what is the best japanese canned coffee

http://imgur.com/L4nAktZ.jpg

i thought there might be something interesting in the archive. not really. this is a curiosity from late in 2018, at the tail end of the clear beverage fad. it was as poorly received as the rest of them. it was a novelty. carbonation would have cut the artificial sweetener.

At this point the can design aesthetics are probably my favorite part of the J-coffee experience

https://i.imgur.com/WeChIgV.jpeg

like i said, i don't drink the stuff anymore but. i've been forced by to start going to the only unchained grocery store in the neighborhood. there are five or six grocery stores within easy walking distance, three that you could call full supermarkets. out of the three, two are big chains. one i've taken off my list because it's on two floors (the way the escalators are positioned, this forces shoppers to buy dry ingredients, then go down to the basement to buy fresh ingredients, then go directly to the register, with backtracking difficult), and the other, formerly my favorite, i've had to swear off because of automation. i don't want to use a self-checkout. the average age of shoppers is over sixty-five, so cashiers previously assisted in a number of tasks, like lifting bags of rice, sorting through wallets for the correct loyalty card, and rushing back to find any items that the shopper forgot to grab, that still happens, on top of having to sort out touchscreens, but with only one cashier manning the checkout zone. so, i have started going to a typical east tokyo discount supermarket, cramped and dark, with about the same items. but they will never fire their staff. it's worth noting that this is the only grocery store in east tokyo that i'm sure has no foreign workers, which, before the foreign workers were gone, might have suggested discriminatory hiring practices, but now seems to suggest a savvy manager, who knew that a stable of middle-aged neighborhood women is as good as gold. long story short, they have a bunch of boxes of discount junk scattered around. i plucked this pokka tallboy out of one of them. you want to talk about savvy managers, how about tsuyoshi shinjo? BIGBOSS himself. huh? i thought it would be nice with my hiyashi chuka. two summertime classics, chewy ice cold ramen and the sugariest of the sugar canned coffee, probably twenty percent soybean oil.

kanpai mi amigo

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i am sure that i have given in this thread the explanation for the craftsman line, but here it is again... it was intended as a bottled alternative to what consumers are getting from the increasingly accessible third wave chains. researchers saw that office workers liked nursing a cold brew over several hours, rather than slamming a hit of caffeine and sugar. the branding has been successful enough since its introduction in 2018 that expansion won't harm the loyalty it has built. this tastes remarkably similar to any other canned mocha option. the artificial sweetener cuts the soybean oil nicely. reading the press release, i learn that i missed out on the SEVENTEEN (this is a korean pop group) transparent a4-sized folder that came as a preliminary on-pack promotion.

would this thread be the place to review a BTS macadamia mocha latte?

haven't opened yet. bottle is 4 stars.

by "HY". Product of Korea. Drat!

this tastes remarkably similar to any other canned mocha option.
This is kind of my main takeaway from this thread. But I’ll always try a new one anyway

by "HY". Product of Korea. Drat!

dylannnnnnnnnn so gladddddd to see you back, sorry I missed the earlier posts. Your writing is so evocative using such small touches, I hope you use it elsewhere too.

thank you. i would never want anyone to read 95% of what i posted on this website (the first ilx posts to the peak are from when i was in my late teens to early twenties), but the compliments on writing are part of the reason i have the confidence to attempt to do it for a living. nowadays, i'm too cut off from popular culture to comment on anything. i still read daily, though.

would this thread be the place to review a BTS macadamia mocha latte?

I always get a BTS cold brew when I go to the Korean convinience store because I'm a fancy lad.

I missed the display entirely. My missus picked this up in a quick visit to a Korean supermarket in Toronto, while I was selecting the perfect box of mangoes and a pound of shitake mushrooms to make a risotto that would be sure to impress her parents. While the Asian grocery situation in Newfoundland is steadily improving (we're no longer tempted to stuff a suitcase with food while we're up here), visiting the Chinese and Korean grocery stores is always a highlight of these regular trips to the mainland.

So Daniel, is there "hot brew" alongside the "cold brew" at your shop? Do you pass them by because, like, what are you supposed to do, empty the plastic bottle into a saucepan for 10 minutes? Like why aren't i just making coffee at that point, right? No,no. I did the research, and Hot Brew is a drink best served cold. And, boy! Delicious. Sweet, milky, nutty, and a nice little pick-me-up. Almond along with macadamia, the stuck-on English ingredient list would confirm. I was impressed.

