Meiji and Ajinomoto introduce new methane reduction scheme

Very happy to share a new and unique methane reduction scheme from Meiji and Ajinomoto designed to benefit dairy farmers in several ways. Details can be found in the links below, but dairy farmers will be provided with an enteric methane reducing feed from Ajinomoto (AjiPro-L) and will then be paid for GHG reductions as part of the J-Credit program. Meiji is very happy to work with farmers in order to reach our Net Zero by 2050 goal.

English (PDF) https://www.meiji.com/global/news/2023/pdf/230329_01.pdf

Japanese https://www.meiji.co.jp/corporate/pressrelease/2023/0327_02/

Tea Cultivation

It is not uncommon to come upon small plots cultivating tea when driving (or riding a bike, in my case) through rural communities in Japan.

Che Cigarettes

Che branding and the iconic photo work even in Japan.

Haagen-Dazs Triple Chocolat

Haagen-Dazs will introduce a new decadent offering Feb 6th, the Triple Chocolat, which actually looks like a quadruple chocolate to me (two white chocolates, a bitter chocolate, and milk chocolate). When you open the cup there is a layer of white chocolate ice cream with chunks of white chocolate chips. When you scoop down, you make your way through a layer of bitter chocolate sauce on your way to a milk chocolate ice cream with a rich cacao flavor.
http://www.haagen-dazs.co.jp

Key Words: カカオ ハーゲンダッツ トリプルショコラ Haagen-Dazs Triple Chocolat

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

Glico GABA Stress Fighting Chocolate

GABA, or gamma-amino butyric acid, is a component of chocolate that has been shown to have a stress reducing effect. This Glico product by the same name contains 280 mg of GABA per 100 g of product, and comes in milk chocolate and bitter chocolate varieties.

Possibly the more interesting point is that this product employs the relatively new food claim system in which a company takes responsibility for the claim instead of having it approved by the government. This was introduced to somewhat mimic the claim system in the US.

Therefore this product clearly claims psychological stress reduction, but then in small print points out that this claim has not been verified by the Japanese government.

Key words: Glico, GABA, chocolate, グリコ チョコレート ギャバ
http://cp.glico.jp/gaba/index.html

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

Nestle Kumamoto Kumamon Tea KitKat

Nestle is selling a special green tea variety of KitKat only in Kyushu and Okinawa. Kumamon is the brand character created by Kumamoto Prefecture and free for use in any product that contains ingredients from Kumamoto. Since the earthquake in Kumamoto last year, it has become a symbol for support for people in that area.
https://nestle.jp

Key Words: Nestle, KitKat, Kumamoto Prefecture ネスレ キットカット くまもん くまもと茶 熊本県

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

KFC Shrimp Crispy Sticks

Styled after their chicken crisps, called "Colonel Crispies", KFC has introduced crispy shrimp sticks, called "Ebi Paripari Fry", which use natural (not farmed) shrimp.
http://www.kfc.co.jp

Key Words: KFC, Kentucky Fried Chicken, shrimp, えびパリパリフライ ケンタッキーフライドチキン

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

PokkaSapporo Furano Lavender Tea

Pokka Sapporo is offering a lavender tea which uses lavender from the Furano area of Hokkaido. They stress that a special low temperature extraction process of the lavender-tea mixture avoids the bitter and astringent tastes that can otherwise accompany the process.
http://www.pokkasapporo-fb.jp

Key Words: Pokka Sapporo, Furano, Hokkaido, lavender, tea, ラベンダー, 茶, 富良野, 北海道

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

Wendy's Brioche Burgers

Wendy's has introduced new premium burgers at premium prices: the brioche cheese and tomato burger (680 yen), and the brioche bistro beef stew burger (860 yen). Little explanation and no press release accompanies the introduction, but brioche refers to the bread and in one like of copy the burgers are said to have a buttery aroma for this winter special.
http://wendys.co.jp/

Key Words: Wendy's, brioche, burger, ブリオッシュ, ウェンディーズ

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

Atsuta Shrine Nagoya Aichi Sake Producers

This is a photo of sake (or nihonshu) casks offered by the sake producers in Aichi Prefecture (only Aichi Prefecture) to Atsuta Shrine in Nagoya, one of the major shrines in Japan.

