Alinamin 7 Zero - Taste & Review

About
Alinamin 7 Zero is an energy drink sold by the Takeda Pharmaceutical Company. The drink contains Fursultiamine, a derivative of thiamine(Vitamin B1) which was developed in Japan by Takeda in the 1960s and is incorporated into most, if not all of its Alinamin lineup of products. According to Takeda, Fursultiamine is more easily absorbed into the body compared to thiamine(vitamin B1).
The drink contains 2.5mg of Fursultiamine, 2.54mg of riboflavin(vitamin B2), 10mg of vitamin B6, 25mg of nicotinamide, 125mg of l-aspartic acid, 1000mg of taurine, and 50mg of caffeine.

Taste
It has a lemon-like citrus taste to it and is easy to drink. Since this drink contains "zero" sugars, the drink is sweetened with sweeteners which gives it a kind of artificial sweetness.

Effect
The drink has quite a kick to it. For the price, the effects are satisfactory.

Reference
http://alinamin.jp/alinamin/fursultiamine/

Tiovita Drink Aivitas(チオビタ ドリンク アイビタス)

Tiovita Drink Aivitas is an energy drink sold by Taiho Pharmaceutical Company in Japan, and is a product in the famous "Tiovita" lineup.

Taste
The drink is decently sweet and has a blueberry-like taste. The unpleasant aftertaste resulting from the vitamins is not so strong, despite the drink containing a relatively large amount of Vitamin B.

Effect
I drank this energy drink after waking up from a short sleep. The effect was quite astounding; I was able to work very hard during the day without getting sleepy at all.

Ingredients
The drink contains 1000mg of taurine, 50mg of inositol, 20mg of nicotinamide, 10mg of vitamin B1, 15mg of vitamin B2, 50mg of vitamin B6, 120mg of carnitine chloride, and 50mg of caffeine.

As with most energy drinks this size, the drink is a quasi-drug and consumption is limited to 1 drink per day for people aged 15 or older.

New Guromont 新グロモント

New Guromont or Shin Guromont is an energy drink sold by Japanese pharmaceutical company, Lion.

Taste
The taste of this energy drink is decent, without an unpleasant aftertaste like most Japanese energy drinks.

Ingredients
In the drink are, 1000mg of glucuronolacton, 10mg of Vitamin B1, 5mg of Vitamin B2, 5mg of Vitamin B6, 20mg of nicotinamide, 100mg of inositol, 100mg of carnitine, 30mg of caffeine, and 9mg of longan extract.
All of these ingredients except for the longan extract and glucuronolacton are common ingredients found in Japanese energy drinks.

Vitatime KO-W Solution ビタタイム黄W液

 

A box of Vitatime KO-W Solution. Below right is a picture of Kotei Eki.

This energy drink is one of the sketchier ones as it is obviously a copy of Yunker Kotei Eki. As you can see, the name, 黄W液(KO-W Eki) is just one letter different from 黄帝液(Kotei Eki) in Japanese.
On the box, it even goes on to say that it has, "W(double) the effect" without going on to say of what, although it's quite obvious as to what product they are referring to.
This drink would fit into the category of Kanpoyaku(traditional Chinese medicine) as there are many natural and herbal drugs included.

What's inside?
On the bottle, there are three drawings, one of a bee, one of a mamushi snake, and another of a ginseng plant. According to the ingredients list, the extracts of mamushi and ginseng are included, but bees are not. The bee represents the royal jelly that is included in the drink.
Other interesting ingredients include the extracts of a gallstone of a cow, the Jiou plant, the Sanzashi plant, and the secreting fluid of Viverrinae(civet).

Price
A box of three KO-W solutions costs about 1000 yen, around the same price of one Kotei Eki.

Taste
The sweetness of the drink tastes like that of honey, most likely due to the royal jelly. In addition, there is a taste of herbs and the unique and distinct flavor of Kanpoyaku. There is also a spiciness to the drink that will give the consumer a tingling sensation in the throat.

Effect
Increased concentration and vigor while being sleep deprived is some of the effects it had on me after drinking this energy drink.