I never really bother with any can coffee. I would have the odd one from a vending machine when I lived in Japan, say, on my way to work and about to fall over from the previous evening's frivolities. All coffee was an emergency-only venture to me back then. And those Boss drinks were just sickly sweet. So I was extra impressed here.

Apparently the hot/cold thing is just referring to the brew process used. This is extra confusing because fancy bending machines will offer Boss et al in hot and cold options. But, on reflection, I suppose these were just the same drink with different temperature options presented to the discerning canned coffee connoisseur... is this right, Dylan? Or are there sometimes different formulations meant to be drunk hot?

In any case: 7.9. Shining through the city with a little nutted funk and soul.

https://i.imgur.com/z03Ppq5.png

cold brew i've only seen marketed chilled. there's no reason you can't drink it warm, so maybe it occasionally sneaks into the heated cabinet in convenience stores. i've never noticed. i think it might be down to the type of containers used, most heated vending machine product being small cans, and, in the heated cabinet, a potential problem with thin PET bottles for the cold brew. other than that, i've only seen a few coffees described on labeling as meant to be drunk chilled.

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i was surprised to see it was not recorded here: there is a family mart-brand ready to drink butter coffee. it has butter from new zealand and mct oil. it was positioned as a weight loss supplement for women (a sharp gender divide in food and beverage marketing still holds here, where it would be unthinkable for a man to order the "lady's set" offered at most restaurants). marketing included a testimonial from a woman that lost five pounds on a butter coffee diet. in japan, there is not much interest in the kind of diet fads that sweep western popular media. it is still 1982 here—aerobics, high carb-low fat. this is a country with no tariffs on american corn. i admit that ucc might know something that i don't about dietary trends. they do promote this as a new product and as something that might help the sedentary with weight loss. it might be an attempt to replicate the success of the colas with dietary fiber. i wonder if it's cheaper currently to thicken a latte with palm oil than soybean oil. the mouthfeel seems nicer, anyways, although that might be down to some carrageenan magic. coffee flavor was good.

freakin me out with these soybean and palm oils, it's coffee dammit!

grease those pounds away, with butter!

The only canned coffee product I've ever found (in the states) that I really enjoy is the La Colombe draft latte. Even Stumptown and Blue Bottle's canned/cartoned offerings are pretty meh.

Sounds kind of like “bulletproof coffee” which has butter and other fats in it.

https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/howto/guide/what-bulletproof-coffee

maybe these associations are inaccurate but in my mind bulletproof coffee is tied up with joe rogan, reddit masculinity, keto snacks advertised on comedy podcasts, so it was interesting to see it pitched as a drink for ladies looking to slim down: https://www.family.co.jp/campaign/spot/201712buttercoffee_english.html

http://imgur.com/P72R0HS.jpg

a cafe latte. no vegetable oil. thirty percent handpicked beans from carmo de minas. the source of the remaining seventy percent is not specified. if they don't come from somewhere else in brazil, then it must be vietnam. it's interesting to consider that nothing in this bottle was sourced in japan. the sugar is not produced in japan 国産 but listed as processed domestically 国内製造. did you know that japanese food self-sufficiency fell to 37% in 2020? the flavor is smooth.

The public demands “oil free” and laws are passed that require canned coffees to specify the percentage used

david lynch ads for coffee in a can, set in the world of twin peaks, only ever aired in japan. wild pic.twitter.com/4HHwvp6mHK

— ecto🦠drome (@ecto_fun) July 20, 2022

ha, I watched that with my daughters about 3 days ago. GEORGIA!

http://imgur.com/s6h8LKC.jpg

two nights ago, i wrote a lengthy examination of starbucks' first ready to drink canned offering in japan, then got self-conscious, trying to figure out why i had written eight hundred words jargony and insipid enough for a trade magazine. i thought about passing it off as a gag, undercutting it somehow, but i couldn't bring myself to do it. i shouldn't have deleted it. but my conclusion, anyways, was that it was head and shoulders above anything else on the market, precisely because the goal despite it being made in japan for the japanese market (the copy on the can assured me that i was holding nippon steel) was to have it taste like starbucks coffee instead of making an attempt at localizing to the japanese canned coffee average. well. this is interesting, looking at the bts coffee from hy. this also tastes like something different from the usual. maybe i'm losing my mind. the flavor profile—artificial vanilla so dominant, a toastier coffee note—does stand out, as well as, like the starbucks, a less syrupy texture. i might buy this again but the branding does put me off. i don't want to make a bold statement about my connection to korean pop music.

