Real Gold: Coca Cola Japan’s Classic Energy Drink
I love the functional carbonated beverage “Red Bull” but sometimes crave the familiar taste of my long-time favorite Japanese energy drinks.
When it comes to Japanese energy drink classics, I think many Japanese people will probably name “Oronamin C (オロナミン C)” or “Real Gold (リアルゴールド)”, and in fact, I have loved them for a long time.
Since today I actually bought the latter, Coca-Cola Japan’s Real Gold, from a vending machine for 130 yen (about 1.2 USD), here let me talk about the classic Japanese carbonated energy drink.
Real Gold Energy Drink from Coca Cola Japan
Real Gold is a carbonated energy drink that Coca-Cola Japan started to sell in 1981. At the time of its release, the beverage was sold in a glass bottle, but now the mainstream is the 190 ml can.
According to the article “リアルゴールド” on Japanese Wikipedia, the name was selected because it had the appropriate image for a high-grade energy drink.
Taste
In appearance, the carbonated energy drink, Real Gold just looks like the Otsuka Oronamin C, and in fact, they are close in taste, though the former doesn’t contain honey. With the right amount of fizz, they are both fruity, really easy to drink, and yummy.
Ingredients
Unlike Otsuka Oronamin C, the Real Gold drink is caffeine-free and its selling point is that it contains royal jelly and ginseng saponin, in addition to vitamin B2, B6, and C.
The other ingredients contained in the beverage are high fructose corn syrup, carbonic acid, flavoring, citric acid, aspartic acid Na, niacin, glutamic acid Na, vitamin P, phenylalanine, isoleucine, and threonine.
Calories and Nutrition Facts
Based on the label on the can, with 56 kcal per 100ml, the Coca-Cola Japan Real Gold energy drink contains 63 to 150mg Vitamin C, 9mg niacin, 0.8mg Vitamin B2, 0.8mg Vitamin B6, 0.8mg Vitamin P, and 11mg aspartic acid.