Lipovitan D 11(リポビタンD11)

Today's energy drink is the Lipovitan D 11 by the Taisho Pharmaceutical Company. This is one of the most expensive energy drinks in the Lipovtan lineup that you can buy in a convenience  store in Japan(You can buy more expensive Lipovitans at drug stores). On the label, it says, "現代のつらい疲れに" which translates to, "For fatigue in today's society". The 11 stands for the 11 main ingredients in this thing. They are, 1500mg of taurine, 200mg of royal jelly, 90mg of ginseng extract, 0.6ml of Eleutherococcus senticosus extract(took me a long time to find this in English...lol), 0.2ml of wolfberry extract, 100mg of arginine, 100mg of inositol, 30mg of niacin, 10mg of vitamin B1, 5mg each of vitamin B2 and B6, 50mg of vitamin E, and 50mg of caffeine.

Taste:
The taste is not so good. It is sour and has a weird sweetness to it.

Price:
About 380yen

Effect:
This kept me awake for the whole day. I did not have to take a nap this day! This drink will naturally make you energetic and get you moving.....dangerous, yeah. However, this is normal in JAPAN.

Yunker Royal 200 (ユンケルローヤル200)

This is one of the more than 30 brands of the Yunker series. The Yunker series are sold by the Sato Pharmaceutical Company. First of all, the bottle is quite normal except for the fact that there is "Sato" engraved on it which is quite an eye-catcher.......for me. Another thing is that there's only 19kcal in 100ml of this compared to 74, which is what you'll find in a normal "Lipovitan D", which is also 100ml. The "Royal 200" stands for the 200mg of royal jelly that are in this. However, 200mg isn't that special; you'll find 300mg of royal jelly in a "Lipovitan D8" which is, not surprisingly, more expensive than this product. The ingredients in this Yunker are 200mg of royal jelly, 1000mg of taurine, 10mg of vitamin B1, 5mg of vitamin B2, 10mg of vitamin B6, 20mg of niacin, and 50mg of caffeine.

Taste:
This tastes and smells like nice, refreshing apple juice. It's quite watery compared to other energy drinks.

Price:
about 200yen

Effect:
The effects of this are "normal". On this blog, "normal" means that it has the same effects as a normal Lipovitan D, Tiovita, S-CUP, etc.

Alinamin V (アリナミンV)

 

Today's drink is the Alinamin V from the Takeda Pharmaceutical Company. The first thing you might notice with this is that it's very small. There's only 50ml of this compared to 100ml which is what you would find in a normal energy drink in Japan. However, the amount of vitamins and god-knows-what does not differ much which means that it's that concentrated.
The drink contains Fursultiamine, a derivative of thiamine(Vitamin B1) which was developed in Japan by Takeda Pharmaceutical Company in the 1960s and is incorporated into most, if not all Alinamin products.

Taste:
The taste is bitter and sweet at the same time. This is one of the most bitter energy drinks I've done a review on. However, it's not disgustingly bitter, it's just slightly bitter which is actually quite nice. However, you might need a little time to get used to it. As for me, I still haven't gotten used to this taste.....definitely not my favorite.

Price:
about 150yen

Effect:
The effects of this are normal. When I say the effects of an energy drink is "normal", I mean that it is in the same range as the normal Tivovita, S-CUP, Lipovitan-D, etc which are all about 150yen.

Lipovitan D 8 (リポビタンD8)

 

This is "Lipovitan D 8" by the Taisho Pharmaceutical Company. On the label it says, "つらい疲れに" which translates to "for painful fatigue". PAINFUL!?!?.....wow I thought, this really must pack a punch. There's 1500mg of taurine, 300mg of royal jelly, 10mg of vitamin B1(thiamine), 5mg of vitamin B2(riboflavin), 5mg of vitamin B6, 50mg of vitamin E, 100mg of inositol, 30mg of niacin(B3), 90mg of ginseng extract(used in traditional Chinese medicine), and 50mg of caffeine. What really stands out with this Lipovitan D8 is that it has 300mg of royal jelly in it. That's 1.5 times what D11 and "Yunker Royal 200" have.

