Surprise Find: McCormick Matcha Green Tea with Ginger Seasoning

I once read a piece written by someone who was attempting to be culturally sensitive which focused on the existence of "matcha lattes" in American culture. After explaining how happy she was with it on the menu, there was much hand-wringing over how the beverage she was enjoying was almost certainly a form of "cultural appropriation" and how the Japanese were likely offended by this mutilation of their sacred drink. I'm guessing that same person would have fainted in horror at this product.

The truth is that the Japanese have done a better job of adulterating their beloved tea than anyone in the West has. I have a box of instant matcha tea latte powder that a friend picked up for me when he was in Japan. It's essentially a version of instant cocoa made with matcha instead of chocolate and has the same cheap, powdered milk flavor of American dehydrated drink powders of a similar ilk. The Japanese I spoke with about Western folks who liked their food, clothes, and other aspects of culture were flattered that the interest existed. They weren't appalled that things were changed to suit Western tastes because they change everything they absorb from other cultures to suit their tastes.

All of the drama over cultural appropriation of things Japanese tends to come from the wrong side. Most Japanese people don't care. I guess they have better things to fret about when they take the trouble to fret. Still, affluent white liberals (and I meet the last 2/3 of that equation, so nothing wrong with most of that) have to keep manufacturing trivialities to prove they're "good" without actually doing anything. Also, they can go around scolding other white people for what they do which is quite a bonus for the sanctimonious urban liberal.

When I ran across this, I wasn't sure what to make of it. It's called "seasoning", but the first ingredient is "organic matcha tea" which should mean it is the largest component. Matcha is followed by "organic evaporated cane syrup, organic long grain rice flour, organic ginger, and citric acid." Most of those seem more in line with making a beverage rather than making a dish. I wanted to evaluate this in several ways, one of which clearly was not an intended use.

The main thing I noticed about this as compared to matcha is that the color is a lot lighter. I have a fair bit of matcha on hand and it's a brilliant green. In this, I'm guessing the color is dulled by the flour and ginger. I tasted this just as it is. Of course, it was very intense, but it was hard not to notice that the dominant flavor was ginger. The matcha was nearly annihilated by the ginger. I have no doubt that there is more matcha in this than ginger, but ginger is a more potent flavor here.

The second way I tasted this was to mix it with almond milk for a hot beverage. While this may seem odd, it's not far off from making "golden milk" (milk mixed with turmeric and sometimes other spices). I wanted to get a diluted, but still purer taste of the seasoning and this seemed a good way. I mixed one teaspoon of spice with about 8-10 oz. of hot almond milk. The main thing I noticed was that, again, the ginger really dominated. The matcha tended to hit mainly as a warmer flavor at the front of my tonuge and the ginger hit hard and hot at the back of my mouth and in my throat. After drinking this (an actually pretty pleasant sensation), I thought that this would be amazing as a drink to have when one has a cold. The heat of the ginger felt like it'd cut through some unpleasant symptoms.

The final way that I wanted to try this was as it is obviously intended, as part of a baked item. The main problem is that it's hard to know how much I should use to flavor any given food. I decided to try it in something I've made many times in several variations including a matcha one, Japanese cotton cheesecake. I figured that making something that I already know so very well would afford a better point of comparison.

I usually use a tablespoon of lemon flavoring or matcha (or chocolate in a bigger amount) and went with a tablespoon of this seasoning. It took on a weird yellowish-green color which was reminiscent of pea-based baby food. It was far less appetizing than the warm brown of a chocolate cake or the sunny yellow of a lemon one, but looks aren't everything. In terms of taste, the cake mirrored my other experiences in that the ginger was a dominant flavor on the front end and the matcha a far more subtle and warmer flavor on the back end. I was disappointed. It wasn't bad, but it just was not especially different from a ginger-only version. I think that the tea tempers the ginger, but it doesn't compete with it, or, if it does, it loses the race.

