During our short time living in Japan, we have already discovered quite an array of questionable drinks and tried them for you!

Clear drinks

When you visit any Japanese convenience store, it becomes apparent that Japanese people are really into clear drinks. Any drink could be clear – coke, tea, coffee, beer… I’m still asking myself what the point of clear drinks is and I’m sure it’s all about the aesthetics rather than the taste. Is it so that you could secretly drink any drink without revealing what it is and tastes like? (e.g. drinking clear beer at work?) Or do they like it so much because it looks so fancy and you just have to ask yourself: how can this drink look like water? For me personally, a drink is about its taste and this is just wrong…

 

 

 

Before moving to Japan, I had seen Coca-Cola Clear on Facebook and asked myself: What does Coca-Cola Clear taste like? Does it taste like Coke or water? Well, to me it tasted like a sparkling drink with a hint of Coca-Cola light, lemon and lots of artificial flavours. I wouldn’t drink it again, but it was fun to try it.

 

 

Clear Matcha Latte – how good can it get? First of all, I think a good matcha latte should be either hot or iced and it’s all about that distinct texture and flavour. This matcha latte taste was surprisingly good, but the taste fades very quickly. It feels like drinking an optical illusion. I would never buy this instead of a real latte.

 

Have you ever sat in a meeting and thought: ‘Oh I wish I could secretly drink a beer here’, or played tennis and thought: ‘I wish it was okay to drink beer while working out’? Me neither. But apparently people were just waiting for an alcohol-free, clear beer that you can casually drink anywhere. I haven’t and I won’t try this one.

 

Questionable coffee drinks

 

 

Espresso Martinis? Yummy! Coffee Mojitos? Questionable! Does coffee and mint really go together? We doubt it.

 

 

 

When I ordered a pricey 600 yen coffee float, I had something else in mind than an iced drip coffee with an ice cream scoop looking frozen vanilla cream and the tiniest of milk and sirup jugs I’ve ever seen. But it wasn’t too bad! And look at these cute tiny jugs!

 

As you can see, overall, I wasn’t very impressed with these drinks, but it was worth and certainly fun trying them!

– Her