00:01 John Daub: Hey everybody, welcome to Ginza. Behind me is a bank of vending machines and this in my hand is one of the first, if not the first, canned coffee in Japan since 1969. They're celebrating their 55 years— it was at the 1970 Osaka Expo that the vending machines for coffee debuted, and they're doing the Osaka Expo again in 2025. This year, starting pretty soon if not already, the pavilions are being built. They're putting the finishing touches on it.

00:30 John Daub: But this is the original, and a lot of people don't know—you come to Japan and try the canned coffee, it's so darn good. So in this episode we'll look back at the history of canned coffee and try out a bunch of them because they're all kind of different. Is the original the best? This is one of the first vending machines from 1970— you can see it's UCC. They're really hard to find now. In fact, this UCC coffee, I had to look around this area and it's only at like budget vending machines now. They used to have their own vending machines. I eventually found one about a kilometer down the road at a budget one with a bunch of mixed-up drinks from different companies. UCC's got a couple of canned coffees, including the bigger pet bottle types that aren't pet bottles— that's actually just a hot can.

01:30 John Daub: But what's really interesting about the drinks here is that they're heated. How you doing everybody? That's what makes it so unique. Especially in the winter, grabbing one of these, putting it in your coat pocket— it keeps you warm for a little bit, then you can crack it open like this and have a hot coffee anywhere. They didn't pick black coffee without sugar, but this one has milk and sugar. I guess back in the 1970s, 1969, this is the way people liked to have it because Japan is a tea-drinking culture. They didn't have a lot of coffee shops all over the place like in other places. It has 4.1% milk, so they're using pretty much heavy whole milk in here. It's sweet but not overly sweet. It's got that coffee flavor, but it's certainly not like black coffee and not dark roasted. It's good, really refreshing. This is the milk coffee I probably grew up with. It tastes almost like instant coffee, but it doesn't make too much of a difference.

02:41 John Daub: UCC is a pretty incredible brand. It stays warm—incredible. I'm going to tell you why about that in a second, but it stays warm for about 15 minutes or so, depending how cold it is outside. If you keep it in your jacket pocket, if you have a down jacket close to your body, it can keep warm for about 30, 35 minutes, which is pretty nice, especially in the coldest weather.

03:06 John Daub: I want to say thank you to our sponsor for this episode, Magical Trip. You guys know that on the main channel and a couple other times, I've gone on trips with them. I took a trip around Shinjuku for a night foodie tour. I also went around Kyoto going to dinners with their tour guide there, and it was a really good experience because having a guide really unlocks a lot of the information that you wouldn't get normally as a tourist. So thank you to Magical Trip for sponsoring this episode.

03:40 John Daub: The experience that I had with my friends in Hiroshima, going to the museum and meeting their great uncle who was a teacher and survived the bomb— it came in the next day. It was really something that opened my eyes to hear from a local like that, as well as this Kyoto foodie tour going out with a group of other friends because I was traveling alone, making a video on this. Having somebody who was local really brings out the experience because it can be intimidating to go into some of these restaurants. But I also made a lot of friends and as someone who lives here in Tokyo— you know, and I was at the time before I was married— this was a really neat experience and I got a chance to eat a heck of a lot of food. So Magical Trip, I put links in the description for them. They're giving a 5% discount for anybody who uses the coupon code. I guess it's only in Japan. You can go in there and try one of the trips that are listed and you're going to have a pretty good time because I certainly did. All right, let's get back to it here. Thank you very much, Magical Trip.

04:44 John Daub: Let's try another coffee. One of the biggest competitors to UCC coffee was Wanda, and I wanted to try that next. Daido is pretty good there, Wanda coffee and then Boss coffee. Oh, here's Wanda. This one is the Brazil blend but it's cold, so make sure you're getting a hot one. The hot ones are usually around from the end of October depending on what part. This one is from the end of October I believe. A lot of you guys are probably trying this one. Here's a demi-tasse (small cup) of Japan to around the beginning of April. This one looks like the demi-tasse is a long-standing one but I think this one is an espresso, the Gold and the Morning Shot. All right, let's go for the Morning Shot here. 140 yen. Oh, it's coming out nice and hot.

