{"title":"Japanese Drinks \u0026 Tea","description":"\u003cp\u003eJapanese tea, coffee and cold drinks: the green tea a household drinks with dinner and the canned coffee in every station vending machine. Our \u003ca href=\"\/blogs\/guides\/ramune-japanese-marble-soda\"\u003eguide to ramune\u003c\/a\u003e covers the marble bottle and where to find one in Australia.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"morinaga-in-jelly-energy-muscat","title":"Morinaga in Jelly Energy — Muscat Jelly Drink, 180g","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe blue pouch every Japanese convenience store carries: muscat grape jelly you drink through a spout, no spoon and no chewing. It tastes like clean grape jelly, closer to a green grape than the purple sort, and it isn't very sweet to taste. One thing to get straight before you buy: this is the \u003cem\u003eenergy\u003c\/em\u003e one, not one of the sugar-free konjac jellies it looks like on a supermarket shelf. The pouch carries 753 kJ (180 kcal), the figure printed on the front, and what the product is sold as, and tasting mild is not the same as being light.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eJapanese pack: \u003cstrong\u003einゼリー エネルギー\u003c\/strong\u003e (in-zerii enerugii). Older packs and older listings say \u003cstrong\u003eウイダーinゼリー\u003c\/strong\u003e, Weider in Jelly, same product, renamed in March 2018 when Morinaga dropped the licensed Weider name. And this is Morinaga \u0026amp; Co., the confectionery company; not Morinaga Milk, which is a different business entirely.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003eWhat you're getting\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eMuscat, which is the line's default\u003c\/strong\u003e: light and clean, with 3% real juice in it. A supermarket staple in Japan rather than a specialist sports product.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eSomewhere between a drink and a jelly\u003c\/strong\u003e: thin enough to swallow without chewing, thick enough that it doesn't feel like drinking water. The spout is small, so you can drink it lying down, and it is a thing Japanese households keep for whoever is ill and can't face food.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eOne hand, no spoon, gone in a mouthful\u003c\/strong\u003e: which is why it lives in school bags and gym bags.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eTry one before you stock up\u003c\/strong\u003e: it's a clean, not-too-sweet grape, but plenty of people get a faintly medicinal note off it, and have done for years. It's a taste worth meeting once.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eIt won't fill you up, and it isn't meant to\u003c\/strong\u003e: Morinaga's own comparison is about one onigiri's worth of energy. Treat it as the thing that gets you to lunch, not as lunch.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eAllergens\u003c\/strong\u003e: Morinaga declares none of Japan's mandatory or recommended allergen categories for this product. Read the pack's own label before you rely on ours.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eA few things worth knowing. One pouch is one serve: twist, drink, done. There is no caffeine in it; the energy is carbohydrate. Don't freeze it: Morinaga's own advice is that freezing leaves the nutrition broadly alone but wrecks the jelly texture permanently, and it thaws watery rather than setting again, chill it instead. If you are buying it to run on, weigh it up honestly: 180 g in a pocket is a lot to carry next to a purpose-made running gel. And if you go hunting for the rest of the range, this blue pouch is the Energy one. Multivitamin, Multimineral and Protein are separate products in near-identical pouches, so check the word on the front.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Morinaga","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48244640907490,"sku":"SH-DRK-0001","price":5.99,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0824\/1312\/5858\/files\/morinaga-in-jelly-energy-muscat-180g-hero.webp?v=1787174073"},{"product_id":"morinaga-in-jelly-multi-mineral","title":"Morinaga in Jelly Multi Mineral Grape Drink — 180g","description":"\u003cp\u003eA 180 g pouch of grape jelly you drink through the spout rather than spoon. It tastes like Japanese grape confectionery rather than dark grape juice, two Japanese drinkers reach for the word muscat, the pale green table grape, to describe it, with a faint bitterness in the finish that some drinkers notice and some don't. This is the purple pouch in Morinaga's in Jelly range, and the only one of the five with no vitamins in it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eOn the pack: \u003cstrong\u003einゼリー マルチミネラル\u003c\/strong\u003e (in zerii maruchi mineraru). Look for the purple and silver one. Morinaga's own staff, answering a parent's question on a Japanese Q\u0026amp;A site, identified one of these by naming its colour rather than its product name, because five of these pouches look almost identical side by side.