00:00:00 John Daub: Hello everybody. I have in my hands this Coca-Cola Clear and it's making a storm here in Japan. Literally, because we have a typhoon warning. We've had rain and winds for the last couple of days. Today we're going to try this amazing product and answer the question, why? Why is Coca-Cola Clear only in Japan? It was released today, June 11th, 2018. And to help me out with this report is someone who comes from Japan. Here she is.

00:00:34 John Daub: Hi. Are you from Japan?

00:00:34 Kanae Daub: Yes.

00:00:34 John Daub: Are you a normal Coca-Cola drinker?

00:00:34 Kanae Daub: Yeah. That's true.

00:00:41 John Daub: So, behind me, let me go back here this way. Behind us, we walked too far, is a Coca-Cola vending machine. So, I'm going to show you why Coca-Cola is in Japan first. This is Coca-Cola Clear. Literally, it's clear. You can see it. It's walking through it. Okay. This is a typical Coca-Cola vending machine, alright? And the Coca-Cola options aren't the only ones here and here. In fact, Sprite isn't even in here.

00:01:07 John Daub: So, Sprite is not something that's very popular in Japan. Do you drink Sprite, Kanae?

00:01:13 Kanae Daub: Sometimes.

00:01:13 John Daub: Oh, you do?

00:01:13 Kanae Daub: Yeah, I did.

00:01:13 John Daub: Oh, you did. Not anymore?

00:01:13 Kanae Daub: Yeah.

00:01:20 John Daub: Okay. Why is Coca-Cola not popular here in Japan?

00:01:24 Kanae Daub: Because of soju. It's too sweet for Japanese.

00:01:27 John Daub: Right. It's a little bit too sweet. It's too much of it. It's a dessert drink, which is why, if you look here, they have these big sizes and it's for the same price, you can get a bottle that's half the size. It doesn't make any sense to everyone who's watching this from the United States. Double the size is the same price as something that's half the size. And the reason why is that in Japan, Coca-Cola is just too sweet.

00:01:54 John Daub: So, what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna buy a bottle of this and we're going to compare Coca-Cola Clear with Coca-Cola not clear. So, I have some Japanese coins here. We're gonna get something from the vending machine. Alright, it's 130 yen. We're almost there. One. One more. 130 yen. So, I'm going for the bottle. Because, you know, these small ones are pretty unique. There you go. Yes. Coca-Cola Clear. Coca-Cola Clear looks like a winner just on size alone. So, we're gonna try this out here, can I? So, let's move on over to a quiet area down this street. She doesn't have a lot of time. She has to go to work. So, she's gonna bail early. But this is such a unique chance to take a look at a new product that's only in Japan.

00:03:02 John Daub: And the reason why, once again, is Japan is a place where there's just a lot of trends. I'm gonna put this right here. Japan is a place with just a lot of trends. Just a couple of days ago, I was just in a bar. I was showing everybody wasabi Doritos. If you haven't seen that livestream, check it out. There's a little pop-up right there if you're on your mobile device. Now, the reason why Japan is because there's very little risk involved. Because it's so trendy, if it succeeds or fails, it doesn't really matter. Because things here in Japan, they come here today and they're gone tomorrow. And that's just the way people seem to like it.

00:03:37 John Daub: The other reason is, it could be because of the 2020 Olympics and there's some buzz around that. And Coca-Cola is an official sponsor of the Olympics. Yada, yada, yada. I don't think that that's the reason, but it could be one of many reasons. Here we go. Coca-Cola Clear. It's reversed because of the mirroring effect. I'm sorry. So I'm gonna open it this way. Here we go. Alright. Not much of a buzz. Oh, you can see. I saw some of the fizz coming out. Alright. Here we go. Oh, it's like a champagne. It is clear. Look at that. Coca-Cola Clear. It really is clear. You can see the green behind it. Coca-Cola. It doesn't look like Coca-Cola. It does look a little bit like Zima or, you know, there was a Pepsi drink called Pepsi Clear.