愛知県酒造組合 熱田神宮 日本酒

KitKat Sake Flavor

This white chocolate KitKat version promises aroma of fine sake and clean aftertaste. This is a limited product, but is available throughout Japan.

Key Words: KitKat, Nestle, Sake, キットカット ネスレ 日本酒 ワイトチョコレート
https://d.nestle.jp/kitkat/

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

Kirin Spring Valley Brewery

 This post took me in a different direction than originally intended. I started out thinking this was simply a case of a major brewer pretending to be a micro-brewer. The real story here is more about the interesting history of Kirin Beer, something I had forgotten.

On the grounds of its Yokohama Brewery, Kirin runs a microbrewery and restaurant called Spring Valley Brewery. Currently, there are seven varieties of beer on offer and the price per bottle averages 430 yen. These same beers are also available for sale on the internet. Getting this far, it looked to me that it was simply a case of one of the big guys muscling in on mom and pop microbrewery territory.

It is not quite that simple though. Spring Valley Brewery is actually the name of what Kirin calls the first brewery in Japan that was a business success. In 1869, William Copeland, a Norwegian-American brewer, made the shift from dairy to beer brewing and established Spring Valley Brewery in Yokohama. Copeland was at the forefront of employing what was then the new pasteurization technique. He also dug a 210 meter cave in the side of a hill in Yokohama in order to have a fixed temperature space for controlled beer maturation.

In 1885, with the help of famous Scottish trader Blake Thomas Glover, the business was sold to a group of Japanese investors which included the president of Mitsubishi. The new business, called The Japan Brewery, was founded and incorporated in Hong Kong. This was the forerunner of Kirin Brewery. Glover is buried in the Foreigner's Cemetery in Yokohama and his grave is maintained by Kirin.

So Spring Valley Brewery is a throwback to Kirin's roots, and the Copeland variety is named for the founder. Interesting history.

Key Words: Spring Valley Brewery, Kirin Beer, William Copeland ウィリアム・コープランド キリンビール スプリングバレーブルワリー
http://www.drinx.jp/beer/svb/about/

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

Kirin Namacha Green Tea

Kirin touts a propitiatory method to be the secret behind the taste of its Namacha Tea. The process centers around the use of ceramic balls to crush the tea leaves. Typically, tea leaves are mechanically cut, but Kirin uses creamic balls and a ceramic ball mill to more finely cut the leaves and therefore more efficiently release tea extract essential to genuine tea taste. The complete presess consists of three steps: crushing the leaves with ceramic ball instead of cutting, pressing the resulting mass as a whole to extract all the flavor, and low temperature extraction to avoid any loss or change of flavor due to temperature.

The web page also makes a point of the completely green packaging, which is said to convey a more basic tea image.

Tea is an important product category in Japan, where even seemingly minor taste advanages can be very important

Key words: Kirin, Namucha, Tea, キリン 生茶

http://www.kirin.co.jp/products/softdrink/namacya

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

White Black Thunder

This is a Hokkaido-only special edition of Black Thunder a popular chocolate snack. It is made with white chocolate in the company's Sapporo factory. The added copy reads "white thunder god" 白い雷神 (the thunder god is a Shinto-related god often seen in Japanese prints) and "Deliciousness straight down" おいしさ直滑降 (the word for straight down is most often used with skiing).

Black Thunder is the most well known brand from Tokyo based Yuraku Seika Confectionery company.

Key Words: Black Thunder, Yuraku Seika, ブラックサンダー ユーラク製菓

Kamaboko and Shirasu Pizza

Pizza can be a different experience in Japan. In addition to what you might call typical pizza varieties in Western countries like pepperoni and triple cheese, you also encounter liberal use of corn and mayonnaise here. At a party last night, in what might be a first for me, kamaboko and shirasu pizza was served. Kamaboko is cured surimi, but is also referred to as fish paste or even fish hot dogs. Kamaboko is not just a way to process excess fish protein, it is actually considered a staple of almost any multi-serving Japanese meal. Kamaboko can be very expensive.

What you see pictured here is a cheese pizza with distinct mayonnaise flavor topped with kamaboko slices and shirasu (I had to look up the English - small fry of fish or whitebait).

Probably not something you would find on a menu outside Japan, but it was actually quite good.

Key Words: Pizza, Kamaboko, Shirasu ピザ 蒲鉾 シラス 白子

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.