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003eWhat you're getting\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eGrape, but a Japanese grape. Two Japanese drinkers independently reached for \u003cem\u003emuscat\u003c\/em\u003e: the pale green table grape, to describe it, rather than the dark grape juice an Australian pictures. Grape juice is the first ingredient by weight.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThin and quick rather than thick. It slides down, and as one drinker puts it, it doesn't leave your stomach sloshing the way a bottle of something does.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe thing a Japanese shopper knows and you wouldn't: iron drinks in Japan are almost all prune-flavoured. People who can't stand prune buy this one specifically to get away from it, one reviewer says exactly that, and it's the clearest reason this pouch exists in the shape it does.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eNothing to prepare: twist the cap, drink it, done. A lot of its use in Japan is on days when food is unappealing, and you can finish it lying down.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe honest caveat: the finish divides people. A bitter note under the fruit is the most common complaint, raised by eight Japanese drinkers, and a consumer magazine's tasting panel marked it down for the same thing. The grape covers it for most people. Not for everyone.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eAllergens\u003c\/strong\u003e: Morinaga declares none of Japan's twenty-eight named allergen categories in this product, gelatine included. Read the pack's own label before you rely on ours.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eTwo things worth being straight about. This is a food, not a supplement, and we make no claim about what the minerals in it do. And it is the only pouch in Morinaga's range carrying no vitamins at all: if vitamins were what you were after, the green grapefruit one is the Multivitamin.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Morinaga","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48270558101730,"sku":"SH-DRK-0002","price":5.94,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0824\/1312\/5858\/files\/morinaga-in-jelly-multi-mineral-180g-hero.webp?v=1787988144"},{"product_id":"morinaga-in-jelly-multivitamin","title":"Morinaga in Jelly Multivitamin Grapefruit — 180g","description":"\u003cp\u003eA 180 g pouch of grapefruit jelly you drink through the spout rather than spoon. It tastes clean and properly of grapefruit: lightly sweet, with real citrus bitterness rather than a flattened sweet version of it, which is the thing most Japanese drinkers like about it and the thing a few can't get on with. This is the green pouch in Morinaga's in Jelly range.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eOn the pack: \u003cstrong\u003einゼリー マルチビタミン\u003c\/strong\u003e (in zerii maruchi bitamin). Green and white, with a red flash in the corner. Morinaga's own staff, answering a parent's question on a Japanese Q\u0026amp;A site, identified one of these by naming its colour rather than its product name, because five of these pouches look almost identical side by side.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003eWhat you're getting\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eGrapefruit that tastes like grapefruit. Across fifty-odd Japanese reviews the most consistent single verdict is that it is \u003cem\u003enot\u003c\/em\u003e sweet: clean, light, faintly bitter the way the fruit is.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eSoft and finely set, so it slides rather than sits. Nobody in the corpus complains about the texture, and one drinker mentions being able to get it down while lying down.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe thing worth knowing before you buy: \u003cstrong\u003ethere is a near-identical yellow pouch that is a different product\u003c\/strong\u003e, that one is pineapple, has no calories in it, and is sweetened with sucralose and acesulfame K. This green one has no artificial sweetener in it at all. Same brand, same shelf, easy mistake.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eChill it. This is the rare piece of serving advice with real backing behind it: a Japanese consumer magazine's tasting panel found chilling improves how it goes down \u003cem\u003eand\u003c\/em\u003e tames the sweetness, and drinkers say the same thing unprompted.