00:04:39 John Daub: A couple... About a decade ago and I think it made a revival. But the Pepsi Clear just was not popular. It's gonna be interesting to find out if Coca-Cola Clear makes the cut. So we're gonna try this, okay? I also have here a little Pucchi Coke. You wanna open this one?

00:04:56 Kanae Daub: Yeah.

00:04:56 John Daub: It smells like Coke. But it smells a little bit differently. That smells sweeter. This one has a lighter smell to it. And this one has a very chemical but strong Coca-Cola smell. It's the Coca-Cola that we all know. But this one is lighter. It's fresher smelling. It smells almost like Sprite. Believe it or not. Alright. Let's give this a try. Here we go. Why don't you try this one, Kanae? I'm gonna try this one, alright?

00:05:27 Kanae Daub: Okay, I'll try this one.

00:05:28 John Daub: Alright. Oh, wow. Okay. Switch.

00:05:35 Kanae Daub: Yeah, this is a Coca-Cola.

00:05:35 John Daub: Switch. Switch. Okay. Switch. This is so sweet.

00:05:42 Kanae Daub: This is so sweet.

00:05:52 John Daub: Well, this one was sweeter though, wasn't it?

00:05:54 Kanae Daub: Yes.

00:05:55 John Daub: This normal Coca-Cola was a little bit sweeter. This Coca-Cola Clear, not as sweet.

00:06:03 Kanae Daub: Yeah.

00:06:04 John Daub: But still sweet.

00:06:05 Kanae Daub: But still sweet. Still sweet.

00:06:10 John Daub: Do you like them?

00:06:12 Kanae Daub: Yeah. I like it.

00:06:15 John Daub: How much do you like? Would you drink this?

00:06:18 Kanae Daub: Like this?

00:06:20 John Daub: Okay. She's not a big Coca-Cola drinker. You don't drink it because you don't think it's healthy, right?

00:06:26 Kanae Daub: Yeah. It's not healthy.

00:06:28 John Daub: That's the image that they have. And I think by making it clear, what Coca-Cola has done is gotten rid of the caramel. So they don't add any caramel in it. And they've added a little bit of lemon. And I heard that they did this recipe 50 times before they got to this one. And they decided to get the okay from Coca-Cola America and they released it here in Japan today. Here you go. Like a fine champagne.

00:07:01 Kanae Daub: Very good.

00:07:03 John Daub: So to sum up, as you saw in the vending machine, Coca-Cola is not the biggest drink in that vending machine. There's coffee, there's tea. Bottled tea is a lot more popular in Japan than Coca-Cola. However, when Coca-Cola starts a trend.

00:07:23 Kanae Daub: Yeah.

00:07:24 John Daub: It's raining. It is raining. I'm sorry. You can, you can help it. When Coca-Cola starts a trend, the news media will pick it up here in Japan and it'll become something that's quite big. It'll be something that becomes quite popular just for a couple of weeks. And that's normal here in Japan. As you saw with the wasabi potato chips. And I featured several Pepsi drinks over the last couple of years on the Only in Japan Go channel. You can see that Pepsi drinks are here for like six weeks and then they're gone. I bet you Coca-Cola Clear will be here for about six weeks. And then it's gone.

00:07:53 John Daub: Peach Coca-Cola was a flavor that started at the, in fall of last year. And that was very popular. It's still around in some machines, but they don't sell it in the stores anymore, really. So I think Coca-Cola is test marketing this in Japan because this is a country that's used to test marketing stuff. Things being a trend. And even if it fails, it's okay because as I said before, things just do that in Japan. It's a trend. So. If you're in Japan and you want to try Coca-Cola Clear, Kanpai! Only in Japan. Only in Japan.

00:08:32 John Daub: All right. Success?

00:08:36 Kanae Daub: Yeah, it's success.

00:08:38 John Daub: All right. It's zero calories.

