First up is COFFEE MANIA!!!! These little one-cup coffee pouches are actually a cool (albeit environmentally unsound) idea. You just remove the the filter with built-in cardboard holder from its pouch, strap it to the top of your coffee cup, and pour hot water over it for a fresh cup of joe. Since the filter contains real, ground coffee, the end product is way better than instant. Perfect for those times when you want just one cup, and not a whole pot. I think what makes this particular product "maniacal" is that it contains roughly twice the amount of coffee grounds as the regular model, allowing you to make one very strong or two very weak cups of coffee.
Our next snack travesty is the ORIGINAL BIONIC LIFEGUARD CHOCO SNACK. Lifeguard is a popular (or at least common) energy drink in Japan. The drink offers consumers a massive caffeine dose, undefinable fruity/acidic flavor, and a neon green color that makes it look like something you'd find in a spray bottle with a poison-control hotline sticker on it. Now, imagine all these qualities transferred to a solid corn puff coated in white chocolate and sprinkled with Pop Rocks. Brain-meltingly bad.
Last but not least is Fruity Paradise flavored Natchan. Anyone who has spent any time in Japan knows Natchan. The innocently smiling bottles contain a relatively drinkable mixture of high fructose corn syrup and a tiny amount of real juice. Usually, Natchan sticks to conservatively descriptive names like "Orange" and "Grape", but it looks like someone at their marketing department got a bit carried away this season.
