Hard News by Russell Brown

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Hard News: A business most feral

143 Responses

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  • Shep Cheyenne,

    Well, beer is beer.

    Since Oct 2007 • 927 posts Report Reply

  • Kyle Matthews,

    I bought a dozen after seeing it on here.

    It's... well OK, but nothing special. I can't say it stands up to the rest of their line at all.

    Since Nov 2006 • 6243 posts Report Reply

  • Russell Brown,

    Monteith's New Zealand Lager - The new Vanilla Coke of beers, drinkable and (hopefully) forgettable. A metalic after taste that was really, urrgh.
    I should have thought twice when ending Lent with the new Monteith's Lager priced at $18.90 a doz compared to SteinLager Pure at $25 a doz.
    At $18.90 it's overpriced and should try to compete with Flame Beer.
    Wondering what was ment by International Beers in your commentary Russell - mayby the dreaded Snow Flake Beer only sold at the dodgyest of bars in the 90s?

    Really? I did say it wasn't a craft beer. It just seems like your classic dry, quenching, consume-from-the-bottle hot day (or nightclub) beer to me (I had one from the glass but it didn't seem right). I certainly don't find it unpleasant. I'm actually having one at the moment ...

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • Shep Cheyenne,

    Disappointing rather than unpleasant. Happy to keep that as a personal taste thing, but certainly not a recommendation.

    I am puzzeled as to what Int Beers your comparing it to.
    Bud US or CZ doesn't fit, neither Heino or Stella. To my taste anyway.

    The bottle though is really nice, a cross between a coke bottle & a crown lager bottle. The fern is a great touch but I'ld lose the black lable.

    Since Oct 2007 • 927 posts Report Reply

  • Shep Cheyenne,

    Actually finding Steinlager to be very similar to Montis NZ Lager.

    Willing to accept it may have been my abstinence from the drink that means I'm less tolerant of 2nd rate largers.

    Must get to The Dux de Lux or Twisted Hop soon.

    Since Oct 2007 • 927 posts Report Reply

  • InternationalObserver,

    I took that as a serious critique until I read this:

    Last night we had a tasting, put it to the back of the fridge and drunk everything else first.

    I thought it was a completely fair comment. One should always drink the good champagne/wine/beer first, and then move down the quality scale, consuming the worst last. By which time you're sufficiently munted not to notice/care.
    Bonus tip: If you don't eat all day, you'll get munted even quicker. Which will make you funnier and wittier than everyone else at the party. (Even if you're drinking alone)

    Since Jun 2007 • 909 posts Report Reply

  • linger,

    At the NZ trade fair at Roppongi Hills last November, there were exactly three beers available as bottle sales: Tui, Monteith's Black and Monteith's New Zealand Lager. Going in to the trade fair as a homesick Kiwi, I made a point of buying several bottles of each (even at 500 yen per bottle ... i.e. twice the price of the local brands). I've been away for long enough that I had never had a chance to sample Tui before, let alone the Monteiths, so didn't start with any specific expectations other than hoping for the best. Having tried all three, both at room temperature and straight from the fridge -- I don't think I would ever buy Tui again, but both Monteiths were at least comparable with Asahi Super Dry or Kirin Ichiban, and I'd have no hesitation getting more of either provided they were equivalent in price.

    Tokyo • Since Apr 2007 • 1944 posts Report Reply

  • linger,

    Before someone points out "hang on, Tui's been around since 1889": at the time I first came to Japan, I was not a great beer drinker. Nor even a coffee drinker. After a week of endless departmental staff meetings in Japanese, I saw the need for coffee. After a month, I saw the need for beer...

    Tokyo • Since Apr 2007 • 1944 posts Report Reply

  • Russell Brown,

    t both Monteiths were at least comparable with Asahi Super Dry or Kirin Ichiban, and I'd have no hesitation getting more of either provided they were equivalent in price.

    I think the NZ Lager is well compared to those beers. And Tui is awful. Unfortunately, it's the only one you can get in a bottle at the rugby.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • Russell Brown,

    Going in to the trade fair as a homesick Kiwi, I made a point of buying several bottles of each (even at 500 yen per bottle ... i.e. twice the price of the local brands).

    $75 a dozen for takeaway beers!

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • linger,

    $75 a dozen for takeaway beers!

    Yeah, it's enough to drive you to drink... happoshu (the near-beers that are the only alcohol available in Japan under 600 yen for a half-dozen cans. Some of them are actually drinkable).