00:08:40 Kanae Daub: Oh!

00:08:41 John Daub: That's right. It's zero calories. Good call.

00:08:43 Kanae Daub: Good call, Kanae. I don't know why.

00:08:47 John Daub: Oh, because they didn't add any caramel to it. So they've made it like Coke Zero, but clear. Any other comments? This is good feedback. Any other feedback?

00:08:57 Kanae Daub: Yeah.

00:09:00 Kanae Daub: If no one tells the Coca-Cola for this, I don't think it's Coca-Cola.

00:09:07 John Daub: Oh, really? So you wouldn't.

00:09:09 Kanae Daub: Yeah.

00:09:09 John Daub: You know what? The taste is so different between this and the regular Coca-Cola that I think you wouldn't know it was Coca-Cola unless somebody told you. That's another thing I think that you should keep in mind. It doesn't taste. It says like between Coca-Cola and Sprite is how I kind of felt.

00:09:25 Kanae Daub: I cannot imagine Coca-Cola from this.

00:09:28 John Daub: Yeah. It's so clear. It's like a taste between Coca-Cola and Sprite.

00:09:33 Kanae Daub: Yeah. It's just like a sparkling water. Ah, sweet.

00:09:37 John Daub: No. It's sweet?

00:09:38 Kanae Daub: It looks like it, though. It looks like it.

00:09:41 John Daub: All right. Well, thanks for joining us, Kanae. Have a good day at work.

00:09:45 Kanae Daub: Thank you.

00:09:46 John Daub: You're welcome. It's yours. Oh, thank you. You can take the umbrella.

00:09:49 Kanae Daub: Okay. So are you all right? Do you have a...

00:09:51 John Daub: Yeah, I'm good. I have one.

00:09:53 John Daub: All right. Bye-bye.

00:09:54 Kanae Daub: Bye.

00:09:56 John Daub: All right. See you. Bye. All right. That's Kanae. That was our guest reporter for today. Bye-bye. She's out of here.

00:10:08 John Daub: Hey, Trekaris. Trekaris asked, could you do the ramen dance ice cream? I don't know, but I'm trying to get her to get comfortable with YouTubing, and then she's going to, I think, maybe do some more dancing. That'd be really cool because she's really talented. I just want to do one more thing before we leave. As you've seen, we kind of mixed stuff, so I wonder what it tastes like to mix Coca-Cola and Coca-Cola Clear. I am extremely impressed with Coca-Cola Clear. I think they have a hit on their hands, as they did with the peach Coca-Cola. They keep making some good strides towards breaking through this market. Coca-Cola is not even the leader of this market. They are for the beverages, I think, but when it comes to cola, Coca-Cola is not popular at all.

00:10:53 John Daub: Sorry, we got a typhoon going on here. But when it comes to cola, Coca-Cola is not popular at all. However, I think they do have something really unique here with the clear one because it gives it an image that it's actually healthier. Right? So, I've poured the Coca-Cola Clear in here, and you've gotten a chance to take a look at that it really is clear. You see that? So, we're going to add some normal Coca-Cola, which is too sweet. I haven't really been drinking this since I came to Japan because the tea is so good and so healthy for you. I really don't find myself drinking Coca-Cola at all. Even when I order pizza, I'm drinking oolong tea, which is like a Chinese tea instead of drinking Coca-Cola. One reason why I can kind of stay in better shape.

00:11:41 John Daub: So, I'm going to mix this up and see if a half and half makes any difference. Oh, yeah. That looks like a pale, more like a ginger ale color. It's still more translucent. Let's try this. Let's see if there's any difference between this because I'm kind of curious. Oh, no. It's like, you know what? It's like mixing Sprite and Coca-Cola. Did you ever do that at the fountain drink machines where you kind of mix the two? We call that, we had a name for that as kids. I can't say that out loud, but we would mix every single like Fanta, Coke, Sprite, and we would mix them all and then we'd drink this cocktail that we make because that was the only cocktail we could have when we were kids. It tastes something like that except it's not good. Sorry. I had to ditch it.