05:47 John Daub: The Morning Shot has been around since 2002. I've been in Japan since 1998. I was a big fan of Wanda for one reason. Back in the day, this is smaller than the UCC can, but back in the day Tiger Woods was doing commercials for Wanda Coffee. Some of the biggest athletes, stars, Hollywood actors were doing these commercials in Japan and they would never do something in the Japanese market. Maybe the money was so good, but Tiger Woods in his prime was a Wanda guy. This one's been around since 2002. They're using Kilimanjaro coffee. What's interesting about this is the coffee cans have a texture to it and it's not just the taste, but also the visual and the feel. Japanese marketers are so genius when it comes to marketing canned coffee because the can is so unique. It's got a feel in your hands, grippy. Morning shot— you grip it like that.

07:15 John Daub: All right, let's try this out and compare it with the UCC. That UCC was pretty smooth. This one's a little bit more bitter but a little bit sweeter and the milk used in this one is a lot better. It literally says milk coffee, but for the morning shot, this is something that would definitely wake me up. It seems like it's going to have more caffeine. You can taste it from the bitterness. It doesn't quite say explicitly on the back, but it's made from domestic milk. It's got a little bit of sugar, coffee, dextrin and casein. There's a little bit of sodium and vitamin C in there. It's good, a little bit more bitter, certainly tastes stronger. That's pretty good. It's certainly different.

08:17 John Daub: All right, let's go in here. The next one I wanted to try— did they have the Boss coffee? There's so many different brands, so many different vending machines. Tully's is a chain here competing with Starbucks. I think there was a Northwest American chain. They went out of business in the U.S. but they're still here in Japan, which is fascinating. Oh, here we go. I don't see the Rainbow Boss coffee anymore. They've gone Pokémon Ball with the Boss here. No, let's go just normal black. Black is always good, but we're going with the normal coffee here. I'm surprised they don't have that rainbow coffee. That's the one that's so popular.

09:24 John Daub: Everybody knows why this coffee in particular is called the Rainbow Boss. It's quite famous in the marketing for Japanese coffee. This industry is so massive. Tommy Lee Jones going way back. I guess the friendship that he has with the Boss Coffee president— it's quite a strong one where even now he's pretty much retired from acting, he's still doing these kinds of commercials here for Boss Coffee. He'll make the trip maybe just to see his friend and do a commercial. So which Boss coffee do you think everyone's going to have? I'm saying go for the black, but that rainbow coffee though is quite good. All right, let's just get the black one. It's good for comparison.

10:49 John Daub: Okay, it's certainly hot. This thing is emanating heat. It's a lot hotter and I had coffee before when I first woke up here, so this is— I'm going to be buzzing pretty much. They've really done a great job with putting a lot of information on the can. There's a QR code as well for campaigns. Now, these stickers you'd get— I actually won some stuff. I don't remember from— I think it was Georgia, which is the Coca-Cola brand. We'll try one of them next but used to be able to get these little stickers off of the cans. You peel off the sticker and put them onto a sheet and you'd fill it up with all of the stickers. Then you would send the sheet in and enter the campaign and then win something. I think almost everybody won something because if you have that kind of dedication. But I got me drinking that Georgia coffee for quite a year. I was Georgia for quite a long time.

11:44 John Daub: This is so hot. So on cold winter days, I think sometimes I wouldn't even drink the coffee when it was hot. I would store it inside my jacket. It's black coffee for sure, no sugar in there. But the thing with this is it tastes like it's too watered down. I guess they'd call it American coffee, which is— I've been to ryokan (Japanese inns) and traditional Japanese ends [?]. And I've been to places where they had like these self-serve coffees and then they had one that was blended coffee and then American coffee. I asked what was the difference. He goes, American coffee is just watered down coffee. It's weaker. Because then you can drink a 32-ounce mug of it. Whereas a blended coffee, you probably don't need to drink as much— something in between an espresso and American coffee. This would be American coffee. It is not so bitter, pretty smooth. It's certainly got caffeine in there, but no sugar, no milk of course. It's basically like hot water with a little bit of coffee taste and not enough bitterness for me. But it's smooth. It doesn't have much taste to it, which is kind of a shame. But if you just want a refreshing hot drink, this might be it.

