Namaiki Beer: Classic Draft Beer-like Soft Drink for Kids

As I wrote many times in the past, Dagashi (駄菓子) is a snack genre unique to Japan comprised of cheap junk foods, particularly for kids, and popular varieties include these ten items.

Dagashi has a long history and today comes in various types. For example, if I give an interesting example, even the base powder of soft drinks exists. Correctly, it isn’t powdery but like Ramune tablets.

Have you ever watched the Japanese anime Dagashi Kashi (だがしかし)? In the manga, a beverage famous as Dagashi appears. And now, I have the base tablets for this blog article.

Namaiki Beer (生いきビール）

The name of the Dagashi I introduce this time is Namaiki Beer (生いきビール), which isn’t an alcoholic beverage for adults, but a non-alcoholic soft drink for children.

As you may know, the Japanese word for draft beer is Nama Beer (生ビール). But in the Dagashi name, the three letters, iki (いき), have been added to the word Nama (生: meaning Raw).

When it changes from Nama (生) to Namaiki (生いき or 生意気), meaning cheeky, the product name loosely means beer for cheeky kids.

In Japan, Namaiki Beer only costs 30 yen (about 0.3 USD) and is available in supermarkets. As you can see, the product contains 2 Ramune candy-like tablets in the sachet.

Preparation

I prepared a glass of 120 ml water with these white tablets. Yes, to enjoy the Dagashi soft drink, you need to simply put the two tablets at the same time into the water. 

Now, let’s get the preparation started. Once you drop the tablets, they dissolve quickly and generate carbon dioxide gas.

30 seconds later, the water gets yellowish and creates a foamy head.

About 2 minutes later, the liquid becomes golden and foamy enough, just like draft beer. 

Ingredients

Next, let’s see the ingredients used. On the back of the sachet, you can find the list.

According to that, the base tablets for the Dagashi Namaiki Beer mainly consist of milk sugar, sugar, malt sugar, reduced maltose starch syrup, sodium bicarbonate, acidifier, and sweeteners.

Taste

The Dagashi soft drink Namaiki Beer features a refreshing flavor from malt components.

The beverage isn’t bitter at all. It is rather sweet and yummy! Because of the delicious taste, I think adults can also enjoy it.

Conclusion

Namaiki Beer not only tastes good, but the preparation is just fun. I don’t know whether base tablets for soft drinks like this exist outside of Japan.

But if you can find it near where you live, the Dagashi Namaiki Beer is absolutely worth trying!