Starbucks Beer in Tokyo

In Japan, a number of fast-food restaurants, including Burger King, have beer and other alcohol drinks on their menu.

And now, Starbucks Japan, at least at one location so far, have begun selling alcohol too.

A Starbucks in the trendy 下北沢 (Shimokitazawa) area of Tokyo have added beer and wine to their menu.

Another way that they are trying to separate from the usual Starbucks coffeeshop image is that the staff at that particular store will wear their own street clothes rather than the Starbucks uniform.

Maccha at Starbucks Japan

Does Starbucks in your country have 抹茶 (Japanese Green Tea) drinks on their menu?

I suspect that it’s another only-in-Japan thing.

Starbucks Japan‘s newest item on their menu is 「チョコレート・ブラウニー抹茶クリーム・フラペチーノ」 (“Chocolate Brownie / Green Tea Cream Frappuccino“).

Do you like Starbucks? Would you order this drink?

Robeks is in Tokyo now. What is Robeks?

The American “smoothie” chain has just opened their first store in Japan. It opened in Tokyo this weekend.

But what exactly is a “smoothie”? I remember a shop called Orange Julius that was in nearly every shopping mall when I lived in America.
They sold a blended fruit drink that tasted pretty good. Is that what a “smoothie” is?
Is Orange Julius still in business in America? Is it still as popular as it was in the ’80s?

Is Robeks a new business?
I guess they must be popular in America, because they’ve managed to expand to Japan.
Robeks Japan will probably be popular in Japan…but I think their drinks will be overpriced (like that over-rated American coffee chain, Starbucks) because their lone Japanese store is located in a bit of a uptown part of Tokyo called 自由が丘 (Jiyuugaoka).

I don’t drink these blended juice type drinks often, but if I wanted one I wouldn’t make a special trip to Jiyugaoka just for one. And even I was in the area, I still doubt I’d patronize their store…there is already a Japanese alternative that is both more convenient and affordable called 「ジューサーバー」 (“Juicer Bar“).

There are Juicer Bar stands in many train stations all over Tokyo (sometimes right on the platform) and they sell a cup of blended fruit juice for less than ¥200 (currently the U.S. dollar is very weak, so at today’s rate that would equal about US$2.60).

Do you drink at Robeks? How about Orange Julius? And have you ever tried Juicer Bar in Japan?
(A bit off topic, but what do you think of Starbucks? And, not that it affects me personally (I haven’t used American currency for years), but why is the U.S. dollar currently so weak?)

スターバックス ヴィア

I like coffee a lot.
Every morning I drink a cup of coffee and every evening a can (or two) of beer.

But I don’t like Starbucks.

In my opinion, what Starbucks sells isn’t coffee but overpriced hot cocoa. It’s too sweet and too expensive.

But I understand that Starbucks is popular (although I don’t understand why that is), so maybe you’ll be interested to know that 「スターバックス」 (Starbucks) in Japan has just begun selling 「スターバックス　ヴィア」 (“Starbucks Via“) coffee.

“Starbucks Via” is their new brand of instant coffee.

Packages of "Starbucks Via" in the U.S. have "X" marks on them.

I guess Starbucks in America has already been offering this new instant coffee, but in Japan Starbucks began selling it today.

There are a couple differences between the “Starbucks Via” offered in the U.S. and how it’s sold here in Japan.

First, in Japan, the packages are smaller because Japanese usually consume food and drinks in smaller portions than the average American.

And secondly, the packages that the coffee are sold in are different in Japan too.
In America (and maybe other countries as well), they have large “X” marks to indicate the type of coffee, but in Japan that symbol isn’t usually used in that way.
Usually Japanese people would put an “O” (circle) there…but Starbucks Japan elected to use a check mark…still better than an “X”.

Packages of 「スターバックス　ヴィア」 ("Starbucks Via") coffee in Japan have check marks on them.

I guess I’m not the only one who thinks Starbucks coffee is too expensive. Maybe they’re losing business and decided to sell cheaper coffee to try to compete with places like McDonalds.

In Japan, “Starbucks Via” in sold in sets of either three packets for ¥300 (¥100 / packet (about US$1.08 / packet)) or twelve packets for ¥1,000 (¥83 / packet (about US$0.89 / packet)).

Do you like Starbucks coffee? Have you tried “Starbucks Via“? How much is it in your country?

New drinks

Coca-Cola Japan is offering a couple new drinks now.

One is 「ファンタ　もぉ～もぉ～ ホワイト」 (“Fanta Moo Moo White“)…which is a white soft-drink “with calcium”.
It went on sale all over Japan beginning yesterday.

The other new drink that Coca-Cola Japan is selling now is a ginger tea for women called 「ラブボディ」 (“Love Body“).

Also, Starbucks Coffee, Japan has recently begun their annual spring time “Sakura” campaign.
I wrote about it last year…(click here to read that post).