14:08 John Daub: I want to try this Georgia coffee now. This is the fourth one we're doing. This is the one that's been around as long as I have in Japan. The Emerald Mountain Blends has been here forever. And then they have all these other varieties. So you got to try this Emerald Mountain Blend for sure. The thing with the vending machines is sometimes they turn into like a smoking area. So you get wafting smoke coming in at you. But you have to try all sorts of different coffees to find out which one kind of is the best. So far, the most satisfying one is the UCC to me. The original is the best, but it's sweet. It's a sweet coffee. All right, let's try. This is the one that's been around forever. The Emerald Mountain Blend. The packaging, the marketing for it has changed over the years.

15:51 John Daub: This is very comparable to the UCC coffee. Probably again, this would be the gold standard. This has been around for at least 30 years. It seems like— I've been here for 27 almost. This has always been in a vending machine here. You can tell why— this one is a little bit more bitterness than the UCC one, which makes it taste a little bit more premium to me. It's got more of a coffee taste. Both of them are very hot. I think that this one's using real sugar. Maybe this one tastes— you can kind of taste that fake syrupy sugar. I get the feeling like there's something off with the sweetener in here. It just says sato (sugar). I don't know what kind of sugar it is. It could be corn syrup or something, but it just doesn't taste— you can tell that it's a different kind of sugar, whatever they're using. And this is from Coca-Cola brand.

17:27 John Daub: All right, Demi writes in— we have to get another one. So I'll do one more. This one is Daido and often Daido is in the budget machines. Again, make sure it's shimai (hot ones). These are the cold ones and these are the hot ones. Daido. 100 yen for these. This is the original and this is the one we're going to try here. But they typically have cheaper coffees. These ones are more high quality. So they're 140. This one is their milk coffee. Maybe that's the one to go for. And there's the original blended. Let's go with the blended one. This one speaks English too.

18:26 John Daub: I'm going to put the microphone near here so you can maybe hear it. Daido. Please pay attention. You are welcome to use Daido's automatic hand-held machine. Please put your money in. Please press the button you like. Thank you. Welcome again. Oh, it said arigatou (thank you) to me. What's this? It's some kind of campaign going on there. See, they're doing all these kinds of campaigns here. Vending machines are so interactive. It takes cash, it takes IC cards, digital money here. It has different buttons for language support. So basically, there's even a translation app that you can download to understand it in even more languages. And this can is emanating heat. It is radiating heat. Oh my goodness. It's so hot!

20:03 John Daub: The original since 1975. So this would be definitely a competitor to this one. The size is smaller. You can see UCC is much bigger, but they've added in real milk. So this is going to be quite a test as we have construction going on. These vending machines are pretty convenient for the construction workers. The original, Daido blend. It's not bad. They taste almost identical. I prefer this one because I can taste the creaminess of the milk. So the milk has definitely a better flavor with the UCC coffee. The sweetener on this one isn't as good, but it's got a little bit more bitter taste. The sweetness is good. There's definitely a pleasing bitterness. It's not very strong and not very bitter. But the milk is different. I don't know if it's like a creamer or what. It says here that it's using domestic milk, but the milk is different. It tastes, it has a different consistency to it. Fascinating.

22:03 John Daub: I think it comes down to— this is the original. It's just that it even says so here. It's got all this information on the can. They call it the pioneer. UCC, the pioneer maker of the canned liquid coffee in Japan. And then Julianne had the original taste [?]. I like the fact that it says "come on" right there. That's hilarious. Maybe they're using evaporated milk, condensed milk. I'm not really sure. It just says milk on the can. But bottom line, this is just still the most pleasing coffee. It seems like they're just using 4% milk, which is what whole milk is in Japan. 4.1% here, 250 grams. It's from Hyogo, which is near Kobe.

23:22 John Daub: I tried five. I'm going to be caffeinated up for the rest of the day, which is great because I got a lot of editing to do. I tried all five of these, and the winner is the original. I still like the original, but I think the longer you're staying here in Japan, the more you're going to get a chance to try them. Once you find one that you like, typically— and this is for Japanese as well— they stick to the same coffee. They stick to the same brand. There's been over the course of the last 30, 40 years— 27 in my case— where because of the campaigns that they had or the machine that was just closest to your office or your business, you would go there and then you would get those stickers and try those campaigns. You became somewhat partial to that brand because you found a brand that you liked and you consistently stuck to it. But I think nowadays in the digital world and all this, people are a little bit more fluid, the younger generation perhaps. But I could tell that the old timers— maybe I'm in that department— we certainly have a brand. I used to be into the Kilimanjaro.

