Cucumber-flavored soda sold in Japan

AP Yahoo ^ | Wed Jun 13, 7:47 AM ET

[ElkGroveDan]

TOKYO - Japanese are staying cool as a cucumber this summer with "Pepsi Ice Cucumber" — a new soda based on the crisp green gourd.

The soft drink, which hit stores here on Tuesday, doesn't actually have any cucumber in it — but has been artificially flavored to resemble "the refreshing taste of a fresh cucumber," said Aya Takemoto, spokeswoman of Japan's Pepsi distributor, Suntory Ltd.

"We wanted a flavor that makes people think of keeping cool in the summer heat," Takemoto said. "We thought the cucumber was just perfect."

The mint-colored soda is on sale just for the summer and only in Japan, Takemoto said. She said initial sales were brisk, and Suntory aims to sell 200,000 cases over the next three months.

Pepsi trails behind industry leaders Coca Cola (Japan) Company, with about 15 percent of the Japanese cola market, and also faces stiff competition from non-fizzy bottled drinks like green tea and coffee, which are popular here.

Suntory said it sold 20.5 million cases of Pepsi brand drinks in 2006, including its popular Pepsi NEX zero-calorie soda.

[hoosierham]

And you people make fun of Bertie Bott’s Every Flavored Bean(tm)(c).

[Tamar1973]

It's gotta taste better than this...

Carbonated milk beverage! Saw this everywhere when I lived in Korea in the mid 90's. I actually saw it at the local Korean grocery store today.

[cripplecreek]

MMM MMM GOOD

MMM MMM GOOD

TEN DOGS PENIS SOUP IS MMM MMM GOOD

[verum ago]

I’m holding out for Soylent Cola.

Soylant Cola ad slogan: Look for the green can!

[MaxMax]

[Anti-Hillary]

Lived in Japan. The #1 ice cream flavor is Green Tea. No joke. Personally I like Japanese food, but they do eat some weird stuff. Had pizza from Pizza Hut there with scalloped potatoes, ham and corn with some kind of white sauce. That was nasty!!!

[LibWhacker]

Sounds horrible but I LOVE Julia Child’s cucumber fool.

[CheyennePress]

It depends on what type of cucumber you have. I was in Romania recently, and their cucumbers are amazing. Frankly, the kick the daylights out of the ones we have here. They look very different, as well. Bumpy surfaces...

But very, very good.

[weegee]

Would you settle for some Clam Jerky until that day comes?

[al baby]

Do not google cucumber & amazing

[Vaquero]

wadda bunch of Jadrools.....

[weegee]

Soylant Green is people feeding people.

[Verloona Ti]

Tzatziki Soda!

[darkangel82]

Ick.
Cucumbers belong in salads.

[clamper1797]

Be sure to have this for desert ...

[JamesP81]

Yikes. I can’t stand the genuine article, much less the artificial one.

[weegee]

There is a fine line between a Japanese gameshow like Endurance where contestants eat things like cockroaches and a Japanese gameshow like Iron Chef...

[CindyDawg]

yuk. There are just some things that should not be messed with and Coke is one of them.

[skimbell]

Mmmmmmm, pickle pop...!

[Uncledave]

Betcha it’s good.

Try cucumber and either mint or lime in a glass of water for a refreshing drink.