Recently I blogged about the Sapporo/Royce Chocolate beer for Valentines day and there seems to be a spate of other chocolate based beers and cocktails released this year in Japan.

Recently I found this Chocolat Cocktail from Asahi which is a Rum and Chocolate based cocktail.

I bought it initially for my wife as she likes sweet cocktails, but she didn’t want it, so after leaving it in the fridge for a couple of weeks I finally took the plunge and tried it (the fridge was otherwise bare).

Very surprised and impressed!

Basically a chocolate milkshake with a hint of rum on the aftertaste (although rum is the main ingredient according to the can, the cocktail is only 4% and hardly tastes of rum at all).

Haven’t seen any other chocolate cocktails but am still trying to find the other chocolate beers , Chocolate No. 7, Chocolate Doppu, and White Chocolate from Doppu.


The full review is here: Asahi Chocolat Cocktail

Prompted by the large number of injuries due to fights in pubs and bars in England (some 87,000 alcohol related glass attacks a year!), the shatterproof pint glass has been unveiled this week in Britain.

There are two types, one designed not to break at all (it has a protective coating on the inside) and the other has two thin layers of glass bonded together to prevent shattering, in the same was as windshields.

Apparently half of all violent assaults in Britain are due to alcohol and you’re 5 times more likely to be in a fight or attacked in or around a bar.

Although the new glasses don’t shatter, you could, if you so desired, hit someone over the head with them as a club.


You don’t see many drunken fights in Japan, or maybe I just don’t hang around the “right/wrong” areas. I have seen a couple of drunken salary man have a slapping match on the train station though.

Well, not much of a slapping match, the older man was slapping the younger mans face and in a remarkable show of deference to age and seniority, the younger man just stood there and took it.
I wondered at the time if the old guy was the other’s boss.

Still this is quite rare, at least from what I’ve seen in Kansai.


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They have this thing they do in Japan after New Years, called Lucky Bags.

Basically, shops, etc make up bags full of stuff which they sell for anything from ￥1000-￥100,000 or more. I read somewhere that this year one firm was selling 2 bags for over a millions that included a robot that they would build that would look just like the purchaser!

Anyway, basically the idea is, you don’t know what’s in the bag, but it’s supposed to be better value – I saw one for in a department store for 2 bottles of wine for ￥10,000 but the value of wines was ￥15,000.
You get the idea.

Digging through some old photos on my pc, I found this from last years which was a Lucky Bag I bought at Nishinomiyha Ebisu Festival from an off-license there.

Four cans of Asahi lager, a beer glass, some curry, some tissues and oddly…some clingfilm.
All for ￥1000 ($10).

I found these in a folder on my computer the other day, can’t remember where I found them, somewhere on the old internet…

I love the style of them.

This question bugged me for quite a while when I first discovered that Japan has 3 categories of beer, and I don’t mean lager, beer, bitter, etc.

Thankfully, an article in the Daily Yomiuri yesterday cleared it up for me.

The reason Japan has 3 different categories of beer is essentially for tax reasons.

Regular beer which must contain at least 67% malt is taxed at the highest rate.

Happoshu (which means “Sparking Spirits” 発泡酒 in Japanese) contains less than 25% malt and is therefore taxed at a lower rate (which obviously means it’s cheaper to the customers).

There is a Third-Category “beer” called 第三のビール (Daisan no Biru) which basically doesn’t have any malt and is made from “other” ingredients (I believe corn, peas, soy, etc), which has an even cheaper tax rate.

Partly due to the global economic crisis, sales of Happoshu and third-type have been increasing year on year in Japan and Japanese breweries are planning to increase theis sales to more than 30% of the total beer market for the first time this year.

Unfortunately, the Happoshu’s and particulary the Third-category “beverages” are not very tasty, and often have an unpleasant metallic taste to them.

The best one I’ve had is Shiro Kirin (White Kirin) from, obviously, Kirin. This one is made from Malt, Hops, Barley, Rice and Corn and is actually fairly drinkable.

The best Third-Category I’ve tried is Suntory Jokky Nama and despite being a huge 8% is actually quite light and for a Third-Category beer, fairly drinkable.


Each of the main breweries have announced new beerlike beverages for this year,
1000 from Kirin, which uses hard water, Strong Off from Asahi with 7% alcohol and 60% less carbohydrates, and finally Relax from Suntory, made from seven types of hops.

Although Sapporo don’t have a new drink in the pipeline, they are reducing the price of their
Draft One happoshu.