Konbini Kinyoubi: Lemon & Vitamin Coca-Cola and Donuts from 7-11

Welcome to Konbini Kinyoubi, where every Friday (Kinyoubi) we visit our local convenience store (Konbini) and buy something delicious. This post contains affiliate links. For more information, please read our affiliate disclosure.

In general, I want this blog to be fun. I’d like to offer a respite from the difficulties of life, a chance for readers to enjoy themselves while checking out the lighter side of the country in which my wife and I reside. But sometimes, there is news so important, so vital to the fate of humanity, that it cannot be ignored. We cannot simply stand by and chit-chat about pleasantries while Earth-shattering events take place. They must be commented on, written about, reported to the world. This is one of those times.

Ladies and gentlemen: there’s a new flavor of Japanese Coke.

Allow me to introduce Lemon & Vitamin Coca-Cola, now available in Japan at our local 7-11 and probably some others. I was immediately intrigued by the yellow plastic covering the bottle, and the promise of a vitamin-enriched lemon flavor. As you may know, I am quite a fan of other vitamin-lemon sodas (for some reason in Japan all sodas flavored with lemon have to also offer vitamins). This one seems like a direct shot at CC Lemon’s market share, though it only offers a paltry 20 lemons’ worth of vitamin C.

The Japanese don’t generally have Vanilla Coke or Cherry Coke, so a new flavor is a big deal. As your king, I purchased this item and took it home. How did it taste, you ask?

Uhhhhhhh… it tasted like Coke.

It tasted a lot like Coke. Eriko and I tried several sips, and we honestly couldn't discern a single note in it that tasted different from regular Coca-Cola. It’s true that we aren’t big soda drinkers, and probably only have Coke like once a year at the movies or something, so maybe fans would be able to tell the difference, but between you and me, if there’s any lemon flavor in there, I couldn’t taste it. After finishing the bottle, Eriko said she thought maybe there was a slightly lighter feel to this than regular Coke, but she couldn’t be sure.

Not the greatest endorsement, I know. I suppose if you’re a big Coca-Cola fan, you’ll like this, but I doubt I will be trying it again. I’m CC Lemon ride or die for life.

Since man cannot subsist on soda alone, we also got a big package of donuts!

I believe it has been said that variety is the donuts of life. Look at that price! Three bucks for four donuts! There really wasn’t any way we could lose.

The first two were cake donuts, one plain and one chocolate. I loved these. The big worry with packaged cake donuts is that they’ll be too dry, but these were perfectly moist and had the right amount of sweetness. Delicious.

The other two were a particularly Japanese variety, little connected spheres covered in sugar. I found them to be way too chewy, to the point where I almost had to rip my bite off the donut like an animal feasting on a piece of flesh. Eriko says this consistency is normal and that this is the Mister Donut Japanese style, but I’ve had Mister Donut plenty and I don’t remember it being this chewy.

Eriko finished the chewy ones and I finished the cake ones, and it was just enough to make us almost sick but not quite, which is the goal of any konbini trip. 15/10 thanks for a wonderful Friday, 7-11. I very much appreciate how a trip to the store to get change for our guide to Japanese money turned into an orgy of sugar and a new treat post. This blog makes for a great excuse to be bad.