Oronamin C - Taste & Review

About
Oronamin C(オロナミンC) is a carbonated energy drink sold by Otsuka Pharmaceutical Company in Japan. The drink was first sold on February of 1965 and has been a long-seller ever since. The drink's slogan "元気ハツラツ(genki hatsuratsu)" which basically means "lively vigor" is also well known. The drink comes in a distinctive glass bottle which has not changed much since the drink was first sold. It also has a distinctive cap which can be removed by pulling the plastic lever connected to it.
The "C" in Oronamin C stands for the vitamin C that is inside the drink.
The drink is also sold in South Korea.

Ingredients
The drink contains 220mg of vitamin C, 2.4mg of vitamin B2, 4.9mg of vitamin B6, and 12mg of niacin.

Taste
The drink has a citrus candy-like taste much like that of PEZ. The fizz also makes the drink much more enjoyable than non-carbonated quasi-drug and pharmaceutical energy drinks.

Where to Buy
The drink is not classified as a "drug" and can be found in both convenience stores and drug stores.

TIOVITA GOLD 2000 - Taste & Review

About
TIOVITA GOLD 2000(チオビタゴールド2000) is a pharmaceutical energy drink sold by the Taiho Pharmaceutical Company in Japan, which sells the "Tiovita" lineup of energy drinks. The drink comes in a small, 50ml glass bottle, a package which usually signifies that the drink is a pharmaceutical energy drink and not a quasi-drug or carbonated energy drink.(More info on classification of energy drinks). The "2000" signifies that the drink contains 2000mg of taurine. This naming trend is followed by other companies as well.

Taste
Like most pharmaceutical energy drinks, the taste is a little bitter and unsurprisingly, like that of medicine. However, it does have a vanilla-like flavor to it, quite strong actually, but not tasty.

Ingredients
The drink contains 2000mg of taurine, 0.15ml of royal jelly extract, 0.1ml of Epimedium grandiflorum(Inyoukaku) extract, 5mg of vitamin B1, 5mg of vitamin B2, 5mg of vitamin B6, 30mg of nicotinamide, and 50mg of caffeine.
Epimedium grandiflorum is an ingredient used in Kampo(traditional Chinese medicine in Japan) as well as in traditional Chinese medicine. The other ingredients are also commonly used in other energy drinks.

Effect
Medium. I did get a boost by the drink, but it was a kind of boost I could have gotten from a normal(quasi-drug) energy drink.

Consumption & Purchase
Since it is a pharmaceutical energy drink, the drink is not sold in regular convenience stores or a supermarkets. Your best bet is to go to a drug store. The price is also more expensive than that of a usual quasi-drug energy drink.

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/

Lipovitan D リポビタンD

Lipovitan D is a Japanese energy drink manufactured and sold by Taisho Pharmaceutical Company in Japan. It is the most popular 100ml energy drink in Japan and is also sold in around 20 countries overseas, although their names, tastes, and ingredients may differ. Drinks sold in tropical regions are usually sweeter, while drinks sold in North America and Europe tend to be less sweet.
The drink comes in a brown 100ml glass bottle and has a bright yellow color.
Although not known much to the public, Lipovitan Ds sold in vending machines are included in larger glass bottles than the ones sold in stores. This is to prevent the bottle from breaking when they fall inside the vending machines. There is no difference in content or content weight whatoever.
On the bottle, it is printed that a person should only drink Lipovitan D once a day, and when he/she is 15 years or older.

History
Lipovitan D was first introduced in 1962 as a pioneer product, replacing the ampules that were used at the time with "drinks". It introduced a new market, the "energy drink(ドリンク剤)" in Japan, and paved the way for future energy drinks in Japan. The name "Lipovitan" comes from the medical term, "Lipoclasis", a synonym of lipolysis, and the word, "vitamin". The "D" in "Lipovitan D" is an initial that comes from the words, "Delicious" and "Dynamic".
With the success of Lipovitan D, Taisho Pharmaceutical has introduced other "Lipovitan" products including the Lipovitan D Super, first sold in 1965, and Lipovitan Gold, first sold in 1979.

Ingredients
Lipovitan D contains 1000mg of taurine, 50mg of inositol, 20mg of nicotinamide, 5mg of vitamin B1, 5mg of vitamin B2, 5mg of vitamin B6, and 50 mg of caffeine.

Taste
It has a distinctive taste, which I cannot describe, and is sufficiently sweet. This is not really a drink you should taste; it is kind of like a medicine that should be gulped down.

