Everyone say it out loud now: Calpisbeer!
Despite the unfortunate English homonym for its second syllable, Calpis is a widely drunk beverage in Japan appearing in many forms and flavors, all with that fundamental sweet and sour lactic acid bacteria, or yogurt-like, taste.
However, one lesser known way to enjoy Calpis was highlighted on the Asahi Beer website. It involves mixing the tangy, milky drink with the pale lager known as Asahi Super Dry.
Calpis is no stranger to cocktails in Japan, but mixing it with beer seems a little much. The two drinks have nearly polar opposite flavors and don’t really seem like they would get along in the same glass.
Nevertheless, our intrepid reporter Masami set out to discover if this is really a drink worth the modicum of effort it takes to make or not.
If you’re playing along at home, one thing to remember is that Calpis comes in all kinds of forms. For this cocktail, it is recommended to get the concentrated Caplis which is usually used for mixing and comes in a bottle with polka-dots all over.
It’s easy to make a mistake though as they all look very similar. In fact, Masami had mistakenly bought a diluted, ready-to-drink, version of Calpis by accident. However, as the old saying goes: “‘almost’ only counts in horseshoes and mixing beer with Calpis,” so she went ahead anyway.
To make this drink, which Asahi named Double-Cultured, all you have to do is lightly mix Calpis and Asahi Super Dry in a glass at ratio of one to five respectively.
And you’re done! Bottoms up!
The taste was not at all what Masami was expecting. Even though beer was more plentiful than the Calpis it was the sweet and sour taste that dominated this drink. All of the bitterness of the beer was gone and the tangy flavor of the Calpis was amplified as a result.
Of course, this means it is not a recommended drink for beer lovers as very little remains of it. However, it is a great drink for those who prefer light alcoholic beverages where you can hardly even taste the alcohol. Or, if you happen to be a huge Calpis fan, and want an amped-up version of its flavor that’ll also give you a little buzz, this drink will certainly fit the bill.
Either way, next time you’re out for drinks, you may think you overhear someone remark: “This beer tastes like ‘pis!” Just remember that they might actually be complimenting it.
Source: Asahi Beer
Images: SoraNews24
[ Read in Japanese ]