Kyuri Cola???!?

This probably falls under the category of "only in Japan", but I don't know. I hope some of you will correct me on this.

The beverage industry in Japan has always been one of particularly heated competition. Come summer, it turns into open warfare. Even before the start of the June rainy season the stores and many vending machines are already sporting a host of new types. Some of them are products from overseas imported to test on the Japanese market. Others are wholly (or partly) native concoctions. Some, like Vanilla Coke, survive through the summer only to vanish and never be seen again. Others, like the mysterious Acerola Cola(???!?), don't even last that long. At any rate, you see a lot of new faces (well, labels at least) on the racks this time of year, and it's hard to tell which are going to be winners and which are in desperate need of having kitty litter scooped over them.

Pepsi has always been one of the more aggressive players. Long the underdog in Japan cowering in almighty Coca-Cola's bloated shadow, it has resorted to some pretty wild tactics to grab a bit of its red-and-white rival's market share (some of which have backfired and sullied its reputation, such as dirty pool competitive advertising, which is common in the U.S. but doesn't go over well here). This year it seems to be pulling out all the stops. Now that its Pepsi NEX is locked in a dead heat with Coke Zero, it has started a renewed drive to market Mountain Dew here. It has also produced some wacky new forms of flavored Pepsi Cola, including spicy red and...

...ice cucumber???!?



Yes, it really does taste like cucumber. Specifically, it tastes like the chilled Japanese kyuri cucumber that is so popular (and so delicious) this time of the year. It's bizarre...but I find I actually like it. That's a sure sign that it's going to be a bomb.

Has anyone else seen it. especially outside Japan?