Asian Drink Special - An Introduction

Everyone who read my previous blog knows that I did some crazy stuff for the sake of entertainment, such as hooking up with boys while pretending to be a 13-year-old girl and cooking some weird foodstuff off the top of my head. Consider this to be the newest addition to the group (possibly bumping the 13-year-old saga out of the way - all interest has been lost).

Asian supermarkets. I don't know about you, but I find them to be just a tad dodgy. Chinese herbs? They smell so weird that even if they were expired you'd probably disregard the use-by date and throw it into your soup anyway. And why can they sell everything so cheaply? But if there's one category of Asian consumables that has always fascinated me, it's got to be the beverages. And I'm not just talking about the green, black and whatever-other-colour-you-can-think-of tea, I'm talking about stuff like asparagus juice. Combine the weirdest drinks with one of the dodgiest supermarkets to shop at and I'm usually afraid to drink things as simple as carbonated apple juice because I can't read Chinese/Japanese/Korean for shit. As I result, I really do not know what I'm getting, unless the bottle or can has one of those nifty translated stickers on the back. Alas, this is not the case all the time. Oh, and my paranoia might have something to do with this as well.

Without further ado, I welcome you to the Asian Drink Special, where I review an Asian drink. Well done, Captain Obvious. Review scores are based on:
1. Originality - Let's just say that if I ever pick anything like asparagus juice up, it will get a 10.
2. Taste - It may taste really, really good. Or if it causes me to throw the can in horror on the first sip, it will get a 1. Or a 0. Or a negative number.
3. Packaging - What's the point of having a drink if you can't drink out of the bottle? Bonus points for frickin' sweet packaging that you will never EVER see the Western world willingly use.
4. Price - No sir, I would not be happy if I had paid $5 for a drink I hated (see point 2). Then again, if I had paid $5 for a drink I liked, I would probably still be unhappy. 5. Other - Was there some crazy thing that happened while I was drinking (or attempting to drink) the beverage? Other notes here.

First up, Sangria melon soda.

Gettin' cool. Seriously.

1. Originality - I guess in the Eastern realm, there is nothing TOO weird about melon-flavoured soda. But if you were to shove it in a Westener's face, there is a relatively high chance of them either freaking out or wondering (out loud) what the hell melon soda is and what it would taste like. [4]
2. Taste - It tastes pretty good. I'm sort of a fan of the artificial melon flavour though, so feel free to take three or four points off the score if you don't think it's your thing. [9]
3. Packaging - As you can see in the pictures above, the Sangria melon soda comes in a nice aluminium bottle. Forget glass, aluminium is the way to go. However, the bottle is a bit too flimsy for my liking, which is probably the only thing stopping me from using it as a bottle I carry around with me. (That and I haven't been out of the house.) [7]
4. Price - At $2, it's cheaper than most soft drinks that are available. [10]
5. Other - True Fact: Whenever I took a sip, I could hear this weird buzzing in my head.

OVERALL: So it's not too weird. And it's pretty tasty, not to mention cheap. It's definitely something I would buy again. [8]