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The beverage giant recently released this canned brew in direct response to consumer surveys asking the Japanese public to name its most desired qualities in a beer…

Asahi, that massive Japanese beverage maker not featured in Lost in Translation, is best known for its Super Dry brand of beer. Coming in a distinctive silver can, the brand made Asahi a household name in both Japan and abroad, and can now be enjoyed in bars and restaurants all over the world.

Super Dry increasingly faces stiff competition, though, with a craft beer market that has boomed in recent years, and rivals Suntory and Kirin both grabbing a large market share with their flagship beers.

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In a bid, it seems, to introduce one canned beer to rule them all, Asahi recently conducted a survey of Japanese consumers asking them what qualities they’d most like to see in a beer. The company’s new “The Dream” label is the result of that survey and purports to bring exactly what Japanese consumers are looking for in a beer — namely, a sharp body and a clean finish. This being an alcoholic beverage, we obviously jumped at the chance to give it a try.

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Given the fancy packaging — complete with a ribbon pattern that almost makes the can look like it’s gift wrapped — we expected The Dream’s color and flavor to approach something resembling a craft beer, but, pouring the drink into a 3/4-pint glass, we noted the color was very much the light amber color common to Japan’s ubiquitous pale lagers. It looked enticing enough, though — in the way that all beer is enticing — so we proceeded to take a couple of furtive sips, followed by several big glugs to thoroughly taste test The Dream’s profile.

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So, how did it taste? Well, unfortunately, in their pursuit of the perfect balance of a sharp body and clean finish, Asahi has wound up with a weird Frankenbeer that we found chemical-y and manufactured, and somewhat flat right out of the can. Asahi’s brewers apparently took their task a little too seriously, creating a beer that checks off the consumer panel boxes a little too on the nose. Yes, it’s sharp. Yes, it has a clean finish, but it’s all a little too clean, like you’re not so much drinking a beer, but carefully lab-crafted “beer-like molecules.”

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That’s not to say The Dream is bad, per se. It’s perfectly satisfactory and also boasts 50% less sugar than other standard canned beers. It’s easily a step up from the happoshu near-beers so common in Japanese convenience stores, but it’s clearly not quite the perfect beer that Asahi was apparently dreaming of.

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