Green tea may be Japan’s most traditional non-alcoholic beverage, but when Japanese people are feeling thirsty, especially on a hot summer’s day, a lot of them would rather gulp down some nicely chilled Calpis instead.
Depending on what part of the world you live in, you might know this yogurt-like drink better by its overseas-market name, Calpico, as bottler Asahi Soft Drinks realizes that in English-speaking areas, “Calpis” can sound more than a little like a coarse reference to bovine urine, an undesirable mental image for a milky white beverage. But that potential for misunderstanding doesn’t exist in Japanese, so if you mention Calpis in front of a group of Japanese people, they won’t react with snickers. Instead, many will say they’re in the mood for the stuff, and Asahi Soft Drinks wants you to be able to pour yourself a glass of Calpis straight from one of 1,000 Calpis faucet to be set up across Japan.
The first of those is going to be going into service this summer at the Hotel Vison in the town of Taki, Mie Prefecture. With Calpis being refreshingly sweet but not as sugary as cola, it’s a drink that kids and adults alike have enjoyed for generations, and taking a Calpis break so as not to get overheated while having summer fun is a nostalgic childhood moment for many. With that in mind, Hotel Vison’s Calpis faucet will go into service on July 1, and the hotel hopes pouring their own Calpis from the tap will be an opportunity for friends and families to make new memories together.
▼ The Hotel Vison is a pretty fancy place, which speaks to how popular Calpis is across all strata of society in Japan.
This isn’t Japan’s first-ever Calpis faucet. In 2019, as part of Calpis’ 100th anniversary celebration, temporary taps were set up at the Tokyo Dome City and Osaka Expo City entertainment centers, as shown in the video below.
However, the new Calpis faucet project looks to be a longer-term affair, with no mention in Hotel Vison announcement that theirs will only be around for a limited time. What’s more, Asahi Soft Drinks says that while the Hotel Vison is a test site for the program, the company is aiming to install 1,000 Calpis faucets across Japan by the end of 2030. Specifics (such as whether Calpis from the faucet is complementary or must be paid for, hours of availability, and so on) will likely vary from site to site, but fans can look forward to more and more Calpis flowing in the years to come.
Related: Hotel Vison
Sources: Shokuhin Sangyo Shimbun via Livedoor News via Hachima Kiko, PR Times
Insert images: PR Times
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