24:45 John Daub: Here's another thing with the vending machines. The thing that kind of makes me a little bit disappointed in it. A lot of these drinks here will not be here. Like this one here, this is a sweet potato brûlée. That's not going to be here in a year. So you'll find a drink that you really love and then a year later it's gone. Or even faster than that, it's gone.

25:40 John Daub: I want to take you over to another vending machine really quickly. I want to see if I can find something that's more unique just to end this episode here. There's another machine that tourists have found and they've really taken over. It's just around the corner here. Let's go check it out. That one that I was at, the tourists have not found that machine yet. It is so warm right now. It feels like spring is here. It's definitely the cherry blossoms are going to be coming out a little bit earlier than usual if this weather sticks. Which it usually doesn't.

26:43 John Daub: All right, this vending machine bank is quite prolific. Oh, here's the rainbow. Maybe I'll have to get that. What else? Oh, so Georgia has fire. And this is not quite as old, but the fire ones are usually quite good and they have the ridged cans. The gold, this one is maybe the most famous of them all. Here's the Daido coffee. We had that. And then the Tully's as well. Tully's, a lot of people have been telling me don't get the ones in the plastic pet bottles because they're not even heated. There's microplastics leaching into the coffee. I'm not sure about that, but some people have told me that. I still get it every now and then. I had this hojicha (roasted green tea) just the other day. If you don't like coffee, this hojicha from Itoen, which is the biggest green tea manufacturer, is quite good. And there's one coffee that is really hard to find in Tokyo. This one is also quite good. Oshiroko [?]. This is like a red bean, red anko (sweet bean paste) drink.

28:10 John Daub: We did find the Boss Rainbow Coffee. So I can now say for sure, they still have them here. I used to live before I moved to Tokyo— I lived in the countryside in Japan. And I lived also in Tochigi and also lived in Fukushima. And I lived in Ibaraki for a little bit in a town called Hitachi, Naka Hitachi. And there, Coca-Cola had this drink from Georgia called Max Coffee. If you ever see it, it's in a yellow can, yellow and black. It is the sweetest coffee that you can find. They used to have a train called the Max Train that was going up the Joban Line, I believe. And I used to ride that. Oh my goodness, that was sweet. And I would drink it all the time because it was just— alright, you know, some people like one lump or two. These are the people who like three lumps or four. And you guys are out there. The Max Coffee, you can find it now all around the country more, even at the convenience stores. But at the time, I could only find Max Coffee up in Ibaraki, Tochigi, along the Joban Line.

29:48 John Daub: So here we are back to this coffee bank where the tourists usually aren't taking it over. But yeah, there you go. If you have any questions, leave them in the comments below. This is a historical thing because since canned coffee is turning 55 years old because of the Osaka Expo this year, I think you might hear a little bit more from UCC Coffee. And I heard a rumor that UCC Coffee actually owns like 75 or 80% of the Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee for their Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee blends here in Japan. And Japanese love that branded coffee. So the Japanese— UCC in particular— has a big interest in the Jamaican coffee business.

30:40 John Daub: If you have any questions, you can leave them in the comments below. I want to say thank you to Magical Trip for sponsoring this episode. If you are in Tokyo, go check them out. Use that coupon code. Get 5% off just only in Japan. And let me know what you thought, because I had a lot of fun on my trip. I think you will too. I'll see you in another livestream tomorrow morning. I'm planning to go to a popular tourist destination that a lot of people like to go. And I'll try to take you with me. Let's just keep it at that.

31:14 John Daub: Tonight I'm trying to upload a video on the main channel. I'm waiting for some feedback from somebody, but it's this one here. It's an episode on the far west of Tokyo. And I went with my family. Leo's eating shioyaki (salt-grilled), which is an ayu (sweetfish). This is an edited video on my other channel, the main channel, stories. I think you're really going to like it. And you go take a look at a new area of Tokyo that tourists just don't go to. 99% of tourists never leave the city center and go to the extremities, to the mountains or to the islands called the Shima region. So this video should be released sometime tonight.

31:53 John Daub: Alright everybody, take care. See you. And I am done with the coffee. I am so done. That's a lot. The winner though is the original. I just like the original. I like the milk taste in it. It's just really satisfying. See you.