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eWhere it landed when someone tested it properly: third in the vitamin category of \u003cem\u003eLDK\u003c\/em\u003e magazine's 2025 jelly-drink ranking, rated A. The category winner beat it by having no bitterness at all, which tells you exactly what kind of drink this is.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe honest caveat: grapefruit is a dividing fruit and this one does not hide it. Most people read the bitterness as fresh. A small number read it as medicinal instead, two reviewers in the fifty-odd we read, both saying it reminded them of a vitamin tablet. If citrus bitterness is not your thing, start somewhere else.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eAllergens\u003c\/strong\u003e: Morinaga declares none of Japan's twenty-eight named allergen categories in this product, gelatine included. Read the pack's own label before you rely on ours.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eOne thing we won't do. The Japanese pack makes claims about the twelve vitamins in it, and Australian food law is strict about repeating that sort of thing, so we don't. We'll tell you what is in the pouch and let the panel speak for itself; we won't tell you what it will do for you, because that isn't a claim we're permitted to make or one we'd want to guess at. If you're deciding between pouches, the range runs to five that look much alike: blue is the plain Energy one, purple is the mineral one with no vitamins in it at all, teal is a glucose one flavoured like ramune sweets, yellow is the pineapple zero-calorie version above, and this green one carries the vitamins.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Morinaga","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48270558560482,"sku":"SH-DRK-0004","price":5.94,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0824\/1312\/5858\/files\/morinaga-in-jelly-multivitamin-180g-hero.webp?v=1787988353"},{"product_id":"morinaga-in-jelly-energy-glucose-ramune","title":"Morinaga in Jelly Energy Glucose Ramune — 180g","description":"\u003cp\u003eA 180 g pouch of ramune-flavoured jelly you drink through the spout rather than spoon. Ramune here is the flavour, not the fizz: it tastes like the chalky lemon-lime sweet rather than the marble-stoppered soda, and it is sweet, clean and thinner than you would expect a jelly to be. This is the teal pouch in Morinaga's in Jelly range.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eOn the pack: \u003cstrong\u003einゼリー エネルギーブドウ糖\u003c\/strong\u003e (in zerii enerugii budoutou). One word is worth decoding before you order. \u003cem\u003eBudoutou\u003c\/em\u003e looks and sounds as though it ought to mean grape, and it doesn't. It means \u003cstrong\u003eglucose\u003c\/strong\u003e. There is no fruit juice in this pouch at all.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003eWhat you're getting\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eRamune flavour, which in Japan means the lemon-lime taste shared by a soda and a chalky pressed sweet. Several Japanese drinkers call it their favourite in the whole in Jelly range; one describes it simply as tasting like eating ramune sweets.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eNot carbonated. There is no fizz in it at all. If you were expecting the soda in jelly form, this isn't that.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eSet with agar rather than the thicker base the muscat pouch uses, so it runs looser than that one and drinks more than it chews. One person describes the feel as sitting exactly midway between drinking and eating: you're drinking it, but your stomach registers food.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe honest caveat, and there are two. It is sweet: glucose is the main ingredient and \u003cem\u003etoo sweet\u003c\/em\u003e is the most common complaint Japanese drinkers make about it. And some drinkers report it makes them drowsy, including the Japanese student whose post about it briefly went round the internet, who spent the same day warning people to try it beforehand rather than on the day.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eAllergens\u003c\/strong\u003e: Morinaga declares none of Japan's twenty-eight named allergen categories in this product, gelatine included. Read the pack's own label before you rely on ours.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eOne thing we're leaving alone. Morinaga markets this in Japan as energy for thinking, and it had a moment among students during Japan's national entrance exams in January 2024, but that is what the Japanese pack says, not a claim we're making, and its own drinkers disagree about whether it does anything at all. Separately, if you're choosing between pouches: the blue one is the standard Energy, muscat-flavoured, and this teal one is the glucose one.