Saturday, February 4, 2012

Taste Testing Rockman DASH's Famed Soft Drink, "Oronamin C"


Oronamin C is one of the top selling energy drinks in Japan. It's also, coincidentally, a prominent real life product in the original Rockman DASH.

Bottles of Oronamin C populate Kattelox Island's many vending machines. Abroad, it's simply called a "soft drink" in Mega Man Legends. A quick swig replenishes Rock Volnutt's life gauge, quenching his thirst ("You feel refreshed!"). But how does the real thing taste? Is it fist pumping good or downright repulsive?

I managed to pick up a pack recently and quite frankly, I'm surprised the drink isn't more widely available outside of Japan. Much to my surprise, Oronamin C proved to be quite tasty. Energy drinks tend to be a hit or miss in my experience, but this funny little brown bottle was just bursting with fizzy goodness.

A single bottle houses 120ml of lemon yellow liquid, which tastes an awful lot like honey with a hint of citrus. The stuff is loaded with sugar, so I was pretty much bouncing off the walls by the third bottle. One or two bottles in the morning will leave you feeling energized for a couple hours, but after that? There's a crash. It's no Five Hour Energy Drink, but it's a heck of a lot tastier.

All in all, Oronamin C is an absolute delight. If you're a diehard Mega Man Legends/DASH fan, you're pretty much entitled to own a bottle or two just for kicks. You can import an individual bottle from Pacific Mercantile Company, or 10-pack via Very Asia.

Drink up and enjoy, friends!

13 comments:

  1. Funny. I have had that before, but never knew of it's Legends/DASH tie-in. I do feel refreshed!

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  2. Oh my god. This is awesome.

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  3. They sell these in a vending machine down the street from me (and in most places, really). To really enjoy it you have to kick the machine :D (though not in a way that would actually cause attention to yourself).

    To be honest, I dunno if it's that great. The taste is good, and Japanese energy drinks don't have such a harsh and tart edge like your Red Bulls and what not. But for the price you don't really get much, and I can't say I get any boost from it, popular slogan aside.

    Incidentally, I am unaware if Capcom had a tie-in, or really even the right to use the brand name. This was before they really clamped down on copyright checks. In the N64 version of the game, it got changed to Drink, and then in the PSP version changed to Juice. Some DASH fans feel it's an unfortunate change.

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  4. Um, hate to bring this up but, in the last Ask Capcom Chris Svennson offhandedly mentioned a promotional deal with a Japanese soft drink brand as being one of the reasons that Megaman Legends couldn't be cleared for rerelease.

    I'm guessing this is that soft drink he was talking about.

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  5. Huh, I see something that vaguely looks like an E Tank among the vending machine's selection.

    Anyway, this is kinda neat. Good trivia and all that.

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  6. How does compare to Dekavita C?

    I get that from time to time at my local Asian grocery stores, and I love that stuff.

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  7. Oh, poor guy in the commercial XD
    Nice piece of trivia, never knew about that :)

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  8. I bought the drink because of the actress in the commercial, Aya Ueto. I was crazy for her at the time, haha >_>

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  9. Heh-heh. "...entitled to own a bottle or two just for kicks."

    I smirked at that.

    But (unintentional?) puns aside, I'm curious about this stuff now. I'm gonna keep an eye out at the import store...

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  10. i would kick a vending machine for one of those

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