Pepsi Refresh Shot

Pepsi Refresh Shot is a 200ml Pepsi drink with double the amount of caffeine as a normal Pepsi.
However, the amount of caffeine inside is just 38mg/200ml, which is not so much. To me, the taste was just like normal Pepsi; however, Pepsi claims that it is sweeter than the original one.
I am particularly sensitive to caffeine, so when I drank this Pepsi in the morning, it made me quite alert for the rest of the day.
I guess you can call this an energy drink.

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.

GREEN DAKARA - Taste & Review

Green Dakara is a mineral-replenishing drink made by Suntory. It's not an energy drink but more like something in between a sports drink and flavored water. Perhaps "A less fruity tasting version of Vitamin Water" would be a good way to describe it.

What's inside Green Dakara?

This interesting drink contains the juices and extracts of 14 different ingredients.
6  of them are citrus fruits, grapefruit juice, lemon juice&peel, amanatsu, pomelo, shiikwaasaa (peel), and yuzu (peel). The other 8 are aloe vera, salt, seaweed (extract), tomato (extract), sugarcane, black sesame seed, sugar, and honey.

The ingredients that are used most are the grapefruit and lemon juices. On the label it says that there are less than 10% of those grapefruit and lemon juices contained so it's basically almost all water.

How does it taste?

The drink is very soft and not too sweet, much like most flavored waters(although Green Dakara is not marketed as flavored water). You can clearly taste the grapefruit but you can't really make out the other ingredients. So it's basically a grapefruit flavored water with an added softness due to the added minerals from the other ingredients.
Overall, it's a nice refreshing drink, and can be a healthy and efficient way of quenching your thirst on a hot summer day.

Kirin Amino Supli C - Taste & Review

Found this in a vending machine while walking home, cost is typical for a pet-bottled drink in Japan, 150 yen. This would not fit into the category of the "medicinal" energy drinks I have reviewed so far as it is more of a sports drink.

Taste:
Refreshing and sweet with a taste similar to that of Vitamin Water XXX, just much sweeter. However, there is no similarity in the ingredients used to flavor the drink as Kirin Amino Supli C uses lemon and acerola(Malpighia emarginata) juices whereas Vitamin Water XXX uses acai, blueberry, and pomegranate extracts. And yes, it is also worth noting that Amino Supli C uses less than 1% of those juices. But let's also not forget the main thing that Kirin is trying to market here are the Amino acids and the Vitamin C. This drink includes 1000mg of Vitamin C and 400mg of an amino acid called Ornithine.

Additional Info:

• The drink mainly uses sugar as the sweetener but also uses artificial sweeteners.
• Uses tomato coloring, gardenia jasminoides coloring, and caramel coloring.
• Amount of liquid is 555ml instead of the standard 500ml.

TIOVITA GOLD(チオビタ・ゴールド)

About
TIOVITA GOLD is an energy drink sold by the Taiho Pharmaceutical Company, the company that sells the "Tiovita" lineup of energy drinks.
First of all, this drink is very small. It comes in a 30ml bottle and you can drink it in one gulp basically. The smallness is partly due to the fact that this is a pharmaceutical energy drink. Most quasi-drugs will come in the form of a 150ml glas bottle whereas, most pharmaceutical energy drinks will come in a smaller, 50ml or 30ml glass bottle.
However, despite it's size, there are more ingredients that will make you more energetic than a normal energy drink(quasi-drug enegry drink) in Japan.

Taste
The taste is fruity of that of peach, but has a slightly bitter aftertaste. It doesn't really taste good.

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,

Dekavita C (デカビタC)

Ok here's our first carbonated drink on this blog. It is the "Dekavita C" from a company called Suntory. This drink is not medicinal so you are able to drink this more than once a day and even if you're less than 15 years old. There's 0.67mg of vitamin B1, 0.76mg of vitamin B2, 1mg of vitamin B6, 1.4micrograms of vitamin B12, 95mg of vitamin C, 8.6mg of niacin(B3), 0.9-3.7mg of pantothenic acid, and 1.2mg of vitamin P(flavonoid) in 100ml of this.
"Deka" means "big" in Japanese and "vita" stands for "vitamins", and the "C" stands for vitamin C, hence the name "Dekavita C". There's 210ml of liquid in this thing so it is quite large if you compare it to medicinal energy drinks which are usually 100ml.

Taste:
The carbonation gives the drink a nice kick to it, unlike most energy drinks in Japan. The taste is not fruity and tastes similar to Oronamin C. There's nothing too special about it except for the slight honey-like taste, most likely due to the royal jelly.

Price:
about 120yen

Effects:
Well, you can't compare this to medicinal energy drinks, just a small boost in energy.

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.