This is a decent enough spice if what you really want is ginger, but this is supposed to be matcha green tea with ginger, not ginger with green tea. When I have this sort of experience, I'm not sure if they're trying to gauge the tolerance of a somewhat verdant and bitter Japanese drink experience or if they're just being cheap when the balance of flavors is so off. While I don't regret trying this, and I'm betting I consume a lot more of it in the winter when the warm, spicy ginger notes will seem very welcome, but I wouldn't buy it again.

Where I bought it: Grocery Outlet Bargain Market
Price: $3.99 (for 9.5 oz.)

Suprise Find: Ginger Frosted Sembei

As I mentioned in my "I'm back" post, I now live in a very remote area. What is more, I also live in a small town (less than 10,000 people). There are very few local markets and I can charitably say that local tastes match local political views; they are very conservative. That means that the restaurants around me focus mostly on burgers, bad steak, pizza, pasta with heavy sauces, Americanized Mexican, and sandwiches. The most exotic place is a Thai restaurant and there is one American Chinese place which offers very pedestrian options.

I'm not mentioning this to criticize the local food scene because I know that one's taste in food is one of those things that is shaped by experience. People like what they like because it is what they grew up with and it's not like the people who live in rural areas made a conscious decision to have limited food options. If anything, we can blame their parents and grandparents. I certainly can say my parents have terrible taste in food and any restaurant scene that their patronage cultivated would be populated by places with leathery, over-cooked meat, canned vegetables, noodles, and potatoes. It would be even more grim than the reality I currently live in.

The reason that I mention the limits here is that any Japanese food I find at local markets outside of Pocky and some more common cooking ingredients (soy sauce, rice vinegar, etc.) are a suprise find. When I locate one of these finds, I'm stunned because I can't imagine the locals buying them. That leads me to today's shocking find of frosted ginger sembei.

I found these at Grocery Outlet Bargain Market. I've been told it's the west coast equivalent of Aldi's, but I can't verify that as I've never been in an Aldi's. The thing they are supposed to have in common is food at low prices because it was over-produced, unpopular, or is getting on in years. I'm guessing this sembei showed up because it was unpopular, but it's hard to know for sure.

The first shocker was that it was in a local market at all. The second was that it was being sold for 50 cents a bag. In the Bay Area, I had to pay $4-$6 per bag for this same brand of sembei. In Japan, this would cost the equivalent of $1.50-$2.00 for a bag. It was insanely cheap by any estimate. I bought 25 bags. I am not exaggerating. My pantry has stacks and stacks of these.

The difficulty in marketing these to the American market is explained somewhat by the description panel on the lower right panel of the bag. In particular, the fact that the manufacturer feels it is necessary to say, "no topping needed" is revealing. Americans see rice crackers as a savory item that needs a topping like a Quaker rice cake. Buyers have no idea what these are until after they've purchased them. In fact, when I bought them, the cashier looked perplexed at what they were. I'm guessing just me, and possibly the Japanese members of the taiko club a great many miles South of me, are the only customers and potential customers who know what these are.

What these are is a very, very tasty snack with a surface that makes you think of the moon with luscious sugary craters. They'd better be great if I'm going to drown myself in stacks of crispiness. They are light and somewhat sweet with enough ginger to whisper kindly at your tongue, but not to overwhelm. They snap without being too brittle and actually do melt in your mouth if you leave them in there long enough. It's easy to eat far too many at one sitting, but given that each large cracker is only 25 calories, it's hard to get fat on them. I've actually be fairly responsible with these and limit myself to one packet (two crackers) per day. I will likely have my stash for months at that rate, but they come with an enormous oxygen absorber packet so I'm betting they won't go stale. If they start to, I'll just have to watch a good movie and start consuming them by the bag-full so as not to waste my luxurious investment of $12.50.

