Coca-Cola, which has sold its famous soft drink for more than 130 years, wants customers in Japan to try something harder.

The company is launching a canned version of Chu-Hi, an alcoholic drink made with shochu, a distilled beverage typically made from rice, barley, sweet potatoes and other ingredients. The move is a first for Coke, which has stuck to cola and other non-alcoholic drinks except for its brief ownership of a wine subsidiary that ended in 1983.

A worker at a Coca Cola factory near Tokyo. Credit:AP

Chu-Hi is considered a low-alcohol beverage, but proofs can range as high as 18 (9 per cent alcohol by volume).

"We haven't experimented in the low-alcohol category before, but it's an example of how we continue to explore opportunities outside our core areas," Jorge Garduño, president of Coke's Japanese business, said in a blog post.