Lost in translation – don’t ask for spicy beer unless you really mean it
辛口. When you start to wonder what all of the writing and symbols mean on a beer bottle label then either you’re (i) drinking too much on your own (ii) in dire need of socialising generally (iii) a product photographer (although arguably if you are the third then the other two are already queuing up as candidates). The Asahi Super Dry label and logo has been bugging me for a while so here’s the lowdown on the label. This really is what’s called a specialist blog post.
辛口Lost in translation. Don’t ask for spicy beer unless you really mean it. Google translate is convinced that the two main symbols mean “spicy”. Although Asahi and the UK brewers pride themselves on the distinctive “clean”, “crisp” and “refreshing” taste, I’m pretty sure that “spicy” wasn’t in there. So we ditch Google and after a bit of digging find that in relation to alcohol it means “dry” (“karakuchi” in Japanese).
Asahi itself means “morning sun” but literally asa (morning) and hi (heat or day).
Not it gets tough. The text in the red block and also on the cap says スーパー・ドライ which is the syllables “Su-Pa Do-Ra-E” or Katakana for “Super Dry”.
So there it is. The Asahi Super Dry label really does make sense in Japanese too.