Japan is well-known around the world for its enormous variety of vending machines, dispensing everything from eggs to flowers to batteries at the touch of a button. But did you know there’s a machine that dispenses gold Coke cans?
Coca-Cola (Page 5)
In some ways, the huge amount of vending machines in Japan seems like a win-win situation. In a country that gets incredibly hot and sticky in the summer, it’s nice to never be more than a few minutes’ walk from a cold drink, and for beverage companies like Coca-Cola, the machines are a huge source of income.
That said, all of those vending machines are essentially coin-operated refrigerators, collectively sucking up a huge amount of electricity. In an effort to cut down on their energy consumption, Coca-Cola has developed a new type of unit that spends as much as 16 hours a day not using any electricity at all to keep its products nice and cool.
In an effort to convince all of Japan to enjoy an ice-cold Coca Cola during the hot and humid summer months, Coca Cola Japan has created a campaign giving anyone the chance to win a Coke bottle made out of ice. Click on to find out how they’re made, how to get your hands on one, and how not to enjoy a solid block of ice!
While we usually focus on news from Japan or Asia, sometimes we like to flip things around and give our readers a Japanese perspective on other cultures. We’ve given you a Japanese person’s take on New York ramen before, and today we’ve got another taste-testing piece for you! But this time, we’re casting a slightly wider net by sending one of our writers to try all the Coca Cola flavors on the planet at World of Coca Cola in Las Vegas.
Read on to find out if he likes your country’s cola flavor!
After a grueling nine year wait, the two dozen or so hardcore fans of Lemon Coke can finally triumphantly shrug their shoulders and go, “Meh,”, as the company has announced it’s bringing back the mildly tolerated legend after a long hiatus.
The new Lemon Coke, now with slick new packaging that includes a spiffy yellow cap, will be re-introduced to 16,622 7-Elevens throughout Japan, probably to the glorious, collective nonchalant grunts of thousands. Based on promotional photos, the Coke seems a little more transparent than usual, indicating that there must be a whole lot of lemon juice in there.
You have to hand it to Coca-Cola. Despite being the best-selling cola brand and one of the biggest companies in the world, they certainly don’t seem to rest on their laurels. Like a hungry up-and-coming business, they’re always coming up with new gimmicks in each of the 200 countries they operate in, whether it be personalized bottles in Japan or, like now in Vietnam, a set of functional caps which can transform your empty bottle into a water gun, pencil sharpener, night lights and more after you’re finished with it.
The award-winning “Share a Coke” campaign launched in Japan last year with bottles that invited consumers to share a memorable song, connected with a particular year, with a friend. Now, name-printed bottles – a part of the campaign that’s already launched in different countries around the world – have made their way to Japan. In grocery stores around the country, you can happily root to the back of the chiller cabinet looking for a Coke with you or your friend’s name on it (if you have a Japanese name, that is!).
And it seems some bright sparks have hit on a brilliant money-spinning idea off the back of this: collect the names of all the members of a pop group, and sell them on online auctions. A set of Coke bottles with the names of all five girls from idol group Momoiro Clover Z, printed complete with -Z suffixes, has sold on Yahoo Auctions for 15,000 yen (US $150).
While companies around the world have made all sorts of different versions of cola, the distinctive taste remains unchanged. So where exactly does the tart, sweet taste of your favorite soda come from? Thanks to a recent visit to a cola producer, a writer on Daily Portal Z found out more about the soft drink and shared his discovery with Japanese netizens, who were somewhat surprised at cola’s humble (and druggy) beginnings, but were left wondering about Coke’s secret recipe.
Coca Cola’s newest soda “Hot Ginger Ale” hit Japanese vending machines on October 21 and we have an official RocketNews24 tasting review for anyone not daring enough to take on the hot, fizzy drink. So before you shell out 120 yen (US$1.20), take a look at what our expert vending machine beverage team has to say.
Mmmm, a frosty cold glass bottle of Coca Cola on a summer’s day. The cool, solid feeling of the glass as you raise it to your lips, the satisfying heft of the bottle in your hand. What could be better? A plastic bottle? I don’t think so.
A special limited edition glass bottle is now available in Japan in select supermarkets. The announcement was posted up on Coca-Cola Japan’s Facebook page on 24 July, along with the above picture. Other than on Facebook, the glass bottles weren’t especially publicized or promoted. However, they soon gained more than 10,000 likes. Why do people in Japan seem to crave Coke in a glass bottle so much?
Our reporter was strolling through Ginza one afternoon and found herself in an Okinawa specialty goods store. As she was browsing through the aisles, she couldn’t help but notice a brightly colored can of Coca Cola with a red shisa (lion dog) printed on the front. Upon further inspection of the can, she realized that she had stumbled upon Okinawa Coca Cola, made with the waters of Okinawa. How would this special Coke taste? She just had to buy one and find out.
Imagine you want to ask that girl or guy of your dreams out this holiday season, but maybe you’re too shy to do it out right. You could send a text or e-mail, but that’s kind of lame and bland.
Go figure: the megacorporation Coca Cola is here to provide you with a sweet, intimate, and memorable way to tell people how you feel.
It works kind of like a sugary time bomb of love. All you need is a plastic bottle of coke and a marker.
You might remember Japanese design company, Nendo, from their Starbucks Journey pop-up store in Harajuku.
Nendo is at it again, this time collaborating with Coca Cola to bring Coke fans everywhere a unique set of tableware. Made exclusively of Coca Cola’s signature green-tinted glass bottle, “Coca-Cola Bottleware” will be available starting on October 31st.
Tunisia as we recently discovered by their beautiful can designs, seems to be a loadstone of Coca-Cola related paranormal activity. For now our intrepid reporter has found a camel renowned for its love of Coke. It chugs the stuff down in one swig!
Coca-Cola is probably the most popular brand name beverage on Earth, and as a result it pops up seemingly everywhere you go. A fun side effect of this level of popularity is to see the metamorphoses the product goes through as it crosses borders around the world.
Our correspondent has traveled to the birthplace of the Arab Spring end unearthed such a treasure. Behold the Tunisian can of Coca-Cola Zero (the calorie-free version of Coke).
Thanks to the proliferation of the internet we can see countless images in an instant with the click of a mouse. Most of the pictures available online, however, are of cats with misspelled captions or people confusing Joseph Kony with Carl Weathers.
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