The first can be read here. The bottles are similarly shaped and colored and both feature on-can graphics that are at least vaguely Middle Eastern-themed. Maybe they're both the same drink bottled by Chin Chin.

It's hard to remember exactly what the previous can of Assam milk tea I drank tasted like, but if there is a difference, the one I am reviewing now may be a little more potent. This Assam Milk Tea has strong natural chocolate and wood flavors subtled by a minute amount of milk. The can features the silhouettes of two women dancing in front of the Taj Mahal.


Taste (6)

Weirdness (5)

Satisfaction (5)

[Kirin | Koiwai Brand Milk and Coffee]

Kirin makes many varieties of coffees and teas. This particular strong blend of coffee was mixed with milk from Kowai cows, genetically pure cows whose lineage can be traced back over 100 years. The taste is good, smooth, and rich. The caffeine buzz was greater than what I had hoped, and there was nothing truly special about this milk coffee that separated it from the herd, but all in all it's a solid product.


Taste (7)

Weirdness (4)

Satisfaction (6)

[Calpis | Calpico Flavors]

Original flavored Calpico Water has been previously reviewed. I recently tried both the Strawberry and Mango varieties. They also feature Hello Kitty predominately on the bottles, but instead of holding a bottle of milk as on the original, the Kitty holds a strawberry on the strawberry flavored. Instead of holding a Mango on the mango bottle, for some reason, she is surfing. Each flavor contains 1% fruit juice and taste just like I expected. While the original flavor is too good to beat, it was nice to mix it up by trying these varieties.



Taste (8)

Weirdness (4)

Satisfaction (7)

Great Taste! [Vitali Love | Lactic Drink]

This is a really nice tasting drink! It has a really unique flavour and is unlike anything else I have reviewed before. It's flavour is hard to describe and is not helped by the fact that the bottle has no English text on it.

It's kinda milky, sweet, fruity, musky, amino-like, lactic... and has this pleasant after taste which is best described as a fruity, musky taste.

The same drink has been previously reviewed by asianbev under the name VitaLove, I tend to agree with his observations, but I think I like it even more!

Taste (8.5)

Weirdness (4.5)

Satisfaction (9)

Kuu [Qoo | Orange Juice]

Whilst orange juice isn't that weird or necessarily exciting, I'm a fan of Qoo, maybe it's just the name or the cute characters on the bottles, but it does also taste good. It's not just run of the mill ordinary juice, it's tangy and sweet but not too sweet, it's very refreshing and has extra Vitamin C, B Complex and Calcium.

This particular one is bottled in Hong Kong by Swire Coca-Cola HK Ltd., and the url is www.quu.com.hk.

It's a fairly simple beverage, but refreshing on a hot day when you need a injection of C.


Taste (7.5)

Weirdness (6) Cute character

Satisfaction (8.5)

[Assi Brand | Sac Sac Orange]

Korea's Assi Brand Sac Sac Orange tastes surprisingly good for orange juice in a can. Typically the only orange juices I can bear to palate are the fresh, not from concentrate varieties in the refrigerator section of the grocery store.

Disappointingly, this has massive chunks of oranges throughout it taking pulp orange juice to a new level. I'm a smooth orange juice man. Once I had finished the majority of liquid, I found a vast quantity of pulp had settled to the bottom that I could not finish.

This has not been our first encounter with sac beverages at Dorinku. I'm still not sure what they mean by Sac, and I certainly don't know what they mean by Sac Sac. Next time I'll try Sac Sac Sac, and maybe then the mystery will be solved.



Taste (6)

Weirdness (5 sacs)

Satisfaction (5)

Update: Assi Brand is a rebranding of some Lotte products for the US. This is Lotte Orange Sac Sac.

This description was taken from the Lotte website about the product:

The most attractive item, being exported to worldwide beverage market. Orange/Grape/Coconut jelly/Pineapple sac is filled in this item, you can drink juice with real fruit. It has a unique taste of chewing full sacs. Unlike many overly sweetened fruit juices, SacSac juice quenches your thirst and leaves you satisfied. Enjoy fun of breaking the kernel of fruit in your mouth.

[Sangaria | Ramune]

This is one of the most popular drinks in Japan. For that reason, it should be reviewed sooner rather than later. The most interesting part of this beverage is the aesthetic of the bottle. The shape and design is known as the Codd-neck. It functions by a device inside of the cap that forces a marble down into the bottle. Once popular throughout the world, the method of "Codd-necking" is now only utilized by Ramune and a lemon-flavored Indian drink called Banta (no plans to review products from the Indian subcontinent at this time).

The bottle of Ramune that I am reviewing features a very cute drawing of a whale, but, even though fish, shrimp, and seaweed drinks can be found in Japan, fear not. Ramune is not seafood flavored. Basically, it's Sprite - just a clear, sweet, carbonated soda beverage.

While I've purchased original-flavored Ramune several times because of the novelty of the bottle, I've never been particularly impressed by it's generic flavor. There are many other flavors to try, however, including: lemon-lime, pineapple, raspberry, kiwifruit, melon, strawberry, orange, lychee, Blue Hawaii, and peach.

While the act of forcing the marble into the bottle to start the fizz reaction can be a fun activity and something that you can show off to your friends and family who have never seen this kind of bottle before, it can be annoying at times to drink a bottle of Ramune; depending on the angle you hold the bottle as you drink, the marble can block the flow of liquid to your mouth.


Taste (4)

Weirdness (6)

Satisfaction (4)

50th Post - dorinku.com launched!

To celebrate our 50th! post we're launching a dedicated url just for our site...


dorinku.com


...is the place to point your browsers at from now on.


Thanks for reading and just remember, "The feeling of wood in milk is drinking tea..".

Tea for 2? [KIRIN | Milk Tea]

This was an enjoyable milk tea beverage, it was refreshing and mellow and didn't taste artificial or cludgy like other milk teas. It tasted like milk tea should taste.

The drink is manufactured by Kirin, and the bottle contains quite a large amount of tea (500ml), and my only complaint if any would be that it was hard to drink more than half in a sitting which could be inconvenient if you're on the go and don't want to carry a half bottle of tea around. However in my case, I was greatful for that extra half when I woke up with a hangover this morning.

The tea flavour is quite mild, and it might have been better if it was a stronger brew, also the amount milk seemed inadequate creating a slightly watery taste. Overall though, if you're looking for a milk tea this is the best I've had so far. There's a review of another milk tea by asianbev, have a look for an alternative take on milk teas.


Taste (6.5)

Weirdness (2)

Satisfaction (7)

Update: The feeling of wood in milk is drinking tea..