I should note that I had confidence in these and how good they'd be because the company that mades them, Kameda, is one that I recognized from my time in Japan. In fact, I have reviewed no small number of their sembei in the past including one sweet variety made of chocolate. They rarely let me down and I was pleasantly surprised to see something from that company at a local market. While this clearly is packaged for the American market (since everything is in English), the rice crackers (sembei) themselves are precisely the same as what you'd get if you shopped in Tokyo. And, yes, I'd absolutely buy them again, even at a higher price.

Information:

Where I bought it: Grocery Outlet Bargain Market
Price: 50 cents/bag

Haagen Daz Lemon Ginger Float Sorbet (product announcement)

Haagen Dazs Japan gave fans of their frozen desserts a chance to sample this product before its official release on July 7. On June 2, Nissin market sold a lemon ginger float flavor before the rest of Japan could get their tongues wrapped around it. It's an interesting thing to do because the flavor is definitely going to be widely released so this isn't test marketing. It's more about making something exclusively available via a particular vendor for a limited time. It's not quite the same as limited edition Oreos only being sold at Walmart (as often seems to be the case), but it's one standard deviation away from that.

This is definitely one of the more promising unique flavor combinations that Haagen Daz has come up with. The only thing about it which could be the case is that it has a little bit of an "I have a cold and this is the flavor of tea that would probably make me feel better" vibe about it. If there was some honey in the mix, it'd definitely be a (much tastier) substitute for cough syrup. 

PT Agel Langgeng Gingerbon

While pondering these candies, I asked my sister why she believed that ginger, without the added boost of nutmeg, cinnamon, etc. and as a component of gingerbread, had not really caught on as part of Western diets. It's healthy, tasty, and not insanely expensive. I do see candied ginger on sale of Trade Joes (and I could eat an entire bag of it if I didn't exercise some self-control), but you don't tend to see much in the way of things like ginger lollipops, gum, or even cough drops. Our consumption of ginger is relatively limited unless it's ginger ale, gingerbread, or ginger snap cookies.

Her reply, which is the one that makes the most sense, if that it isn't indigenous so we didn't habitually consume it, but there are plenty of things people eat which were introduced relatively late in the cultural game. I'm pretty sure most everyone has soy sauce in their refrigerator these days... well, perhaps except for your granny who likely frowns in disapproval at the bottle of black stuff which you insist on adding to your stir fry. Of course, she does this while also looking puzzled and a little frightened of the wok you've got heated to nuclear levels in order to produce said stir fry.

At any rate, we do appear to be far more conservative about our candy than we are about other foods. For savory preparations, we'll toss in the kitchen sink whether it's Asian, European, or American. However, we won't put up with such shenanigans in our sweets. I don't even find that people are putting it in their tea, and that's one of the best places to get your ginger on for health purposes.

I'm fanatical about getting rid of trash so I threw out my bag before I took a picture for this review. Mine is the one on the far right. This picture is from PT Agel Langgeng's site.

Perhaps due to the exposure to ginger that I had in Japan, it's one of my favorite flavorings and I am keen to try a variety of preparations of it. My desire to have it is especially high if I have a sore throat because I fool myself into thinking it'll help it get better.

These candies are very chewy, but not as deadly as the last ginger candy I tried. They stick to your teeth, and would surely be a hazard to sensitive dental work, but have less of a tendency to get jammed in your gums or the roof of your mouth than similarly sticky candies. Still, if you've got old fillings, beware.

The candy's taste reveals itself over time. At first, it is mellow and sweet with just a hint of ginger. As you keep chewing, it turns a little hotter, but still retains it sweetness. By the time you're done, it's sending some heat into the back of your throat and the sugar is merely tempering the spicy kick. This, to me, is what a ginger candy should be. I like the transition and that hotness, which is unique to spices like garlic and ginger, makes me feel like I'm getting some heavy duty benefits from one of the spices that has the power to both delight the senses and heal the body.

