Blogging From A To Z Challenge: Qoo
| April 19, 2012 | Posted by thesocialfrog under Blogging Challenges |
Today’s Letter Is Q
Welcome to the A To Z Blogging Challenge for the month of April. I’ve not participated in anything like this before but thought it might be fun. I’ve decided to go with a “theme”. My theme is Japanese. I currently live in Japan and I thought it would be interesting to pick a word or place and ”teach” it to you in Japanese.
Qoo In Japanese Is: Kū
Japanese Symbol For Qoo: クー
Qoo is a non-carbonated beverage from the Coca-Cola Company. Originally introduced in Japan on November 15, 1999 after Coca-Cola teamed up with Minute Maid to create a kid and teen-oriented beverage, Qoo is now available throughout much of Asia in a variety of flavors including grape and orange. In Germany, the product line was introduced in January 2003 and discontinued in November 2005.
The name comes from the mascot’s reaction to tasting the drink. The mascot was designed by Momoko Maruyama, who created Deko Boko Friends. The Jingle, for the original Japanese version, is sung by Londell “Taz” Hicks, an American now living in Japan who also does the voice for the character Fo-Fo in “Deko Boko Friends”
Qoo is transliterated in Chinese as 酷兒 (kùér). It evokes images of “cool kid” since 酷 (kù) is a transliteration of the English word cool and 兒 (ér) means ‘child’ or ‘son’. However, in China and Taiwan, 酷兒 also happens to be the same transliteration as the English word queer referring to sexual orientation or gender identity.
Qoo is easily and readily available in Japanese stores and vending machines. It is geared more towards kids and teens. Talking to Daniel about this, this morning, he has been drinking it off and on for months now. On base in the vending machines it seems to always be Apple. I had never tried it before and so I was curious. I purchased a bottle from our vending machine in the lobby of our tower. My first thoughts…SUPER SWEET! To sweet and sugary for my liking but I can see how it would appeal to the younger kids and teens. Not something I would purchase again unless I was extremely thirsty and it was the only thing available.
Oh, I’d have a hard time with this one being so sweet. That’s not for me, but I can certainly see how it would appeal to the young folks.
Thanks for sharing as always!
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Twitter: thesocialfrog
April 19, 2012 at 10:06 pm
I guess I should have mentioned in my post that it is pretty much an Apple Juice and heavy on the sweet side but it is made from Coca-Cola so no surprise there. I will tell you though, the soda here from Coca-Cola Japan is much different from what we drink in the states, it is actually not as sweet, if you can believe that!
thesocialfrog recently posted..Blogging From A To Z Challenge: Qoo
Twitter: CorinneCR
April 19, 2012 at 8:45 pm
How interesting, RoseAnn. Indians love sweet things and I know Coke and Pepsi taste much sweeter here than the ones I’ve sampled in the UK, Philippines and Hong Kong.
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Twitter: thesocialfrog
April 19, 2012 at 10:05 pm
It is funny how different the sodas do taste here. They are VERY different and honestly, when I do have one I enjoy it more, especially the coke! This is a juice though, well some kind of an apple juice,lol.
very interesting and no, we don’t have that here. don’t think the moms would like their kids drinking it! ha!
smiles, bee
xooxoxoxxoxo
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Twitter: thesocialfrog
April 19, 2012 at 10:03 pm
It is interesting Bee
It is actually an apple juice of sorts and I say sorts because of how sweet it is. I tend to find some American Apple juices a bit to sweet too and I do not make a habit of drinking juices due to the high sugar content.
thesocialfrog recently posted..Blogging From A To Z Challenge: Qoo
Hey RoseAnn! This was great! It’s so informative and I am so curios about life over there. Thanks for sharing.
Twitter: thesocialfrog
April 19, 2012 at 10:02 pm
YAY
Thank you so much Leah for stopping by and leaving a comment, that means a lot to me to hear from you on here 
I am enjoying sharing my knowledge and the new things I am learning as I go!
thesocialfrog recently posted..Blogging From A To Z Challenge: Qoo
Twitter: ermodi
April 20, 2012 at 5:56 am
Ohhhh, I’ll have to try it when I go to Japan!!!
Very interesting. I never heard of this. I’m trying to visit all the A-Z Challenge Blogs this month. My alphabet entries are an myqualityday.blogspot.com
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