14 DAY TRIAL // If we're going to be honest here, we have to admit that pretty much everybody loves and adores garlic. True, it might be that we're not big fans of garlic breath, but the taste and the flavor of this herb are hard to resist. Especially accompanied by grilled chicken or something equally mouthwatering.
Well, the trouble is that, apparently, there is such a thing as loving garlic a wee too much. Leave it to people living in Japan's Aomori city to show us how our love for garlic can go from “perfectly understandable” to “hell, no” almost in the blink of an eye.
Introducing the oddest soda ever
Folks living in or simply visiting the city of Aomori in Japan's Tōhoku region can now try a brand new soda that goes by the name of Jats Takkola and that smells and tastes like garlic. That's right, people in this corner of the world are such big fans of the herb that they made garlic-flavored cola.
It is understood that the recipe for this peculiar drink includes regular cola mixed with finely ground garlic. The soda's makers recommend that, before they take a sip, people shake the bottle ever so slightly, just to make sure that the garlic and the soda flavors are properly balanced.
Apparently, the garlic flavor is not potent enough to sweep people off their feet the moment they pop their soda bottle open. On the contrary, the people making and marketing this peculiar drink insist that all their customers get is a garlic aftertaste.
What's even more disturbing is the fact that these garlic-flavored soda bottles don't have all of their ingredients written down on their labels. What this means is that, for most of the people who have so far tried the soda, the garlic flavor came as a surprise.
In case anyone was wondering, bottles of Jats Takkola presently sell for about $2.50 (roughly €2.2) each at local stores across the city of Aomori. Mind you, there are people who buy them not because they have no idea what they contain, but because they actually like the garlic-flavored soda.
Why would anyone make garlic-flavored soda?
The thing about Japan's Aomori city is that, each year, massive amounts of garlic are harvested from lands encircling it. Hence, some like to refer to it as Japan's Garlic Town.
Seeing how not having enough garlic is never an issue in this corner of the world, local companies have gotten into the habit of adding this herb to all sorts of foods and drinks, even beer and ice cream. Apparently, the garlic-flavored soda is their latest creation.