I loved these and would absolutely buy them again. Of course, I'm a sucker for ginger candy and an even bigger sucker for cheap candy (I paid 99 cents/100 yen for this at an Asian market). These are similar to the Sina Ginger candy that I reviewed previously, but I would rate these as slightly better both in terms of quality (not quite as sweet, not quite as sticky) and quantity (more candy for the same price). If you're a fan of ginger candy, this one is a winner.

Sina Orange Ginger Chews

Despite their attempts to undo my dental work, I was very pleased with the Sina Ginger Chews that I reviewed last December. They were cheap, had a good strong ginger flavor, and were easy to find at several Asian markets. When I saw this orange variety at a tiny little Asian market on Castro Street in Mountain View, I jumped at the chance. Well, I didn't literally "jump" because the shopkeeper was already eyeballing me as I went around looking for Japanese stuff, but I did give her my dollar and happily exit the store with the 2-oz (56 g.) box in hand. 

Saying "damn the fillings" and risking death by choking by sampling one of these in the car without water to wash it down, I disengaged one from its foil prison and put it in my mouth. These things are so sticky that I think even Teflon packaging wouldn't stop the chews from adhering to them. The orange ones were not different than the ginger ones in terms of their potential to lodge in a cranny of your teeth and suck out the amalgam or stick to the back of your esophagus, and they also look like a severed cats tongue on a plate when removed from their attractive individual wrappers.

The orange hits at the beginning in a flavor that, sadly, reminds me of stale juice. The ginger comes up the rear and overtakes the citrus fruit until it totally overwhelms and produces a pleasant gingery heat throughout your mouth. Ahhhh, that's better. I still love that ginger kick, but I'm not sure that the orange is bringing much of value to the mix. It may add a little sweetness, or a little citrus balance, but it just didn't add to the overall appeal of the candy for me. 

One of my favorite indulgent drinks is to take orange juice and mix it with ginger ale. I was hoping for the favorable aspects of that combination to come through in this, but it just didn't do much for me. This is absolutely not bad and I'd surely buy another box if it was this or nothing. However, I'd prefer the unadulterated original ginger chew to the orange one. If the orange isn't doing much, then I see no point in bothering to have it there. 

Sina Ginger Candy

Like many unlucky souls out there, my body was invaded by cold germs as the weather turned from warm to cold. Incidentally, one of my pet peeves (besides the phrase "pet peeve", which I hate) is people speaking as if cold weather increases the risk of catching a cold. We catch colds because of the abrupt changes in temperature causing stress on our bodies and making us more susceptible to illnesses, not being exposed to cold air. That's why you're just as likely to catch a summer "cold" as a winter one. The fact that a week of coughing, sneezing, and blowing your nose as your immune system struggles to force these invaders out of your system is called "a cold" is probably responsible for this misunderstanding. 

At any rate, when I catch a cold, I crave strong herbal concoctions. One of the things I used to love having at this time when I was in Japan was their herbal cough drops. Another was access to Korean citron tea (something I've found can be had locally as well via Han Kook markets, hurrah!), which was often available at our local Yutakaraya. And, I would try to drink down ginger tea, as it's the sort of thing which is supposed to boost the immune system.

While still recovering from the invasion of the snot producing demons, my husband and I were perusing a Ranch 99 Market. My energy levels had plummeted through the floor at that time and I didn't have the energy to look around much, but just as we were leaving, I saw these Indonesian ginger candies. It seemed like just the ticket to moisten tissues dried out by copious amounts of mouth breathing as well as provide new armaments to my embattled immune system. I grabbed my taro mochi and this candy and got out of there before crawling into a corner and taking a nap.

The candy looks like it comes in a cigarette pack, but it's actually full of foil packets that contain sticky wads of ginger candy. They're very chewy and sticky, so, if you've got loose fillings, you want to stay away. My fillings, fortunately, seem to be firmly rooted and I could endure them. Note that these are a pretty "pure" candy because they contain only three ingredients: cane sugar, "choice" ginger and tapioca starch. The starch clearly is just dusted on the outside to keep the candy from sticking too much to the foil. The box asserts that this is "a nourishing healthy sweet suitable for the whole family at any time." That's actually more truthful for this treat than for many that make similar claims. 

