My definitive iced coffee at home
I like coffee as much as the next person. I used to brew hot coffee and chill it, but cooling was a hassle and I couldn’t make a big batch. I switched to bottled iced coffee. I also tried brew-in-a-pack styles, but the price was too high.
I taste-tested a handful of sweetened iced coffees and found a few that actually work for daily use. I’m talking about sweetened iced coffee here—sorry to the unsweetened fans!
Sujata Hotel Restaurant Blend (lightly sweet) 😁😁😁
This one wins. A 6-pack costs 1,360 yen, 227 yen per carton. Balanced sweetness, clean bitterness, and the aroma is there. Sujata is famous for coffee creamer, but their coffee is solid too.
I’ll come back to Sujata later. First, other contenders.
Blendy Bottled Coffee (low sugar) 😃😃
A 12-pack is 1,711 yen, 143 yen per bottle. The classic “Blendy” bottled coffee from the TV ads. They sell unsweetened, lightly sweetened, and low-sugar; low-sugar is the sweeter one (brown label).
Tasted solo, it’s mildly acidic. Mixed with milk, it’s great. It has been our regular for three years and is on Amazon’s Subscribe & Save. Feels like coffee milk.
Big “60% less sugar” on the package; that’s thanks to the artificial sweetener acesulfame K.
Nescafé Gold Blend Rich Bottle Coffee (lightly sweet) 😔
12 bottles for 1,618 yen, 135 yen each. Similar to Blendy but a bit more bitter. “Rich” is on the label, but I didn’t feel that depth. My expectation for Gold Blend (king of instant coffee) set me up for slight disappointment.
No calorie-off claims on the front, but the ingredients show acesulfame K and sucralose.
UCC Craftsman’s Coffee “Best with Milk” 😫
The copy “Best with Milk” hooked me. 12 bottles for 1,555 yen, 130 yen each. With milk: almost water. Without milk: still almost water. Slight coffee aroma in sugar water. How did this happen?
They don’t use artificial sweeteners, which raised my hopes, but it still tasted thin. I also tried the lightly sweet version; also thin.
Key Coffee Liquid Coffee Natural Water (lightly sweet) 😃😃😳
Not pictured above, but I tried it. 6 cartons for 1,710 yen, 285 yen each. Search “iced coffee” on Amazon and the unsweetened version tops the charts, so I bought the lightly sweet one.
It tastes great—very similar to Sujata, with good aroma, bitterness, and refreshment. Sadly, maybe the beans didn’t agree with me; it upset my stomach every time, so no repeat.
Iced coffee price table
I wanted to compare value for money. Many drinks have shrunk in volume recently, and iced coffee bottles are often under 1,000ml. Only Sujata’s paper carton is 1,000ml, which makes per-bottle comparison unfair, so I did the math.
| Product | Price per bottle | Price per 100ml | Artificial sweetener |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sujata | 227 yen | 22.7 yen | - |
| Blendy | 143 yen | 15.8 yen | Acesulfame K |
| Gold Blend | 135 yen | 15 yen | Acesulfame K, sucralose |
| UCC | 130 yen | 13.9 yen | - |
| Key Coffee | 285 yen | 28.5 yen | - |
It’s a bit inconclusive, but UCC being mostly water explains the low price. Assuming a 200ml glass, Sujata costs about 14 yen more per serving than the PET bottles. If 14 yen buys satisfaction every time, I’ll pay it.
Key Coffee is the priciest, but the unsweetened version is 210 yen per bottle, similar to Sujata. Sujata’s unsweetened is pricier, so if you want unsweetened, go with Key Coffee.
About artificial sweeteners
Personal preferences:
- Ever since I read “artificial sweeteners leave sweetness in your throat,” I notice it.
- I want to enjoy coffee flavor and aroma, so I avoid artificial sweeteners.
- I don’t care about calories, so sugar is fine.
For soft drinks I’m less picky. For example, I like Aquarius (artificial sweetener) over Pocari (sugar) because it’s crisper. Zero-calorie versions taste off to me.
Sujata wins
Great straight, great with a splash of milk. I chug it in the morning or with bread at breakfast or snack time. The cap is offset from center, so after two servings you can store it on its side in the fridge.
Sujata is named after the girl in a Buddhist story who offered milk porridge to Buddha; fitting for a coffee creamer brand. Coffee creamer = vegetable oil.
Made by Meiraku in Nagoya. You’ll see their trucks around because Sujata is a core product.
The logo is symmetrical; from the other side it reads “Tajasu.” Sujata spread nationwide via the Tokaido/Sanyo Shinkansen.
The first “brown lover Sujata” launched on March 23, 1976. The current portion-type “Sujata P” launched in March 1977 and spread nationwide after adoption on the Hikari Shinkansen.
Source: Meiraku Group - Wikipedia
As a dairy company, they also sell whipped cream, soups, soy milk, and fruit juice (which I must say is not good).
Sujata’s fruit juice is bad.
I occasionally buy their apple or orange juice and regret it every time. I wish they’d copy Tropicana. Sometimes I buy it because the drugstore near me doesn’t carry Tropicana; I crave orange juice, buy Sujata, take it home, drink, and regret—“Sujata really is a milk company…”
The president’s wife is a former Onyanko Club member according to Wikipedia, which surprised me, but the dairy products are good and the iced coffee (hotel blend) is too (the rest… not so much). I’ll keep buying cases. Please use that money to improve the orange juice.
