Coca-Cola is one of the biggest brands in the F&B sector in the world, with a history of 132 years of existence. The company produces non-alcoholic fizzy drinks that have over time turned into a necessity for some and the best companion of food, for others. Now, the company is trying their hand in the alcoholic drinks sector in a bid to tap new markets and consumers.
Coca-Cola’s first alcoholic drink went on sale on Monday and it was launched in Japan. The company organised a sampling event on Saturday in Fukuoka and people lined up for a taste test. Many couldn’t even believe something like this to ever happen, and for Coca-Cola to enter into a sector like alcoholic beverages in the first place.
The launched product is a lemon flavoured alcopop and it has three different ranges of it that extend from 3% alcohol to 8%.
They have launched these drinks on the lines of already popular Chuhai drinks that are usually a mix of local spirit and different fruit flavours. This local spirit is made with distilled grain-based alcohol called shochu and there’s no trace of coca-cola in it. The flavour of the drink has been named as Lemon-Do.
While the drink as for now, has been released in the southern island of Kyushu, the company is not as such planning to make it available in rest of Japan or the world.
“We’ve started to experiment because, in the end, we are trying to follow the consumer. And, in the case of Japan, this is a relatively well-developed segment of low alcohol,” Coca-Cola Chief Executive James Quincey said at a shareholder meeting on April 26, as reported by The Washington Post.
Coca-Cola has never directly sold any alcoholic drinks in the market before, even though they owned a winery from 1977 to 1983.
The decision to roll out an alcoholic drink in the Chuhai pattern might do wonders for the company since more and more people in Japan are turning towards Chuhai instead of usual beer or other hard liquor. This is because Chuhai is much cheaper than any other alcohol available in the market. Chuhai appeals to both men and women, though these particular drinks are more popular among women because of its fruity taste.
Let’s just hope these (or maybe any other kind) alcoholic drinks from Coca-Cola reaches other parts of the world and actually taste good.
Jyotsna Amla