The “malternative” liquor may be off the market in the U.S.A., but it’s thriving in Japan
The “malternative” liquor may be off the market in the U.S.A., but it’s thriving in Japan
Out of all the abominations created in the “clear drink” craze of the 1990s, nothing emerged as a bigger joke than Zima, a fizzy alcoholic beverage that tasted faintly like Sprite. Originally touted as “Zomething Different,” a clear alternative to beer but also a malt liquor, Zima was touted with a cheesy marketing campaign featuring a smooth-talking male who replaced his S’s with Z’s.
At first the self-proclaimed “malternative” was a commercial success. It sold 1.3 million barrels in 1994, the year it came out. But it quickly became a text-book case of marketing gone awry. It developed a “girly” reputation. No “real man” wanted to be caught chugging Zima. And profit-wise, that’s bad news. Men of any stripe drink a whole lot more than women.
Zima was one of the first “alcopops” to hit the market: a category for sweetened alcoholic beverages usually sold in bottles or cans that resemble soda. Over time, because of its popularity among young girls, it became the object of ridicule. Saturday Night Live had skits that showed a married man trying to seduce the babysitter with Zima, or a teenager offering Zima to her friends at a party. Thomas Pynchon was still making fun of it last year in his novel Bleeding Edge. But in the United States, finally, Coors pulled the drink off the shelves completely in 2008.
Not so in Japan! Indeed, Zima is alive – very much alive – almost anywhere you look in Tokyo. It’s a staple at bars. Convenience stores stock ample quantities. And you might say Zima has been liberated. It’s not a beer “alternative,” it is what it is, and utterly unashamed about gender identification.
Romano Machiste (his real name), has been selling the drink in his Ibex bar in Tokyo’s Roppongi district since he opened 11 years go. “A lot of Japanese people, especially females, like Zima,” said Machiste. But it takes all kinds. Hiro Sugisaki, who looks like a bouncer and is something of a local tough-guy legend, owns a popular bar called Propaganda that sells quantities of Zima. “I even like to drink it myself. It goes down easy,” says Hiro. Sometimes Americans visiting here buy it as a gift for their friends in America.”
For all the talk of gender bias, Zima’s drinking demographic in Japan is the very group that shunned it in the United States: males in their 20s.
Go to any district with a vibrant nightlife such as Shibuya or Roppongi and many of the bars in the area have Zima stocked in fridges behind the bar. It can be found in the alcohol section of most convenience stores — right next to rival Smirnoff Ice, another clear, citrus-flavored abomination. Last year Molson Coors Japan sold over a million cases — 24 million bottles — of Zima.
Continues at Daily Beast
