I waited awhile to review this because I was curious as to how the blogsphere would take to it. I tried it the first day it came out and it tasted exactly how I thought it would, which I will explain in a bit.

Shiso is GO.
This summer Pepsi released Pepsi Shiso, which was a moderate hit. The nuclear bright green soda was like a club soda with a pretty pleasant shiso taste. (read about shiso here) I love shiso, so that was also an instant hit with me. It was pretty refreshing, but not something I had all the time, aside from the fact that I don’t really drink soda that often anyway.
So as far as Pepsi Sweet Azuki Bean, as I said it tastes exactly like I thought it would. It has the body and foundation of Pepsi Shiso, only Azuki Bean flavoring. I like anything azuki, especially ice cream. The flavor is a bit light, and the smell is kinda azuki and soda chemical smelling. The aftertaste is very azuki, only not as heavy as if you’ve had the sweet paste itself. American readers will get this… but it’s almost reminiscent of eating a Taco Bell burrito with a Sprite. It’s almost that kind of aftertaste. Like most Japanese sodas, it’s not too sweet and the perfect balance for me, but I can see why a lot of others are hating on it. I wanted to like it and I did, they wanted to hate it and they did.
I give it a 6/10.
Winter is coming soon, and with it a plethora of weird hot drinks. I will try and get my hands on some.
Question of the Day: What flavor do you think Pepsi may try next?




















Comments
I would definitely want to try both to satisfy my burning curiosity for Azuki and Shiso, but it’s a shame I’ll never see these Pepsi variants locally.
T_T
I can only curse the fact that I don’t live in Japan, so I can’t ever try these flavors.. curse the fact that I was too early in the year to have missed the launch of Shiso.. >_< I want to go bury my head some where…
T_T
Cool beans (har har). Thanks!
I heard these drinks taste bad(azuki shiso).
So many men,so many minds.