UCC Coffee with Milk!

UCC Coffee is a staple of quite a few Japanese people looking for a quick buzz in the morning. This drink is a nice mix of sweet milk and coffee in a very solid can that is best served chilled after giving it a good shake. From researching the drink it had a large surge in popularity upon being featured as the drink of choice in the now famous Evangelion series. They are readily sold in vending machines and local snack shops(Like 7-11, Sun Kus, AMPM) in Japan. There are a total of two can sizes, basically a fat and a slim version, one more like a Coke can whereas the other being more Red Bull sized, as in the limited EVA Coffee cans they had in 2007.

In terms of an anytime fix, it really helped during college during those late nights wrapping up projects. The flavor is pretty good, with a strong coffee taste but with enough milk that it won't overwhelm your taste buds or anything you might be snacking on. If you can find some at your local Asian import store, they're really good if paired with cookies or just about anything sweet. However, do not attempt to drink this with chips because it seems to react really horribly with anything salty. The one thing we found disappointing is the awful aftertaste that follows upon finishing a can. Upon finishing my first can I started to get a really bitter aftertaste which I had to promptly flush away with a good mouthwash rinse.

So UCC Coffee is a decent Japanese iced coffee, definitely the friendliest option for people who don't like the taste of straight coffee. Give it a shot, the price isn't too bad from looking around at online sources($1.50 a can was the minimum).

Pom Iced Coffee!

In general I've had a bit of a mixed relationship with the POM drinks yet in this case I've found a lot to love with their most recent offering, the iced coffee variety. The first time I ran into these was while I was attending E3 earlier this year and these were being handed out quite liberally on the street. I was really surprised that they had decided to go the way of coffee after the pretty successful Pomegranate line they've offered.

Anyways, the flavor of these drinks was incredibly decadent and deep while being promoted as a health drink. The whole idea is that these drinks contain the same amount of antioxidants that their pomegranate drinks hold while having a delicious chocolatey coffee flavor(Promoted as POMx). The shape of the bottle too was really appealing to me as well and was comfy to hold and drink out of. Its the type of drink I'd really appreciate having rows of in my fridge simply due to their sleek design. The flavor on the one I tried(Chocolate) was really rich and satisfying, with a dark chocolate vibe that really gave me a good buzz and a full bodied coffee flavor. I fell in love with the drink at E3 and have been drinking it regularly on late nights, when the urge for a yummy chilled coffee drink comes in. There are three flavors: Chocolate, Cafe Au Lait and Vanilla.

Despite the slightly pricier tag(as with other Pom products), this is really worth a try. They're a little harder to find in stores but can be easily tracked down online. If you're a fan of canned or bottled iced coffees(Like Starbucks or UCC coffee), this definitely could be considered a solid contender. Two thumbs up from me.