Winter beer

I just got a case of Kirin Beer’s latest beer*.
(*Actually, it’s a 発泡酒 (Happoshu) which is a low-malt beer. These are popular because they avoid the high beer tax in Japan and therefore are cheaper. They taste quite the same as “regular” beer, so I like them.)

This new beer is called 「冬麒麟」 (“Winter Kirin“).

It tastes very good. It has a “mild taste” just as it says in the ad.
This is a temporary beer offered by Kirin Beer for this winter season, so if you’re in Japan, I recommend trying a can or two.

(The Kirin Beer Company is named after a mythological dragon-like creature called 「麒麟」 (Kirin)…not a “giraffe” which is also called “kirin” in Japanese but written 「キリン」.)

300,000 hits and 1000 beer

I started this blog almost exactly two years ago.
It didn’t get many visitors at first…but the number has steadily climbed.

After eighteen months, my blog got 100,000 hits.

It was only four months from that point to reach 200,000 hits.

But currently this blog gets an average of over 1,500 hits a day. It took only two months to get another hundred-thousand hits. My blog reached 300,000 hits today.

So, thank you to everyone that reads my blog posts, especially those that comment.
Please continue…it’s the feedback that make blogging enjoyable.

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Kirin Beer released 「キリン・サウザン」 (“Kirin 1000 (thousand))“) beer yesterday.

Ad for "Kirin 1000" beer.

Kirin 1000 beer is actually a 「発泡酒」 (low-malt beer) which are much cheaper than “real” beer because there’s no beer tax added to their price.
Some people don’t like 「発泡酒」 (low-malt beer). I don’t know why…they taste good to me. Any type of cold beer (except “lite”, “diet” or “non-alcohol” beers) are good to me. 😉

Kirin 1000 got it’s name because it’s made with “hard water” container 1000 mg of magnesium per liter of water.

I haven’t tried this beer yet. I just bought a case of Suntory 「金麦」 (“Kinmugi”) beer (in the special “spring season” cans decorated with sakura).

Ad for Suntory 「金麦」 beer 2010 spring edition with sakura design.

This beer doesn’t taste any different than it always has…the cans just have a sakura design added to them.
(It’s a good beer at a good price either way).

Anyways, once my case of Suntory is gone, maybe I’ll choose Kirin 1000 next.

Vodka and cola

I mentioned my preference for beer over cola on an earlier post (Click here to read it).

But on 七月八日 ((2009) July 8), Kirin (the Japanese beverage company most famous for their line of beers) will begin selling 「コーラショック」 (“Cola Shock”).

キリン「コーラショック」 (Kirin "Cola Shock")

It’s a canned cola and vodka cocktail.

The ad says that it’s a 発泡酒 (Low-malt alcoholic beverage) that contains アルコール分５％ (5% alcohol).

As I mentioned before, I don’t drink cola often…but this is one kind I’d like! 😉

New drinks

I wrote about Pepsi Japan‘s new drink that they started selling this week called Pepsi Shiso.
(Click here to read it).

I decided to buy a bottle of it today to try it just for the novelty value.

"Pepsi Shiso" on the convenience store shelf.

I know what シソ (Shiso), the Japanese herb, tastes like. We actually have some growing in my wife’s garden right now.
I like it fine…but the idea of “Shiso flavored cola” seemed very odd to me.

I was right. Pepsi Shiso smells and tastes alot like the herb. As I said, I think Shiso is good…as an herb. But in a cola, I found it unappealing.

I took a couple sips to try it, and gave the rest of the drink to my kids. Even they found it “mediocre”.

I guess we won’t be buying Pepsi Shiso again.

After trying the Pepsi Shiso, I opened my favorite drink…an ice cold beer! (Actually a 発泡酒 (Low-malt beer), which is just as good to me).

Yesterday, I bought a case of Kirin Beer‘s newest offering: 「コクの時間」 (I would’ve translated it as “Wonderful Time“…but it says on the can “Golden Moments“).

Regardless, the beer was much better than the herb cola! (Actually, a cold beer is better than any other drink! 🙂 )

Japanese beer

Do you like beer?
Have you ever tried Japanese beer?

I ♥ beer!

「麒麟ビール」 (Kirin Beer) is my favorite…but I’ll take any cold lager!

Kirin Tanrei Double

Japan has five major brewers:

• Kirin Beer – This beer began in the late nineteenth-century in 横浜 (Yokohama, Japan). It’s named after a mythological creature called a 「麒麟」 (kirin) that looks like a dragon (it’s featured on the beer cans)…not named after a giraffe (which is 「キリン」 (kirin), also).


A mythological "kirin".

Many people don’t know that hidden in the creature on Kirin Beer cans is the word 「キリン」 (kirin):



「キ・リ・ン」 (Ki-ri-n) written in the creature's mane.

(I wrote another post that mentions Kirin Beer. Click here to see it.)

• Asahi Beer -Started in 大阪 (Osaka, Japan).





The Asahi Beer brewery is a Tokyo landmark.

(I have pictures of old Asahi Beer posters on the end of another post. Click here to see it.)

• Suntory Beer – Also started in 大阪 (Osaka, Japan).
  Suntory Beer got it’s name because the founder’s name was Mr. Torii…or Torii-san. So, he took the words Torii and san and reversed them into San-torii and changed the spelling to Suntory.

(Another famous Japanese company got their name in a similar manner. The Bridgestone company was founded by Mr. Ishibashi…which translates into Stone bridge, which he reversed to Bridgestone.)



Suntory Beer

• Sapporo Beer – Started in 北海道札幌 (Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan).


Sapporo Beer

Sapporo Beer bought the Yebisu Beer brewery (which was from Tokyo), so they make that beer as well.



Yebisu Beer (pronounced "Ebisu")

• Orion Beer – From 沖縄 (Okinawa, Japan)


Orion Beer

Have you ever tried Japanese beer? Which ones have you tried? Did you like them?
What’s your favorite beer in the world?

As I said above, I like 「麒麟ビール」 (Kirin Beer) best…and probably オリオンビール (Orion Beer) as my next favorite.