Tokyo craft cola creator gets a sweet deal with one of Japan’s major convenience stores to sell sours.

In terms of industries that are hard to break into, you’ve got to figure “cola” is one of the toughest. Sure, any business venture, unless it’s something completely unprecedented, is going to have competitors, but when your rivals are as huge and established as Coca-Cola and Pepsi, carving out a niche for yourself must start to feel like an impossible dream.

And yet, the dream is alive and well for Takahide Kobayashi. Kobayashi is the creator of Iyoshi Cola, which has been beating the odds in Japan for six years and counting and is about to launch a new drink that really shows it’s becoming a success.

▼　Takahide Kobayashi, inside Iyoshi Cola’s Tokyo production facility…

▼ …and in the brand’s early days.

It wasn’t all that long ago that Kobayashi was still selling Iyoshi Cola in plastic bags out of a truck he drove to farmers’ markets. Now, though, Iyoshi Cola’s flavor and quality have earned it such a strong reputation that it’s caught the attention of Lawson, one of Japan’s big three convenience store chains, which will be carrying the brand-new Iyoshi Cola Sour. This isn’t a reworked Iyoshi Cola recipe with a tart taste, thogh – it’s a canned cocktail with an Iyoshi Cola base!

In Japanese drink jargon, “sours” are carbonated cocktails made with shochu. Because shochu is clear, the Iyoshi Cola Sour has the same enticing golden color as the craft cola’s non-alcoholic version.

Sours can run the gamut in terms of alcohol content, with stronger offerings being 7, 8, or even 9 percent alcohol. The Iyoshi Cola Sour occupies a space on the other end of the sour scale, though, with a modest 3.5 percent, in keeping with Kobayashi’s vision for Iyoshi Cola to be “Something to give you a little happiness in your daily life.” This isn’t a hard-hitting cocktail to slam down just to reflect on and regret later. Instead, it’s something to relax and savor, giving you that little extra happiness today without sticking you with a bill for it in the form of a hangover tomorrow.

Iyoshi Cola Sour is priced at 298 yen (US$2) and goes on sale August 27, in limited quantitates, exclusively at select branches of Lawson and Natural Lawson in Tokyo and Saitama, Kanagawa, Chiba, Tochigi, Gunma, and Ibaraki prefectures.

Also, as happily announced in the above tweet, non-alcoholic Iyoshi Cola is also now available at select Lawsons in the Kanto, Kansai, Tokai, and Hokuriku regions, so even if you’re not looking for an alcoholic beverage, you can still grab a can and see how that tastes with its unique new ingredient.

Source: PR Times
Top image: PR Times
Insert images: PR Times, SoraNews24
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