what is the best japanese canned coffee

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