The first hit on your tongue is of sweetness and then the ginger flavor quickly hits and starts its build. Within about 20 seconds, heat is started to build up from the intense ginger flavor. It'll burn the back of your throat a little and fill your mouth with warmth. While this may sound harsh, it's actually a very satisfying experience if you're the kind of person who enjoys eating candied ginger or garlic so strong it can burn.

I liked this a lot and I'd absolutely buy it again, especially for the price I paid (69 cents for a 2 oz. box with 9 pieces of candy). However, it's easy to see that this isn't the sort of candy that is for everyone. You've got to really love strong ginger and be happy with something relatively simple.

Shouga (Ginger) Sembei

Modern life is fraught with choice. In fact, I've read that psychologists have done studies in which too much choice causes stress and people need to tune out a lot of the options in modern stores because it is overwhelming to them. In Japan, there were often items in the snack sections that my eyes pretty much slid past. I saw them, but there were so many choices and I knew that I couldn't try them all so some were left behind. As the time of my planned departure drew near, I started noticing all of the things, especially in the traditional/granny's snacks areas, that I had never gotten around to reviewing. I regretted that I couldn't get to them all, but I also know that there are vast swathes of food that I never ate back home either.

Next time you're in a market, take a close look at what you reject out of hand everyday because it falls outside of your regular consumption. You may be surprised at how many items you've never put in your shopping basket because they didn't light your fire compared to other items of a similar nature. We tend to form chains of preferences rather than to step far beyond our circle of likes. Part of what people who review food do for you is tell you about products such that you might feel compelled to take notice and buy outside the box, or confirm that you probably would like to make sure that a certain item never gets into your box.

I saw a lot of these little crackers/cookies. They look like the mutant offspring of a fortune cookie and a frosted flake. Part of what made me dismiss them in Japan was that I had been mislead by streaky white stuff on sembei before which looked sweet, but was just coatings of weirdness. However, during my feeding frenzy at the Daiso Japan, I dived in and bought this 90-gram (3.2 oz.) bag for $1.50 (118 yen). I took the presence of such things for granted, but somehow was not punished for my lack of regard.

I've mentioned before that the Japanese call a wide variety of rice-based crispy snacks "sembei". While western folks who are somewhat familiar think of them as savory rice crackers, largely flavored with soy sauce or sesame, there are a number of sweet versions and this is one of them. They're more like a cookie than a cracker, except that they lack the textural elements of a cookie.

Each little bit of sembei is coated with a hard frosting and they smell very strange, almost like some odd chemical is at work. The flavor is very strongly infused with ginger and quite sweet. This is no surprise as the ingredients include sugar, glucose, fructose, and dextrin. All those sweeteners are held together with a little wheat flour, eggs, and margarine and flavored with ginger. Health food, this is certainly not.

In terms of the sugar, this is probably going to be far too much for people who aren't fans of especially sweet food. However, if you like candied ginger, this is like a crispy version of it. Fortunately for me, I am a fan of said version of ginger, but there are limits to how much one can eat at once before the sweetness and intense ginger start to overwhelm. You can look at that as built-in portion control, or as an impediment to finishing the bag before it goes stale. The latter did occur in my case, but I wasn't eating small amounts daily so it would be possible to have a few a day and still have the last one be crispy.

I loved these, but I recognize that they may be far too strong and sweet for a lot of people. I can't rate it for others, but I wouldn't hesitate to buy this again. That being said, I wouldn't want to have it around all of the time or eat it day in and day out. There's really only so much super sweet ginger that I need in my life, but this has an excellent flavor and great crispy texture. Candied ginger fans should definitely seek it out. Others will want to give it a pass.

