Calbee FritoLay Doritos

FritoLay, which goes through a Calbee owned company in Japan, has introduced dark black garlic pepper Doritos for Halloween. There is an image of a Dracula figure and in English it says "I can't eat garlic, but I want to eat this!" In Japanese, it says "トリックオアパリット！" which translates as "Trick or Crisp!"

Key Words: Calbee, FritoLay, Doritos, Halloween, pepper garlic カルビー ドリトス フリットレー ドリトス ハロウィン ペッパーガーリック

Morinaga Creap Creamy Powder

One product name that frequently makes non-Japanese laugh is Morinaga's Creap creamy powder, which is powdered cream mostly used for coffee. However, this is one of Japan's best known brands which is now celebrating 55 years on the market. It is also the only cream powder on the market actually made from milk and not plant based oils. Besides celebrating its 55th anniversary, Morinaga is introducing plastic containers to replace the long used glass bottles.
http://www.creap.jp/

Key Words: Morinaga, Creap 森永 クリープ

Photo is a web capture for explanatory purposes, copyright belongs to the company.

Meiji Bulgaria Green Fruits Mix Drink Yogurt

 Meiji has introduced Bulgaria Green Fruits Mix Drink Yogurt in the still relatively new screw top bottles.

MegMilk Snow Brand Baristaism Chilld Cup Coffee

MegMilk Snow Brand has introduced a new chilled cup coffee line called Baritaism, which is centered around Hiroshi Sawada 澤田洋史, who in 2008 became the first Asian to win the Free Pour Latte World Championship with the highest ever recorded score. Even though the name does not really make sense in English, the press release describes how trendy it is.

Chilled coffees sell at a premium and are always marketed as a luxury, so the imagery fits perfectly. However, at present, the brand is tied solely to this one latte artist. Odd to create a new brand which depends on one spokesperson. Maybe they will introduce other baristas in the future. Also, he won his notoriety as a latte artist, which has nothing to do with taste and cannot be reproduced in a chilled cup coffee where you sip the coffee through a straw and never actually see the coffee.

So, I am left with more questions than answers, but marketing like this is aimed more at imagery and feeling than logic. If the product actually tastes good, everything else will be forgotten.
http://www.meg-snow.com/barista/

Key Words: MegMilk Snow Brand, Bristaism, Hiroshi Sawada 雪印メグミルク バリスタイズム 澤田洋史


Photo is a web capture for explanatory purposes, copyright belongs to the company.

Organic Milk and Shelf Life

Below is a link to a short but interesting Q&A from The New York Times.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/27/science/organic-milk-shelf-life.html

In short (my summary),
Q. Why does organic milk have a longer shelf life than regular milk?
A. Demand for organic milk is less, therefore it has to travel farther to market. Therefore ultra high temperature (UHT) pasteurization (as opposed to HTST) is used for organic milk, which extends the shelf life.

All factually correct. However, by itself the illustration accompanying the article is misleading because there is no inherent connection between organic milk and extended shelf life. Marketing realities demand different processing techniques.

And this answer does not even hit upon the irony of many people buying organic because they think it tastes better. The negative effect of UHT pasteurization on taste is very apparent to anyone who takes the time to compare the two. So buying organic might actually provide inferior taste, due to market necessities.

As with any issue, when you dig down, nothing is ever as simple and straight forward as you might like it to be.

Pokka Sapporo Aromax Coffee

Aromax Coffee is Pokka Sapporo's premium line of canned coffees. The current 5 varieties can be seen in the image above: Premium, Black, Low Sugar, Latte, and Caramel Macchiato. The obvious connection between the product line name, packaging and improved taste is the large screw top which allows more aroma out of the can and enhances the flavor perception of the product. That is pretty straight forward, aroma plays a huge role in flavor (as opposed to taste perception in the mouth).

