World Cup 2010 Themed Kirin Beer

Japanese Football Team Colours

As anyone who has a passing interest in football – and that doesn’t describe me – knows, there’s the World Cup taking place this year in South Africa.

Now, I have no interest in football, but I do have perhaps more than a passing interest in Japanese beers, so this new can design caught my eye in the supermarket the other day.

I thought it was a new beer (they seem to release a couple of new happoshu’s or daisans – third category beers – every month here in Japan), but it’s the old Kirin Tanrei Happoshu repackaged in the Japanese football teams colours.

I can only assume Kirin sponsor the Japanese Soccer League.

Despite it not being a new beer, I bought it anway and can confirm it’s exactly the same as the usual Kirin Tanrei, by which I mean it’s nothing like a beer and has the usual slightly metallic taste of a happoshu but, to be fair, I’ve had worse.

Edit (7/4/10) : I just remembered, the Japanese winery Chateau Mercian also released a range of wine to commemorate the Japan/Korea World Cup in 2002. They can be seen on my blog post here.