These are made by a company called Nanao, but it's my guess that any ginger sembei that resembles this will be much the same. It's one of those companies which is small and has little presence in the market in terms of name recognition. You can buy this particular brand online at Pacific Mercantile Company, or the Marukai e-store, though I got mine at the Daiso Japan shop in Mountain View, CA.

Pure Gummy Apple Ginger Ale

This flavor of gummy is part of Pure's "wild pure" line. The thing that makes them "wild", apparently, is the kooky notion of including two different flavors rather than one. Apparently the people at Kanro (which makes the Pure gummy line) live a very sheltered existence.

I spied this out of the corner of my eye just as I was checking out at a Lawson 100. I didn't get a good look at the package before grabbing it and slapping it down on the counter and I thought it said "Apple Ginger". I missed the "Ale" part and probably wouldn't have opted to buy it had I known. It's not that I dislike ginger ale. In fact, I really like the drink but my experience with it in candy is that it tastes like flat, stale soda rather than a delightful bubbly concoction associated with dryness and our neighbors in the great white north. Still, I'd spent my 100 yen ($1.30) and now I was going to chew it up regardless of my mistake.

The picture above is the contents of the entire bag (46 grams/1.6 oz.). Each candy has collagen (good for your skin) and Vitamin C (good for what ails you) and provides 12.3 calories. This is a good candy to have around for a flavorful bite or two and, even for a gummy/gummi, doesn't stick too badly to your teeth.

When I opened the bag, it smelled rather intensely of fake apple flavoring. In fact, it reminded me of rotting apples sitting in a hot kitchen, a scent I can identify with after the long and oppressive Tokyo summer. The scent of the actual candy wasn't as strong as the air released when the bag's seal was broken, but it still smells like fermented applesauce. Pure gummy candies are covered in citric acid powder to give them a sour bite and that was present here, though it was masked to a great extent by the relatively strong apple flavor with liberal amounts of ginger. There's also an intense perfumey kick at the end of the bite which is elevated by the tangy powder.

I had mixed feelings about this. I like the texture of the gummy, which is slightly chewy and firmer than European or American gummy candies. I also like the general flavor balance and the citric acid powder on the outside. The fact that these aren't incredibly sugary is a bonus, but ultimately the apple flavor itself was just too overpowering for my tastes. It's a good candy on the whole, but probably not for everyone.

Tea's Tea Stick Latte Ginger Chai

Thanks to a trip up a mountain, the Tea's Tea brand has hooked me as a repeat customer. If they could just get everyone to climb a mountain in winter with a vending machine offering their drinks as handy hand warmers, Ito En might sell a lot more tea. Perhaps I should offer that idea to them as a marketing solution. It's a little convoluted, but I've seen worse in Japan like a politically incorrect actor dressed up like a stereotype of a Mexican stutter-stepping his way through a "Don Tacos" commercial.

Given my enjoyment of the soy milk tea I previously reviewed, I jumped at the chance to sample this 4-pack of instant ginger chai tea when I saw it at Seiyu supermarket for 187 yen ($2.24). Most of the chai mixes you see available in Japan are supercharged with sugar, but this was only 34 calories so I figured there was a good chance that it wouldn't be quite such a blood sugar bomb.

Each packet makes a 150 ml. (3/4 cup) serving of tea. This is a relatively small portion, but very much in line with the norm in Japan for individually packaged portions of instant beverages. In a former review of Maxim's Oreo and Mont Blanc lattes, I mentioned that those packets only made 130 ml. of coffee (and at nearly double the calories of this tea). Note that this tea can be mixed either as hot or cold tea, but I only tried it hot.

My main concern with this was that the ginger element might end up overbearing and that the chai aspect masked. Fortunately, though the ginger was strong, it didn't obliterate the chai flavoring but rather competed with it. The blend is potent, but very gratifying. It contained not only good solid elements of ginger and chai, but also the slightly floral notes of good tea. The only criticism a person might have of the entire balance was that it was a bit on the sweeter side, but frankly, I prefer my tea quite sweet.

