Drinks
Here are some of the Japanese drinks you should try when you visit Japan.
> Sake 酒（日本酒）
Sake, also spelled saké, also referred to as a Japanese rice wine, is an alcoholic beverage made by fermenting rice that has been polished to remove the bran.
> Shōchū 焼酎
Shōchū is a Japanese distilled beverage less than 45% alcohol by volume. It is typically distilled from rice (kome), barley (mugi), sweet potatoes (satsuma-imo), buckwheat (soba), or brown sugar (kokutō), though it is sometimes produced from other ingredients such as chestnut, sesame seeds, potatoes or even carrots.
> Hoppy ホッピー
Hoppy is a beer-flavored almost non-alcoholic drink that Kokuka Beverage Company began producing and selling in Japan in 1948; it is currently most available in and associated with Tokyo. Kokuka subsequently changed its name to Hoppy Beverage Co., Ltd.
> Chūhai 酎ハイ
Chūhai, often sold as Chu-Hi as a canned drink, is an alcoholic drink originating from Japan. The name chūhai is an abbreviation of “shōchū highball”. Traditional chūhai is made with shōchū and carbonated water flavored with lemon, though some modern commercial variants use vodka in place of shōchū.
> Umeshu 梅酒
Umeshu is a Japanese liqueur made by steeping ume fruits (while still unripe and green) in shōchū and sugar. It has a sweet, sour taste, and an alcohol content of 10–15%. The taste and aroma of umeshu can appeal to even those people who normally dislike alcohol. Famous brands of umeshu include Choya and Takara Shuzo. Varieties are available with whole ume fruits contained in the bottle, and some people make their own umeshu at home.
> Amazake 甘酒
Amazake is a traditional sweet, low-alcohol Japanese drink made from fermented rice.
> Calpis カルピス (aka Calpico)
Calpis is a Japanese uncarbonated soft drink, manufactured by Calpis Co., Ltd., headquartered in Shibuya, Tokyo. Calpis Co. is a subsidiary of Asahi. The beverage has a light, somewhat milky, and slightly acidic flavor.
> Yakult ヤクルト
Yakult is a probiotic milk beverage fermented with the bacteria strain Lactobacillus paracasei Shirota, first isolated from the human intestine by Japanese scientist Minoru Shirota in the 1930s and sold by Yakult Honsha.
> Ramune ラムネ
Ramune is a type of carbonated soft drink originally created and sold in Japan which was introduced in Kobe by Alexander Cameron Sim. The brand name comes from a wasei-eigo of the word lemonade.
> C.C. Lemon C.C.レモン
C.C. Lemon is a Japanese soft drink created by Suntory. It is known for its lemon flavor, and for its advertisements featuring characters from the popular American cartoon The Simpsons. It has been recently introduced to Vietnam. The Simpsons produced five advertisements for the drink from 2000 to 2002.
> Pocari Sweat ポカリスエット
Pocari Sweat is a Japanese sports drink, manufactured by Otsuka Pharmaceutical. It was launched in 1980, and is now also available in East Asia, Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Australia. Pocari Sweat is a mild-tasting, relatively light, non-carbonated sweet beverage and is advertised as an “ion supply drink”.
> Aquarius アクエリアス
Aquarius is a mineral sports drink manufactured by The Coca-Cola Company. It originated in 1978, and was first introduced in 1983 in Japan as a grapefruit-flavored sports drink, as a response to a competitor’s brand of sports drink called Pocari Sweat.
> Canned Coffee 缶コーヒー
Canned coffee is ubiquitous in Japan, with a large number of companies competing fiercely and offering various types for sale. Canned coffee is already brewed and ready to drink. It is available in supermarkets and convenience stores , with vast numbers of cans being sold in vending machines that offer heated cans in the autumn and winter, and cold cans in the warm months.
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org