    Tokyo • Since Apr 2007 • 1944 posts Report Reply

  • linger,

    <rant>
    And then there's wine. Dammit, why is it that the only NZ wine available in my neighbourhood is that frankly awful Monkey Bay plonk? (And the price that's retailing at is simply obscene... 1400 yen per bottle!?) Any Aussie wine I can get here is not only better value for money, but simply better, and it really pains me to admit that.
    </rant>

    Tokyo • Since Apr 2007 • 1944 posts Report Reply

  • linger,

    Ah well, while I seem to have the thread to myself...
    Across the grounds from the beer stall at the NZ trade fair was the Boysenberry stall. I was slightly baffled as to why this was separate from NZ Berry Fruit, though subsequent events suggest this may have been a wise distancing move. Some of the marketing ideas at the fair itself were good: for example, the 100ml free sample bottles of boysenberry juice -- perfect for those attending with children, and also fitting nicely into the Japanese traditional "omiyage" (souvenir) mould.

    But the only NZ boysenberry products that I've subsequently seen on the mass market in Japan -- a range of cakes -- would appear to have been dismal failures. I.e., when I see them, they're being sold at a steep discount just before their expiry date; and then I never see them again.

    The problems involved were easily predictable. Boysenberry products face an uphill struggle in the Japanese mass market, which (for food items at least) is highly conservative. How conservative? In most Japanese supermarkets, there are only two flavours of berry products: strawberry, and blueberry. (Raspberry jam is only available as a European import; you can find it at some department stores, but not at the typical local supermarket.) Most Japanese don't know what even a blackberry is, or what it should taste like; so for boysenberries, Japanese consumers have no point of reference at all. And for the most part, if a consumer doesn't know how something should taste, they will not ever buy it.

    Problem number one in this regard is that fresh boysenberries are not visible or available for sale in Japan. Hence there can be no point of reference, no flavour reference, no smell reference, for any product using the fruit. (Handing out juice samples was a good idea, but one trade fair reaching at most several thousand Tokyo residents out of 20 million is hardly going to create any critical mass of demand at any single supermarket.)

    Problem number two is the type of product chosen for this marketing blitz -- boysenberry-flavoured sponge cakes of various types, in the Bourbon "International" range.
    I can't really fault the advertising on the package. The berry fruit is prominently displayed -- as it should be (but remember, it's an unidentified object to these consumers, who above all, can't smell the picture). So is the NZ landscape. Well, fair enough, if it identifies them as coming from NZ... though one wouldn't normally expect to find boysenberries growing on Mitre Peak.
    But both images set up unrealistic expectations which can only be disappointed by the actual cake: small portions of a rather plain and crumbly sponge, with thin (and weakly flavoured) layers of boysenberry jam. I don't know the actual preservative content; but to put it bluntly, they do not taste full of natural goodness. (Some of the cakes in the range also have a pale purple icing; these actually work a little better, possibly because they're less easily misidentified as "natural".)

    Problem number three results from the packaging. It has to be airtight to ensure a long shelf life (which, again, means no smell). Moreover, *every* *slice* must be individually encased in airtight plastic foil (because that is how everything is presented in Japan; every biscuit in a pack, every square of chocolate, is always individually wrapped). Also, the foil must be easily tearable for easy access. But ... how can anyone tear open a plastic foil wrapping without doing serious damage to a fragile sponge cake, the layers of which are only loosely connected to each other to begin with? Gentle reader, you would need to be considerably more gentle than I to avoid being confronted with an unrecognisable crumbly mess.

    Thus one is left with a product that, in appearance, texture, and flavour, utterly fails to meet expectations... and which is prominently associated with New Zealand. Not a good look.

    Tokyo • Since Apr 2007 • 1944 posts Report Reply

  • InternationalObserver,

    heh heh - thanks for that lengthy dissertation on boysenberry cakes ... unfortunately I can't compare your story with a local version since I've not noticed them in NZ supermarkets either (but I will look now)! I'm not that proficient with the separate berry flavours either, which is why I also chuckle when I see the new flavour 'Wildberry' advertised locally so much. Presumably it's whatever berries the cafe/manufacturer has on hand - blended into one 'wildberry' flavour. But then again it may just be sugar and chemical flavouring and colour.

    If you're looking for NZ wine try googling 'Kauri Bay', I believe they have a distributor based in Japan.

    Since Jun 2007 • 909 posts Report Reply

  • Mike Graham,

    endless departmental staff meetings in Japanese

    I was told prior to going on my one and only trip to Japan that "the purpose of a meeting in Japan is to arrange the next meeting". It was certainly true some of the time.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 206 posts Report Reply

  • linger,

    the purpose of a meeting in Japan is to arrange the next meeting

    In my darker moments, I incline to the view that the purpose of a meeting (anywhere in the world) is primarily as an anaesthetic, numbing the senses so that decisions can be enacted that would never be entertained by any sane individual.

    Tokyo • Since Apr 2007 • 1944 posts Report Reply

  • linger,

    Not so different from beer then.

    Tokyo • Since Apr 2007 • 1944 posts Report Reply

  • Shep Cheyenne,

    In my lower levels of existence a meeting was considered MUFFIN HOUR.
    Often with Apples & Oranges being compared.

    Since Oct 2007 • 927 posts Report Reply

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