It’s really hard to tell, with this cutesy packaging wrapped around a sugar coma inducing “coffee drink”, exactly who Lotte is going after – the “kid inside us all” demographic or the “kid who needs coffee after a hard day at the kindergarten” demographic.

Probably both – which is insane if it’s true.

Hey! Let’s add coffee to a sugar drink for kids cos that’ll be healthy and productive…

I hope that bear is knitting me a barf bag.

When sucking and crunching on candy just won’t suffice and you need that butterscotch fix this willl sure come in handy.

This combination sounds like a bad idea from the start… and surprise, surprise, it is.

From the putrid cheese smell that hits you as soon as you open the bottle to the tangy rancid citrus overtones, it goes the wrong way fast.

Who even thought of this? Someone shoot them please!

I have had banana milk and I have had milk tea. Never would I have expected the two to come together. This is actually quite good.

OK, it’s already April 1st here in Japan, but this is a nice inventive one from Red Bull, so I thought it deserves a post.

Mentaiko is a marinated fish roe that one of the southern islands of Japan, Fukuoka, is famous for. Since Red Bull launches in Fukuoka today, they thought it would be a nice tie in.

Don’t expect this one on shelves any time soon, but a fun flavor combination none-the-less.

Tipoff from Ankit

While we are on a chocolate drink roll, Suntory has a new soda releasing in two days (19th January) flavored with chocolate, called Chocolate Sparkling. Since it hasn’t hit the shelves yet, I can’t tell you what it tastes like yet, but whoever gets their hands on it first, please tell me what it tastes like. Genius or gimmick?

This one is a tip off from Christian (don’t call him Chris) who first posted and tipped us off.

As Christian says : “It was just a matter of time: Belgium-style chocolate beer has hit Japanese stores, made possible by a collaboration between Sapporo beer and Royce. And not unlike its Belgium relative, it tastes quite awful.”

Now, I’m off to track down some chocolate beer at my local to find out for myself.

Pepsi at it again with some unique Japanese flavors. This one hit shelves earlier in the year with the flavor of Shiso, which is that little minty leaf that you find next to your sushi. Potentially could have been a very nice drink with a refreshing shiso hit, but alas, way too much sugar gave it a bit of overkill.

Azuki is a red bean, often used in popular Japanese sweets. Pepsi thought they would shake things up a little by throwing it into a Pepsi drink as a special release.

This is quite a unique one. A special from Nagoya Big Nagoya Sour, introducing one of the famous elements of cooking in Nagoya, Aka Miso (Red Miso) into a “sour” drink *.

My favorite part of this one is actually the package … the guy with the chicken wings as arms is saying “Nonde miyaa!” (“Let’s drink” with a Nagoya accent).

* “Sour” being the alcoholic beverage, not the taste. in the Japanese sense is is a generally used to describe an alcoholic beverage that includes shouchu with often soda and some kind of flavor additive.