Thursday, October 7, 2010

Mitsuya Cider All Zero

There's no way for my readers to know this, but I used to have an internet stalker. This person first discovered me via a personal blog, and followed me to this one. As this person's preoccupation with me started to ramp up, my stalker started to post comments under various made-up names. The main point of such comments was to post moderately critical or contradictory statements. If I said I didn't care for something, this person would say it was a favorite.

The reason this stalker (who I believe has since lost interest in me) comes to mind is that one of the sock puppets this party created asserted that I wasn't posting enough beverage reviews. This was despite the fact that I had posted about 25 drink reviews at that point in time. The main residue of my experience with this stalker is that my husband has moderated comments since that experience began so that I wouldn't have to think about them. That's right, my husband filters your comments, not me! A secondary one was that I disabled anonymous commenting (to make it more troublesome to post under fake identities). The tertiary one is that I always remember that person's phony baloney assertion that I don't review enough drinks every time I review one now. So, as I review this Mitsuya Cider, I remember that my stalker wanted more of these types of reviews, or at least pretended to.

The last time I reviewed what the Japanese call "cider" it was the Fanta Zero Cider. Mitsuya Cider has been around a lot longer and is a more popular brand than Fanta. I didn't know what to expect, but part of the reason for that was that I had forgotten what the Fanta Zero was like. That was an experience that floated back as I sampled this.

This smelled like bubblegum The taste was very hard to pin down. It has some vague elements of ramune with its lemon-lime notes, but it's very weak compared to something like 7-Up or Sprite. It's a light soft drink, which probably suits Japanese tastes with it's less overbearing flavors. It's very heavily carbonated so it really bubbles on the tongue. In fact, this is like a lightly flavored club soda. I can see how it would suit Japanese tastes since, by and large, they prefer subtle flavors.

The web site for this is here. The site recommends various drinks with this as a base including adding mint and lemon and honey and ginger. I think that this can certainly be enjoyed "as is", but may be seen as being a bit on the weaker side flavor-wise. It probably occupies a similar space in the market to ginger ale in the United States (though it is weaker in flavor than that beverage).

Though this was fine, I wouldn't buy it again because the experience lacked a strong impression. On the bright side, it doesn't taste as strongly of artificial sweeteners as the Fanta Zero Cider. If I had no other option, I'd drink this without hesitation, but I wouldn't seek it out.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sorry to hear about your (former) stalker.

It's funny, but although I really like Mitsuya Cider in its original form, I really don't like Mitsuya Cider All Zero. It's too fake. I hate to think what Fanta Zero must be like!

Ahoy hoy said...

All Japanese "cider" is boring and all "zero" drinks taste awful.

The first time I went to a work party they asked me what drinks I liked. I said the usual beer, whisky, cider etc before lamenting the lack of the latter in Japan.

"Oh we have cider. Get him cider"

My glee lasted about a minute.
Unlucky with the stalker.

Orchid64 said...

Thanks to both of you for commenting!

The fakeness of zero drinks doesn't bother me because I so accustomed to artificial sweeteners. It has to be especially egregious to trouble me on that front. I think my tastebuds have been corrupted. ;-)

Love your name, Ahoy hoy.

And I think I'm lucky that the stalker gave up eventually. It was never too bad. I'm sure others have had it far worse.

Anonymous said...

So what do the Japanese call actual cider? Ringoshu?

Allie, Peeps2 said...

LOL @ Ringoshu. :)

Orchid64 said...

That's a good question. I've never seen actual cider here. According to Wikipedia, they call it "sedoru" (シードル) as opposed to "saidaa" (サイダー), but I can't say if that is correct as Wikipedai isn't always right.

Ahoy hoy said...

I approve of Ringoshu. Let's tell everyone and get The Meat Guy or someone to import it.

Orchid64 said...

"I heartily endorse this event or product." ;-)