Hot on the heels of our incredibly successful cola transformation test, we couldn’t resist another weird and wonderful drink challenge. This time, we decided to try a drink called Nanchatte Orange (literally fake orange). It’s an orange juice sold by “Cheerio Japan” but with one catch: it looks exactly like soy sauce.

Saying it looks like soy sauce doesn’t really do justice to how much this looks like real soy sauce. This is practically identical to the real thing; in fact, the reason we came across this drink was because we walked by the drinks fridge at the convenience store and it caught our eye. Our first thought was, “What is soy sauce doing in the drinks fridge? And why is it sitting next to the apple juice?”

Needless to say, we were on it in a flash and out the door, taking it back to the office with salty thoughts and expectations. So what would black orange juice from a soy sauce bottle taste like? Well, allow us to introduce you to this very unique drink…

▼ Left: Kikkoman Soy Sauce. Right: Nanchatte Orange. Hmm…

The appearance sure packs a punch

First of all, just based on the bottle, this obviously looks like soy sauce. It looks just like the soy sauce bottles on any store shelf and in any Japanese pantry, so at first glance you get a sense that you’re about to glug a bottle of salty sauce. Of course, the warning “This is not soy sauce!” on the bottom of the label helps!

When we poured it into a cup, we were surprised. It still looked like soy sauce! Looking at the light black liquid going into the cup, there was a strange, unnerving feeling that we were about to drink something we shouldn’t.

The taste was like… everyday orange juice!

We must admit, we were a little worried about what this black liquid might taste like. Nervous and concerned that we may end up spraying the contents of our mouths all over the office floor, we tentatively took our first sip: “Thi… this is just everyday orange juice!” This sure looked like soy sauce but the flavour was bitter-sweet orange!

We were relieved but then we were a little disappointed at the same time. If only they added a bit of a soy sauce fragrance to it! That would’ve made a huge impact! Oh well, we were just happy the flavour wasn’t salty soy!

So…what’s with the packaging?

We think this orange juice is dressed up as soy sauce to create a stir when people see you drinking it. Tip: guzzle a bottle of this down at a crowded bus stop just for the shock factor.

But drinking it’s quite a fun experience on its own because of the difference between the taste you expect and the taste you get. If you drink it straight from the bottle, every time you look at it and take a sip it messes with your mind. With this drink, you get the molecular gastronomy experience without the price tag. Now we can’t wait to take this crazy drink one step further by filtering it into a colourless liquid! Mind = blown.

Photos: RocketNews24

[ Read in Japanese ]