But just because you say something is “drinkable…”

During the usual hard-hitting journalism that our ace reporter Mr. Sato is known for, he sometimes needs to step out for a refreshing drink to clear his head. One day in particular, he headed out to the Lawson convenience store near the office, when he found something very out of the ordinary.

In their refrigerated sections, right next to the strawberry milk, was “Drinkable Mapo Tofu,” based on the Chinese dish of tofu and meat in a spicy sauce. It’s certainly a delicious hot meal, but our reporter wasn’t sure what to make of it as a chilled drink. There were only two left on the shelf, though, so he decided to take the plunge and got them both for 298 yen (US$1.88) each.

When Mr. Sato got back to the office, he did a little research and found that this was the 31st entry in Lawson’s “Drinkable” series of non-beverage-themed drinks. The first was their Drinkable Soft-Serve Ice Cream in 2019, which admittedly wasn’t much of a stretch, but it only got weirder from there, such as their Drinkable Mayonnaise in 2024.

Before trying some Drinkable Mapo Tofu, Mr. Sato first wanted to visually inspect what he was dealing with. After cracking open the lid, he was greeted with the elegant aroma of Sichuan pepper.

Inside was a dark brown liquid. According to the sign in the store, this drink was supposed to have a “plentiful” amount of ingredients in the sauce, so our reporter assumed they must have all settled to the bottom.

After pouring some out into a glass, he spotted some lumps of meat and tofu swirling around inside.

It was fair to say this did have plentiful ingredients, but since the baseline for drinks is usually zero meat and tofu, the bar was set mighty low.

Having cleared the inspection, Mr. Sato went in for a first taste. He decided to do it the way Lawson intends for this to be drunk, by sticking the straw, which was fat enough to accommodate the meat and tofu, through the foil. He had other plans for the other one later…

Sure enough, he was hit with a blast of spiciness that you’d expect from mapo tofu, but it was accompanied by the richness of the other flavors too. He checked the ingredients and found it also contained some habanero powder for an added kick. However, the spicy sensation lifted rather quickly, leaving just the pleasant taste of the sauce behind. It was a little like getting brain freeze, only more like a brain scorch.

Mr. Sato wondered if, since this drink is already so spicy cold, would it be even spicier if heated up? According to the package, it was fine to heat as long as you transfer the drink to a microwavable cup, so poured the other one into a mug and popped it in the microwave for one minute.

When finished, it looked about the same, but its distinct aroma was even stronger.

It was really spicy, but like before, the sensation was fleeting. Overall, there wasn’t a huge difference in drinking it hot or cold, but hot did feel less weird.

As you could probably tell from his facial expressions when drinking, Mr. Sato has a rather low tolerance for spicy food. Still, he felt that these drinks were tolerable because the spiciness didn’t linger. It would probably be better paired with some meat buns or rice, though.

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