Pocari Sweat

Background

Pocari Sweat is a Japanese sports drink. It was released in 1980 and has a hilariously uncomfortable name.

Delicious Sweat

 Appearance

I like the can. It's tall and slim, with a simple, striking design. There is no unnecessary art or embellishments cluttering up the can. I don't need a picture of splashing on the can to tell me that it contains a beverage. However, I'm going to count the name as part of it's appearance. And it's name is pretty unfortunate. There are few more unappetizing things than drinking sweat. When I offered it to my friends, I got a repulsed reaction. Though, perhaps it does appeal to people like me. "Pocari Sweat? That so gross! I got to try it"

Isn't this side more appetizing.

Appearance Score

7/10 Simple, effective. Poor name choice.



Let's crack it open and see how it is.

Taste

My first sip. And I don't taste anything immediately. It's like I had taken a sip of nothing. Pocari doesn't have any carbonation, and so at first is like drinking water without any flavor. Ghost water.

Clear and Unassuming

But then the flavors sit around for a while and I began to notice things. It has a very mild clean flavor. Mildly citrus-y. Mildly chalk-y, electrolyte-y. It's like you took some grapefruit juice, sanded off the tart edges, mixed it with some coconut water, and then watered it down. Overall it wasn't unpleasant. It didn't leave any bad aftertastes. It just kind of refreshingly faded away. It doesn't have a very imposing flavor. It's pretty unremarkable, really.

However, I know how this is going to work. It's not a drink that I loved. But now that I have it's flavor ingrained in my mind, I'm going to randomly get craving for it. I can see it now. The same things happens with Sunny-D, that American kids drink. I don't like Sunny-D. I find it a little gross. But I crave it probably once a month. And invariably I end up going to walgreens and getting a bottle. And I'll crack it open and stand there drinking it. And in between each sip I'll go "Gross" "why am I drinking this" "This doesn't even taste good" until I finish all of this. So the same thing will probably start happening with Pocari Sweat soon, but at least I won't mind it this time.

Taste Score

6/10 Not bad, just unremarkable. It would be a good after workout drink.