From an economic viewpoint, this isn't much of a bargain over buying bottled tea since you can generally get a 500 ml. bottle for about 100 yen. From a pure volume perspective, this is about half the tea for almost half the price. That being said, ginger chai isn't sold as a prepared tea so this is the only way to get it. It's also convenient for tossing into a desk and making on the fly at the office when you're in the mood for a flavorful tea blend. It'd be a great thing to distract you from a sugar-craving when you're starting to drag in the early afternoon and crave chocolate.

I loved this, and will definitely get it again, but it may be too sweet for some and/or too intense for others. Unless you are extremely sensitive to either of these, I'd recommend giving this a try.

Luna Winter Apple with lemon and ginger yogurt

The Japanese are big into seasonal anything, so I'm guessing there is some special significance to these being "winter apples". I doubt, however, that my taste buds will know the difference. They're not exactly the most refined papillae out there, after all, but I also doubt that a 100 yen ($1.20) carton of yogurt requires a greatly refined palate.

I found this yogurt at Lawson 100 shop, but I'm sure it can be found in supermarkets and other convenience stores. I'm not a huge fan of apple treats, or even relatively healthy things like yogurt, but the inclusion of ginger and lemon made the idea of this more attractive to me. I also liked the fact that it's only 69 calories for 120 grams (4.2 oz.). It also helps that it is made by Luna, maker of many delicious yogurt offerings in Japan.

The yogurt smells like apples, which is no surprise. There is a generous amount of small, nicely firm apple chunks and they are liberally seasoned with lemon and carry a nice hint of ginger as well. I liked the fact that the fruit was substantial enough that you could actually chew the little apple pieces, but not so big that you felt they hadn't cut them up enough. The yogurt is a little runny and also a bit sweeter than I'd like. I think that is because this uses Sucralose artificial sweetener and it can pack a harder punch. However, I'm sure it is what keeps the calories down.

I'm rather torn about this one because I thought it was fine, but I'm not sure that I'd buy it again. The main issues I have with it is that the lemon and ginger is a little too intense in a way which  makes it seem almost "perfumey" and it is a bit too sweet. That being said, as a run-of-the-mill fruit yogurt option, this is certainly fine. However, given a choice between this and the "Apple Pie" Night-time Sweets yogurt, I'd take the latter any day. It has a better sweetness balance, the cinnamon works well in it and has the same number of calories as this ginger and lemon apple yogurt.

Kirin Diabolo Ginger Soda

I have a feeling that a lot of the soft drink industry in Japan is driven by the desire of alcoholic beverage makers to make mixers. Very often when I try something off the beaten path, that means non-cola-based, it is too strong and seems designed to be diluted with something.

I picked up this Diabolo Ginger because the name sounded demonic. I didn't realize that this is actually pretty far away from anything sinister. It's rather sophisticated as the ginger preparation method and origin is in Provence, France (ginger diavolo). This beverage is part of Kirin's "kitchens of the world" promotion. As part of the method for this type of drink in France, sugar is boiled with ginger and honey-pickled lemon. Cinnamon and lemongrass are also used as part of the preparation.

In Japan, the preparation appears to be rather different. They use grapefruit juice and marigold. There is no cinnamon and the lemon has no honey notes. The grapefruit seems to accentuate the ginger flavor a lot. It's extremely strong. It reminds me of the smell I get when I grate fresh ginger root and the juice runs off. It's far too intense to be drunk straight.

The bottle contains 410 ml. of soda and was 147 yen at an AM/PM convenience store. It has plenty of sugar in it. The entire bottle will set you back 148 calories, not that I think most sober people can drink it all at one go. I couldn't get a decent shot of the drink poured into a glass, but it's nothing exciting. It is just cloudy, white liquid which looks like washed out lemonade.

I wouldn't buy this again because it is just too strong and not worth the calories or the cost. It's not that it's bad, really, it just feels a lot like drinking medicine at its current intensity.