Beerlike drinks in Japan hit new low price
Japan has three main kinds of beers:
- Normal lagers (Kirin, Asahi, etc)
- Happoshu (Low Malt beers – less than 67% malt and cheaper than normal lager as tax is lower)
- Third Category Beer (These are “Beerlike” drinks as they are called and the ingredients are soybeans, corn and peas as opposed to malt).
The Third Category Beers are the cheapest of the lot, and as you can imagine, taste pretty much nothing like a real beer. However due to their much lower prices, ￥120 a can ($1.20) as opposed to around ￥200 ($2) for an Asahi, they are pretty popular here in Japan.
In fact, shipments of beerlike beverages have increased about 20% so far this year (while normal beer and happoshu have dropped).
Sales are likely to increase further with Aeon Co (a large supermarket chain here) teaming up with Suntory to produce their own brand of third-category beer, Mugi no Kaori (Aroma of wheat) – I love that name 
, set to retail for just ￥100!! ($1).
Following this announcement, another major company, Seven & i (who own 7-Eleven I believe) are releasing The Brew, for ￥600 for 6 cans.
This, funnily enough, is also produced by Suntory – I wonder what the difference in taste will be.
This could be the start of a trend, with ever decreasing prices Shame they taste so rough though.
The beers are due to be released late July, so will look out for them and let you know how they rate.
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