Taste:

It has kind of a floral essence to it. It's not like any of the energy drinks I've tasted before....very interesting. It might taste like medicine to people who think this floral taste has a medicinal taste to it.

Price:

about 260yen

Effects:

The effects are similar to that of "Lipovitan D Super". It's exactly what you'd expect from an energy drink in this price range. It's like you took a Lipovitan D and multiplied the effects by 2 as mentioned in the "Lipovitan D Super" article. However, unlike the super, the effects didn't last very long which was quite dissapointing,

Alinamin 7 (アリナミン7)

This is the Alinamin 7 sold by the Takeda Pharmaceutical Company. The 7 stands for the 7 main ingredeints that are in this. They are.....2.5mg of vitamin B1(thiamine), 2mg of vitamin B2(riboflavin), 10mg of vitmain B6, 25mg of Niacin(B3), 125mg of sodium L-aspartate, 1000mg of taurine, and 50mg of caffeine. 


Taste: The taste is fruity sweet and slightly bitter; that of medicine. Not my favorite taste among the energy drinks but better than Tiovita. 


Price: 
about 150 yen.


Effect: I didn't feel the effects of this very much.

Lipovitan D Super (リポビタンDスーパー)

This is the Lipovitan D Super energy drink from the Taisho Pharmaceutical Company.
First of all, this is different from the original, blue Lipovitan D energy drink and all the other baseline energy drinks from the fact that it has 2000mg of taurine in it. If you want to know what taurine is, check out my S-CUP post. Other than that this has 5mg each of vitamins B2(riboflavin) and B6, 10mg of vitamin B1(Thiamine), 20mg of Niacin(B3), 130mg of Ginseng extract(A type of traditional Chinese medicine), 10mg of vitamin E, 300mg of arginine hydrochloride, 50mg of caffeine, and 100mg of inositol. 


Taste:
The taste is very sweet and has a peach-like flavor to it. 

Price:
about 260yen(expensive)


Effect：
The effect is phenomenal compared to all the other baseline products.  I drank it and immediately, I began to feel the effects of the drink. It's like you took a Lipovitan D and multiplied the effects x2. On the other hand, I would have been disappointed if I didn't get this much of an energy boost with this 260-yen product.

Tiovita (チオビタ)

Today's energy drink is Tiovita! It is the flagship energy drink of the Taiho Pharmaceutical Company. The ingredients in this power pack is similar to all the flagship(baseline) energy drinks in Japan; 1000mg taurine, 5mg each of Vitamins B1, B2, and B6, etc.

Taste:

The taste of this is very sweet and has a medicine flavor to it.  Definitely not my favorite. The sweetness does not have any fruitiness to it, it's just plain sweet....period. And the medicine taste doesn't help much either.

Price:

about 150 yen

Effect:

So I drank one of these and I became recharged quite quickly. Nothing special. Just as what you'd expect from a 150 yen energy drink in Japan......which means Tiovita=S-Cup=Lipovitan D=Arinamin=etc....

S-CUP (エスカップ)

About
S-CUP is the flagship energy drink of the SS Pharmaceutical Company, a company which has its roots in the Edo Period, when Shirai Shosuke founded the "Minoya Yakubo" Kampo(traditional Chinese medicine) pharmacy in 1765. Later in the early 20th century, the name "SS", which stands for "Social Service" was adopted. Today, it also stands for "Science & Society". The company was acquired by German pharmaceutical company Boehringer Ingelheim in 2001.
"S-CUP" is a long-seller item, having been first sold in 1963. It comes in a 100ml brown glass bottle, as with most quasi-drug energy drinks.

The drink contains 1000mg of taurine, 5mg each of Vitamin B1, B2 ,and B6, 50mg of caffeine, 20mg of niacin, 20mg of nicotinamide, and 100mg of carnitine.

Taste
The taste is fruity and not medicinal at all. Overall, it is very easy to drink.

Price
about 150 yen

Effect
The drink gave me a nice boost and was able to keep me awake for a whole day, despite having not slept much the previous day.