aw would've enjoyed that

yeah that HY i had was real good. I don't typically drink fancy Starbucks type stuff but it seemed on par with what I've tasted fresh from there.

seconded - always happy to read your writing Dyl

re Starbucks -- I have a similar aversion to the brand but the fact is that their coffee is pretty consistently great imho

knowing i can't delete it an hour later, i always overthink. that was not always the case. but i'll try my best.

the aversion was for bts branding. no feelings on starbucks.

i'm going to post an image here just to see what it looks like with a different size.

http://imgur.com/Gw59lMJ.jpg

Today I learned that Boss coffee is available in the US

https://www.amazon.com/BOSS-COFFEE-Suntory-Japanese-Original/dp/B07PMNB62N/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?crid=YOPS77FL20L8&keywords=boa%2Bcoffee&qid=1659093467&sprefix=boss%2Bcoffee%2Caps%2C69&sr=8-1&th=1&psc=1

http://storage.googleapis.com/urbo11/urbo11/cofsaru.jpg

as a rule or this is what i have found to be true discount grocery stores have better sushi, since they usually maintain a fish section, by which i mean they bring in fish and cut it there, which is perhaps for labor savings or because they can't count as a larger national chain would on a distributor to provide cut and wrapped fish. this means that freshness is guaranteed if not the quality of the rice. down the street, the shitamachi staple supermarket patronized only by the elderly is on its way to putting out of commission a takeout chain sushi operation that opened up next door. the fish is better at the supermarket. given that they need to keep prices down, they also emphasize seasonal and sometimes quite peculiar fishes (they also sell shark and whale, i should note, although not to be consumed raw). now, the local branch of national chain maruetsu has to compete against the takeout shops and the discount supermarkets... they couldn't compete. that's clear. their fish was second-rate. their rice wasn't particularly good. their selection was limited. this seems to be why they have revamped their ready to eat sushi selections, which is presented under the uoetsu brand. i think the fish being sourced is probably the same, but its freshness and shelf appeal reflects a refinement of shipping and packing processes. perhaps suppliers have changed. variety is still limited. seasonality is limited. but it's better. i am still too loyal to the discount supermarket. this tray was not eaten by me. i will admit that. i drank the coffee posed on top.

Excellent reporting, always nice to hear from you d
Is there much talk of over fishing or seafood stock heading downhill?

no. i never hear anything about that. there is much excitement these days over sustainable development goals. but they are applied even to whaling. overfishing is not mentioned. i know other countries have labeling for sustainable fish or encourage long line whatever, but that simply doesn't exist here, as far as i've seen.

japan feeds itself on american meat and grain imports and unsustainable fisheries, sadly. rice is the only thing truly protected. it gets fed to pigs.

https://japantoday.com/category/features/kuchikomi/japan's-food-self-sufficiency-alarmingly-low-72-mil-could-go-hungry-magazine-says

even japanese beef and dairy cows are fed on imported hay (american, australian, chinese), a fact i found hard to believe when i first read it. it's not that they can't grow enough but that nobody will grow it and if they do they have nobody to cut it for them. that is a simplification but about the state of things. as the japanese diet over the long postwar years shifted to wheat, self-sufficiency has become harder to accomplish. this is the key to all geopolitical questions concerning japan, more than microchips or thinking themselves still honorary aryans or wanting to defend taiwanese democracy. they can say eff it (or get the permission of america) and buy gas from russia, as they just did, but they need american food imports.

but to return to fish, with that dire level of self-sufficiency, there's no way for anybody in charge to start pushing a line on not eating tuna. i'm sure most people compared to average american are eating somewhat sustainable fish too. little oily fish as a staple, top of the food chain as a luxury (or in your grocery store sushi as maguro).

but enjoy your unagi now because in a decade you will only be able to get an artificial version shipped out of a factory in tsukuba.

sup dyl.

Kindai University funds a few 本マグロ farms that have been harvesting off the coast of Wakayama for about 20 years. Most of it is for the domestic market but some of it goes overseas (weirdly, as Mediterranean farms in Croatia, Spain/Balaerica & Turkey are the biggest global producers).

hey steve shasta

i knew maguro could be farmed but i've never considered the extent of it. i should pay attention to the labels on the packs of maguro tataki next time.

https://i.imgur.com/qLRA3B8.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/kRbVlzf.jpg

Couple of new label designs