Hot on the heels of an announcement that cold and sugary foods are bad for your body, Asahi announced that they are releasing their coldest sugary drink to date. I’m willing to take the risk however, because summer in Japan can suck pretty hard and a sub-zero beverage would definitely hit the spot.

This new drink called “Mitsuya Freezing Cider,” turns to ice the moment you pop the cap. Sounds great but Asahi seems to have surprised netizens a little with their unique distribution plans.

For those not familiar with Mitsuya Cider, it’s a Sprite-like carbonated beverage that has neither the apples nor alcohol that drinks labeled “cider” in other parts of the world do.

Mitsuya Freezing Cider is basically the same drink but chilled down to -5℃, below the freezing point of regular Mitsuya Cider. Asahi says that this gives the soda a thicker taste when it first hits the tongue as well as the benefits of being really cold during the scorching heat of summer.

To accomplish this Asahi is working in conjunction with 7-Eleven convenience stores which will house the specially needed freezers to keep the pops right around that magic -5℃ temperature. As a result, the drink will initially only be sold at select stores in Tokyo (100 stores), Kansai (300), and Nagano/Yamanashi (600) for 150 yen (US$1.47) per 500mL bottle.

The immediate response to this was: “Why are 600 stores in Nagano and Yamanashi getting the first crack at this drink?” It’s no surprise that Tokyo and Kansai tend to get cool stuff first, but residents of other slightly outlying prefectures couldn’t help but express their dismay with comments of “What about Tochigi?” Some suspected Asahi intended to use the prefectures as guinea pigs for their new creation, but probably Mitsuya Cider sells especially well in those areas.

Asahi also boasts that Mitsuya Freezing Cider possesses the “Freezing Penomenon” wherein simply opening the cap will cause the drink to start forming slushy ice crystals for an even frostier treat. This “Freezing Phenomenon” however, is more commonly known as “supercooling” and was done by Coca Cola a few years back in Japan under the name Super Chill! Coca Cola.

Not sure why that particular Coca Cola never stuck around. Perhaps it was the difficulty in storage. If so, let’s hope that Mitsuya Freezing Cider has a stable business plan so that they can keep selling frosty drinks for years to come, and so that others may follow. For some odd reason Slurpee machines at 7-Eleven still have yet to catch on here.

Source: Maker News via My Game News Flash (Japanese)
Videos: YouTube – RocketNews24, Tomomi Kasai