00:12:50 John Daub: Let me just pour what a normal Coca-Cola looks like here. Can't see through it at all. Very acidic, very heavy, sweet, syrupy, chemical tasting. And now here's Coca-Cola Clear. One last time. It's really clear. Lighter. Splash of lemon in it. Not very sweet, but it has kind of like a residue aftertaste to it on the tongue. Could be because I drank the other Coca-Cola. It's definitely lighter. I think it's healthier. It's zero calories. I don't, you know, I grew up in the 1980s, okay? This is the time when they made the switch from real sugar to fructose corn syrup. I can taste the difference between fructose corn syrup and real sugar.

00:13:52 John Daub: And if Coca-Cola went down and back to real sugar, I bet you there'd be a lot more people buying the product than with the high fructose corn syrup because it just tasted not the same to me. Now they still make Coca-Cola in other countries in Asia with sugar cane because sugar cane is cheaper than the high fructose corn syrup. India was a place where I had it with regular sugar cane. Poland was a place where I had Coca-Cola with regular sugar cane back in 1999, 2000. Like we're talking 20 years ago. Thailand is a place. I believe they had it. They had sugar cane for a while. Laos had sugar cane and I could taste the difference. It just tasted better. And Coca-Cola for one reason why I don't drink it that much is because it's too chemically and I really don't eat that much sweetness to it. I'm not hooked on sugary drinks. I like more of the taste of the teas here in Japan.

00:14:42 John Daub: And it's something I think you just build, you get accustomed to buying. On a really hot day, the taste of Coca-Cola is pretty good for like five seconds and then it makes you feel real heavy. Like we have in the vending machines there, you don't get that heavy feeling. In fact, you feel pretty good afterwards and on a really hot day and you're sweating it out, the tea is good. The water is good. I've been buying more bottled water and Coca-Cola is in the middle of the bottled water war here in Japan. As you can see, they had like water latte, coffee water, which is another thing I showed you. Right here we have mugicha (barley tea). We have green tea. We have coffee. We have grapefruit juice. Loads and loads of coffee here in Japan. Made by Georgia. Aquarius, which is like Gatorade. We have water here. And then we have some Coca-Cola and it's not a lot. This one has more than most vending machines. But there you have it. That's the story of Clear Coca-Cola.

00:15:44 John Daub: I hope it was interesting to you to see this new product unbottled right here together in the middle of a typhoon. And thank you to Kanae, my wife, for helping me. And thank you to the people who are helping me out. Because I wanted to get a Japanese point of view. And we have been rushing a little bit. Thank you, John, for the super chat. Thank you very much everybody for supporting the show. Yesterday, last night, if you're joining us for the first time, we had a livestream at a Japanese festival where they carried the heaviest portable shrine called an omikoshi (portable shrine) at Kanda, at a place called Torigoe Shrine. Very, very cool.

00:16:22 John Daub: My wife and I did a street food episode where we tried a bunch of street food at the festival. It was actually a lot of fun. And check it out. I think we had seven different kinds of street food in that episode. So it's a little bit long but definitely something that you should check out. Japan is right in the middle of the festival season. And it starts to pick up in July. And then until the end of August, there's just like a festival every weekend everywhere. And Obon, which is in the middle of August. There is a festival every day. So it's a wonderful time to be in Japan. A lot of new products are coming out like the Coca-Cola Clear. We had the Doritos. We had other kinds of soft drinks. We have other kinds of snack food that are coming out. And if something weird and bizarre like Coca-Cola Clear comes out, I'll be there to cover it and show you and do a quick unboxing. So thanks for joining us everybody. I'll see you on the next livestream. Have a nice day. I'm going to spend the last five minutes... Sorry. The last 20 seconds checking out Coca-Cola Clear on the street here in Tokyo. It's pretty good. I might even drink it again.