During Starbucks Japan‘s “Sakura” campaign, they sell pink “Sakura coffee”, pink “Sakura desserts” and pink coffee mugs with Sakura flower designs.
They also have gift cards with the Sakura design.

As I’ve mentioned on my blog before, I don’t have much of a sweet tooth….so none of these drinks appeal me (I like beer!).
How about you? Would you try these?

Starbucks Sakura

I’m not much of a Starbucks Coffee drinker. Well, actually, that’s an understatement…I never patronize Starbucks.

I tried it once and I don’t see the appeal. It was like overpriced hot chocolate to me. Too sweet! And definitely too expensive!

Do you like Starbucks? The world’s busiest Starbucks is in 渋谷 (Shibuya, Tokyo). But, personally, I like 「ドトール・コーヒー」 (Doutor Coffee) or even McDonalds‘s coffee better. To me, that’s real coffee.

But I walked past a Starbucks yesterday and noticed that they’re having a 「SAKURA シリーズ」 (Sakura (Cherry Ｂlossom) Series).

Starbucks's 「SAKURA シリーズ 2009」

It’s Sakura flavored scones and desserts, and pink coffee cups and coffee pots.

It’s not for me. I’d never buy any of that stuff. But if you want more info about it, click here to visit Starbucks Japan‘s website (mostly in 日本語 (Japanese) only).

Western Stores in Tokyo

Many overseas companies want to open shops in Japan.
The Japanese market is very lucrative…for companies that prove to be popular here. But the Japanese consumer is very finicky. Companies that don’t meet Japanese expectations are doomed to fail.

For example, the American donut company, Dunkin’ Donuts, is popular in America. But when they opened stores in Japan, the Japanese people found their donuts too sweet…and Dunkin’ Donuts was  unable to stay in Japan.

On the other hand, the less-sweet American donut chain Mister Donuts is very popular in Japan. (Ironically, Mister Donuts isn’t very popular in America).

Krispy Kreme Donuts set up shops in Tokyo recently, too.

Some American chains have been bought by a Japanese company and were brought here by their new Japanese owners. For example, the convenience store chain 7-Eleven was bought by the Japanese department store Ito-Yokado. (A couple years ago Ito-Yokado changed the signs on their department stores to reflect their connection with the popular convenience store they own…their signs now say “Seven & i Holdings” on the Ito-Yokado stores.)

7-Eleven (and other convenience stores) are very popular in Japan. Japan is a small country, but there are almost twice as many 7-Eleven stores here than in all of the U.S., Canada, and Mexico combined!

Convenience stores in Japan are very different from their counterparts in America. Japanese convenience stores are great!

7 & i Holdings, the Japanese company that owns 7-Eleven also owns the restaurant chain Denny’s. Denny’s in Japan have a different menu than Denny’s in America. I like Denny’s Japan better (but that may be because I’ve been in Japan for awhile now, and I’m more used to Japanese style food).

デニーズ・レストラン「セブン＆アイ HLDGS」 (Denny

The American bakery Vie de France is in Japan, too. But it’s not American anymore either…Yamazaki Bread owns this company. I like Vie de France. Their bread is excellent.

Of course, American fast-food chains are here…

ケンタッキー (KFC) in Japan.

I have wrote a post about Domino’s Pizza in Japan. Click here to see it.

I like Subway sandwich shop, alot. The Japanese Subway sandwich shop. The menu is much better at Subway Japan than the U.S. branches.

There are Japanese fast-food restaurants, too.  These include MOS Burger, First Kitchen, and Freshness Burger (which has beer on the menu! 🙂 ). Occasionally you can still find a  Dom-Dom Burger, and there used to be a chain called Love Hamburger. Love Hamburger went out-of -business about 12 years ago and the U.S. chain Burger King bought all of the Love Burger shops and opened Burger King in Japan in the late ’90s…but they made the ill-fated decision to offer only a limited menu to test the Japanese market. That didn’t go over well and soon they went out-of-business in Japan, too.

But recently, Burger King decided to re-try the Japanese market…and I guess they learned from their past mistakes—they seem to be doing well in Japan now.

There are also branches of Sizzler, Outback, and Tony Romas in Japan.

All of these foreign companies that have stores in Tokyo (How many of these have stores in your town? Do you shop at any of these?):

"The Body Shop" in Tokyo	"Godiva Chocolate" in Tokyo
	Toys "Я" Us

There are other foreign companies here, too…but you get the idea.

All of these foreign companies have to keep on their toes and provide the service and products that the Japanese expect…and for each of these foreign stores in Japan, there are Japanese companies that provide similar products that they have to compete with.  But if the effort is worth it…Japan is the most profitable market for most of these companies.

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Anyways, today is Valentine’s Day.
My wife and daughters made delicious chocolate for me. ♥
(Click here to read a post I wrote about Valentines Day in Japan).

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