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eRamune is the flavour here, borrowed from the drink. If you have wondered what that bottle with the marble in the neck actually is, our guide \u003ca href=\"\/blogs\/guides\/ramune-japanese-marble-soda\"\u003eRamune: the Japanese soda with a marble stuck in the bottle\u003c\/a\u003e explains where the name came from and why it ended up on sweets and jellies as well as soda.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Morinaga","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48270558658786,"sku":"SH-DRK-0005","price":5.94,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0824\/1312\/5858\/files\/morinaga-in-jelly-energy-glucose-ramune-180g-hero.webp?v=1787989414"},{"product_id":"morinaga-in-jelly-energy-lemon-salt-plus","title":"Morinaga in Jelly Energy Lemon Salt Plus — 180g","description":"\u003cp\u003eA 180 g pouch of lemon jelly you drink through the spout rather than spoon. It is mild rather than sharp: a clean, lightly sweet lemon that Japanese drinkers most often compare to honey-lemon, and although the pack leads on its salt, almost nobody can taste it. This is the silver pouch with the lemon on the front, and in Japan it only comes out in summer.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eOn the pack: \u003cstrong\u003einゼリー エネルギー レモン塩分＋\u003c\/strong\u003e (in zerii enerugii remon enbun purasu). Look for the big yellow lemon on a silver pouch. \u003cem\u003eEnbun\u003c\/em\u003e means salt content, which is what the plus sign is about.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003eWhat you're getting\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eA lemon that is deliberately easy rather than tart. First-timers keep saying the same thing: they expected sour and it wasn't. Several drinkers wish it were \u003cem\u003emore\u003c\/em\u003e lemony, which tells you where on the scale it actually sits.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe surprise: \u003cstrong\u003eyou are unlikely to taste the salt.\u003c\/strong\u003e Across fifty-odd Japanese reviews not one person described it as salty, and the few who mention the salt at all say they can barely detect it. What they describe instead is a faint sweet-salty edge, closer to honey-lemon than to anything sporty.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eSet with agar, and reformulated in 2021 specifically to be easier to swallow. It goes down smoothly, one Japanese drinker with a throat too sore to manage water said this was the only thing that would go down.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eDrink it cold, and this is not generic advice. Three Japanese drinkers independently report that the sourness simply disappears when it is chilled and drunk after sweating; one complained his convenience-store fridge hadn't got it cold enough.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe honest caveat: it is a sweet drink, and the people who dislike it split two ways, some want much more lemon, and a few found it too sour at the very moment they wanted it, when they were already worn out and overheated.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eAllergens\u003c\/strong\u003e: Morinaga declares none of Japan's twenty-eight named allergen categories in this product, gelatine included. Read the pack's own label before you rely on ours.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eTwo things worth being straight about. In Japan this is sold as a summer product and the front of the pack carries a line about a heatstroke-awareness campaign. That is Morinaga sponsoring a public-information project, not a claim about what the pouch does. Morinaga's own page is careful in the same way, and adds that this product alone is not adequate fluid and salt. It is not a rehydration drink and it is not a substitute for one. It is a nice cold lemon jelly for a hot day.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eTwo more, since this range confuses people even in Japan. There is a separate frozen pouch also called Salt Plus, and it is a different product: 150 g, lychee, made to be frozen. This is the 180 g lemon one. And if you have seen the blue pouch: that is the plain Energy one, muscat-flavoured, with no salt and no lemon. Same size, same price, different drink. Japanese buyers tend to reach for the blue one year-round and this one in summer.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Morinaga","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48270560133346,"sku":"SH-DRK-0006","price":5.94,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0824\/1312\/5858\/files\/morinaga-in-jelly-energy-lemon-salt-plus-180g-hero.webp?v=1787989514"}],"url":"https:\/\/shintop.com.au\/collections\/japanese-drinks.oembed","provider":"Shintop Trading Australia","version":"1.0","type":"link"}