It seems that every week there’s a new beverage released on to the market. There is no end to the combination of colours and flavours that the marketing gurus can think up to quench the insatiable thirst of the Japanese public.

If you walk in to any convenience store or supermarket in Japan you’ll see a few shelves filled with small bottles, which might remind you of how cough medicine is normally packaged.

However, these “genki” (health) drinks are hugely popular in Japan and are packed full of ingredients like Taurine, Guarana, Nicotine (!) and even small amounts of alcohol.

One of the most popular drinks on the market is Lipovitan (リポビタン – blue label with red writing above) with some variations containing 3000mg of Taurine, while Red Bull contains just 1000mg.

Pepsi Energy Cola (ペプシ エナジーコーラ) is marketed as a natural product with ingredients such as Royal Jelly extract, Caffeine, Arginine plus Ginseng (高麗人参) and Guarana extract.

It had a great taste but it didn’t seem to have much kick to it afterwards so I guess it’s back to the Red Bull for me! ^^

• ペプシエナジーコーラ (pe-pu-shi-e-na-ji-i-ko-o-ra)
• ローヤルゼリーエキス (ro-o-ya-ru-ze-ri-i-e-ki-su)
• カフェイン (ka-fe-i-n)
• アルギニン (a-ri-gi-ni-n)
• 高麗人参エキス (こう-らい-にん-じん)
• ガラナエキス (ga-ra-na-e-ki-su)
• リポビタン (ri-po-bi-ta-n)

Take Note

カフェイン contains the unusual フェ, which ends with the small “i”. When the small “e” (ェ) is coupled with “fu” (フ), the “u” is thrown away from “fu” (フ) and is replaced with the “e” to form “fe” (フェ).

The same thing happens with ファ (fa), フィ (fi) and フェ (fe). Read more about small katakana here →

Another unusual pairing is ゼリ, which you would naturally sound out as “ze-ri” and you would be correct. However, it is actually the katakana for “Jelly”.

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