However, looking at the webpage, Pokka Sapporo sites more reasons behind improved taste of this line and I have listed them below.
1) coffee beans are specially selected and then roasted under optimal conditions (light, medium or deep roast depending on the bean). I take it this is opposed to cheaper methods where beans are mixed and roasted all together.
2) more coffee beans (1.2 times more) are used to obtain a rich flavor
3) different coffee bean blends (the most suitable coffee bean blends) are used for each product.
4) The patented Fresh Natural Aroma Method (フレッシュナチュラルアロマ製法) is used for retaining the original taste of the coffee without resorting to the use of any added flavors at the end of the process. The flavors are retained by showering hot water on the roasting beans and capturing any escaping flavor compounds, condensing them back to a liquid and reinjecting these flavor compounds at the end of the process.

 5) In order to avoid off flavors resulting from oxidation products, Pokka Sapporo has developed a process (脱酸素製法) remove most of the oxygen prior to processing. (They indirectly reference similar methods used such as for Meiji Oishii Gyunyu "Delicious Milk").

 6) Finally, the mention the large screw cap which they somewhat akwardly call the Wide Mouth Bottle Can "広口ボトル缶".

So, when you buy Pokka Sapporo Aromax Coffee, a lot of thought and technology has gone into bringing this product to market.
http://www.pokkasapporo-fb.jp/aromax/index.html

Key Words: Pokka Sapporo, Aromax Coffee, Fresh Natural Aroma Method, deoxygenation, Wide Mouth Bottle Can ポッカサッポロ フレッシュナチュラルアロマ製法 脱酸素製法 広口ボトル缶

Photo is a web capture for explanatory purposes, copyright belongs to the company.

KFC Peach and Peach Krushers

KFC Japan has a new Krushers variety, Peach and Peach which contains peach bits and juice from both white and yellow peaches. Vanilla biscuit is added for more crunchy texture. Like the other Krushers varieties, and packs calories (329 kcal), but nevertheless not as much as the Matcha Azuki variety (552 kcal).

Key Words: Kentucky Fried Chicken, Krushers ケンタッキーフライドチキン
http://krushers.kfc.co.jp/

Photo is a web capture for explanatory purposes, copyright belongs to the company.

McDonald's Halloween Chocolate Fries

 McDonald's Japan has made some news with this Halloween themed special. Add 60 yen to the price of any set and you get fries covered in chocolate and pumpkin sauce creating nice colorful imagery.

Sourcing: potatoes (US), cacao (Indonesia), pumpkin (New Zealand)
 Key Words: McDonald's, Halloween, cacao, chocolate, pumpkin マックドナルド ハロウィン カカオ チョコ パンプキン
http://www.mcdonalds.co.jp/campaign/halloweenpotato/index.html

Photo is a web capture for explanatory purposes, copyright belongs to the company.

Sapporo THAT'S HOP Sorachi Ace

Sapporo has a craft beer line called THAT'S HOP and now they have added a new beer called Sorachi Ace, named after a hop variety.



The company, this product and the history of the hop have a related, interesting history.
1) Sapporo, with local farmers in the Sorachi 空知 area of Hokkaido, developed this hop variety in the 1984 and sold beer varieties using this hop, but these products were before their time (according to the company).
2) US hop grower Darren Gamache of Virgil Gamache Farms in Washington State obtained Sorachi Ace from the USDA Hop Cultivar Collection, cultivated it and offered it for sale in 2006.
3) during the Hop Crisis of 2008 when hop prices soared due to supply and weather problems, many brewers in the US turned to this hop variety which has a special lemony auroma. Since then it has been a steady niche hop variety in the US and Europe.
and
4) now things have come full circle with Sapporo collaborating with Darren Gamache to bring the hop back to Japan for Sapporo THAT'S HOP Sorachi Ace beer.

From what I can see this beer if only available on Amazon and possibly in special Sapporo beer halls. Amazon is also the place where most of the information about this beer can be found - very little on the website.

Key Words: Sapporo Beer, Sorachi, Hokkaido, Sorachi Ace, Hop サッポロビール ソラチエース 空知支庁 北海道 ホップ
https://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/B01I13TX1E

Photo is a web capture for explanatory purposes, copyright belongs to the company.

Morinaga Lipton Tea Halloween Designs

 Seen in a convenience store: Lipton varieties are already in a Halloween mood. Lipton goes through Morinaga in Japan.

森永 リプトン