I remember back in the day when I saw people cracking open a cold beer after work, I just couldn’t relate.
I used to drink some hard ciders like Strongbow or Angry Orchard after work back in the States but I here….man…the lemon sours are sooo good and refreshing. Throw in some ice in a stainless steel glass and we are golden.
Whenever I frequent a local izakaya or a local yakiniku, the first thing I order is a kodawari lemon sour on the rocks or grapefruit on the rocks.
What’s your go to drink after work?
As a matter of fact, I made it my business to try every red wine, white wine, lemon sour, chuu high, and highball out there is just to get a good buzz for the evening.
32 comments
I definitely relate on the beer/strong zero front. You might be able to drink them, but I’m less of a fan of either. I too, went for ciders back home, we even had some locally made ones (northern US). I didn’t know about the lemon sours until somebody pointed them out, so I was occasionally getting seasonal chuhai. If I go to an izakaya? Probably a melon or some other fruit sour. I don’t know if they mix it different from what you could buy in store, but it just hits different.
Can’t say I’ve had grapefruit sours, but I’m often tempted by the melon, so maybe next time I’ll remember this conversation and try out grapefruit. I’m open to any of the fruit flavour suggestions from people.
Strong Zero Lemon, 9% tall boy.
Depends on the people I’m with and what the situation is. Sometimes beer, sometimes G&T, sometimes whisky neat.
That Korean fruit wine in the green bottle. Somehow the hangovers aren’t as bad.
Wilkinson Sparkling water , grapefruit 😂 I don’t really care for alcohol so that’s my go to drink 🙆
Silver bullets
The sake with a screw on lid and a red cap! I can’t remember the name now. There is also a black one and a blue one.
I like the one cup sake but don’t like the pull tab!
I have a big carton of Kinmiya (宮) at home and mix it with either Calpis + soda or shikuwasa + soda. No hangovers with this stuff! やばい😂
I tend to drink 梅酒-soda or those ほろよい drinks. I like a little fruity flavor with my bad decisions.
You know on the rocks means just the spirit with ice right..?
梅酒ソーダ is my jam.
Just plum wine in general is phenomenal.
The drinks that you mention are just too sweet for me. Ichiran Shiori is the best!
Good to know that in Japan you can find cider
The seasonal cherry chihais are the bees knees. You can trust me, I’m a strong zero sommelier
Water.
I mean, I enjoy a nice buzz but that takes like two glasses of wine on an empty stomach for me. A single drink after work doesn’t really do anything for me….am I missing some kind of endorphins or something most people get when they drink only one drink after work? I tend to not drink unless it’s explicitly to get buzzed or slightly drunk.
As you like lemon sour we can be friends
Anyone else prefer Kirin’s 氷結 STRONG? Harder to find these days, but it doesn’t give me gut rot like Strong Zero does
I like a good lemon sour too though, especially when I don’t want something too sweet (or too strong)
Since the beer has gone to shit lately I’m doing cocktails these days, or even just liquor and soda.
Any canned chuuhai drink is an automatic hangover for me, with the peculiar side effect of feeling like someone put an ice pick in my right eye.
Edit: fuck grapefruit, grapefruit’s cat, and the horse it rode in on
Strong Zero Dry is my favorite and very underrated .
Diet Dr pepper. Or fanta melon. 👍🏼
Japan has high taxes on beer and low taxes on hard liquor. Buy a bottle of gin, a bottle of rum, some whiskey, and start making your own cocktails…
Overall, food and especially bev quality, let alone prices, are absolutely superior to the west. And that’s done to appease the average overworker and keep them healthy enough to keep on going.
From ciders anything from Son of the smith, or strongbow, magners or any foreign or local cider I can find. When I travel to europe bulmers was the one to go.
In izakayas, Highballs, water and shochu, lemon/blueberry/grapefruit sours or hard ginger ale.
Rum (kraken my favorite) either as a stormy night or as a painkiller.
Beer anything from sour ale, smoothie sour, imperial sour, gose, saison, farmhouse ale, lambic, wild ale. Or on the opposite side, red ale, brown ale, stout, porter, barley wine.
Recently started with wild wines.
Tried a new one just last weekend, made by Sapporo, called Craft Spice Soda. Can def recommend it – 6%, quite refreshing, and blissfully, completely sugar free but also no artificial sweeteners etc either (personally I can’t stand the nasty chemical aftertaste of artificial sweeteners)
I’m not obsessed with them but when they’re 7% alcohol and like ~300 yen a can from the konbini then they’re a great option for those who wanna get maggot.
That said, cocktails are only ~800 yen in my area. My preference is to hit up a jazz bar, down a few cocktails and have a chat. The highballs are more useful when I’m having a night in and just wanna smash some konbini food while getting plastered (which is relatively uncommon).
For me, the cheapest beer I can get.
My first month in my old job I was utterly broke and one day I worked damned hard and was utterly exhausted so I wanted a beer when I got home and those shitty fake beer Sapporo’s were all I could afford, now when I’ve had a rough day it’s all I want, the only change is I have a cheap real beer rather than the fake ones, because man those things are awful.
Water.
– I don’t like carbonated drinks
– I don’t want to be drunk after work because that’s when I do the things I actually care about
Strong Zeros are fucking *gross*. I can’t drink anything with artificial sweeteners, like literally can’t get the first sip past my mouth without gagging. I have no idea how people drink diet soda.
For after work drinks, beer is my go-to. Nice cold draft or a tallboy at home, either one is fine.
I enjoy a nice highball, from the izakaya is fine but I prefer making them at home with bourbon and an orange slice.
Love lemon sours in the summer. Lemondo (檸檬堂) is my favorite of the canned sours, and I also buy the bottled base to make at home with my soda stream.
Recently also enjoying umeshu sodas. Used to always drink it on the rocks, but my wife isn’t drinking alcohol now so I buy her the no-alcohol umeshu sodas, and make a real one myself so we can have the “same” drink.
I am an Otokoume girl through and through. Very underrated.
onikoroshi. less than 100 yen for 17.5% 👍
Takara highballs. Easy to drink, refreshing, and give you a good buzz.
Also, zero carbs for my fat ass.
Shikiwasa juice, gin, and ice is great!
Aichi gin is really good and also only about 1200¥.