My husband has been a fan of Fanta flavors since before he came to Japan. I, however, grew up too poor to buy the fancy Fanta fruit flavored drinks. My family always bought the sort of store brand sodas that you could find for about a dime or less a can. When Fanta flavors started showing up in Japan, my husband got excited and I just sort of shrugged my shoulders.
At present, Fanta grape is stocked in most stores as is the odd orange. Neither of these come in the "Zero" calorie-free variety. Recently, a lemon zero -calorie flavor showed up which my husband has become a big fan of and I think is pretty good, but it's not the sort of thing I really crave. Since we had good experiences with the lemon flavor, I decided to try out this zero variety of "cider".
I should make one point clear, however. I did not expect this "cider" to be actual "cider". In fact, I had a suspicion based on the bottle design that this was going to be one of the ramune flavors that makes the rounds every summer. The fact that the soda is completely clear is a bit of a tip-off to the fact that there are no apples in it.
When I gave the open bottle a sniff, it smelled like bubble gum. In fact, it was very much like the ramune KitKat from an olfactory viewpoint. The first taste was actually pretty good. It tasted like bubblegum-flavored candy in liquid form. There was a bit of a weird aftertaste though. Unfortunately, the aftertaste grew in strength the more I drank. By the end of half a bottle of it, I was finding it hard to ignore what I believe is the erythritol flavor. Since this is the first ingredient, that's not much of a surprise.
I went from having a "happy sumo" rating in mind after the first sip to an "indifferent" one by the end because of the artificial sweetener aftertaste. I wanted to like this more than I did. In fact, I wanted to find it appealing enough to revisit it since there are so few zero calorie sodas in Japan. While the bubblegum flavor is nice, the aftertaste kills it.
I always thought Fanta was the cheap soda. When I could buy them at the 7-11 down the street, they would sell 24 ounce bottles for 99 cents, which at the time was 50 cents cheaper than the big brand sodas.
ReplyDeleteOh wait, my bad. I'm thinking Shasta.
Yeah, I always figured there were 4 tiers in the pricing scheme:
ReplyDelete1. big brand name cola makers (Coke)
2. brand name non-cola makers (Fanta)
3. Shasta
4. store brands
Shasta was cheap, but not as cheap as the A&P brand or whatever the store brand was called where I grew up.
Thanks for commenting!
There is another new Fanta Zero flavor. Lemon. The cider one is much better than the lemon one though, imho. The lemon one is far too chemical and artificial tasting. Of course, these drinks ARE chemical and artificial, but ...you know.
ReplyDeleteMy husband is actually a fan of the lemon zero Fanta soda. I can take it or leave it. I wouldn't drink a full bottle of either though. I tend to mainly favor Diet Coke or Diet A&W root beer. :-)
ReplyDeleteThanks for commenting!
I ran across your blog a while back, and figured it was a good idea to follow it for two reasons: One, you have a nice writing style, and the stuff you type up is an enjoyable read, even if I have no interest in the product of the day! And two, I live in Okinawa (at least for a little bit longer) so maybe it'd help me out a bit with some of the stuff I see!
ReplyDeleteI read this post about the Fanta Zero Cider, and then saw a can of it in a machine outside of a Cocoichibanya's. I remembered reading about it, but wondered if it was really as bad as you said. After having tried it, I can attest: Yes. Yes it is. The smell was nice, but the aftertaste... ugh, the aftertaste. I made my husband finish it, haha!
Hi, Melanie, and thank you for taking the time to comment and to read. I appreciate your kind words!
ReplyDeleteI know you haven't really gotten your blog rolling much, but I've subscribed to it in my RSS feed so I'll be keeping an eye open for whatever you have to say. :-)