Georgia Gear: W-Grip For Your Car
July 22, 2009 by Justin Karow
Filed under Latest Articles, Odd Spot
One of the first things you’ll see when arriving in Japan are the ubiquitous vending machines selling assorted drinks from Yakult to grape jelly… yes, a can of diced grape jelly. One vending machine staple though is canned coffee. Georgia (owned by Coca Cola) have bucked the trend a little and come up with a bottle of coffee aimed at drivers and featuring an innovate “W-Grip”!
Not Sold In Georgia
OK first off, what’s Georgia? The main Japanese beverage companies have their own in-house coffee lines: Suntory (Boss), Asahi (Wonda), Kirin (Fire), Sapporo (Kissui) and Coca Cola Japan wasn’t about to be left out, so they came up with Georgia to get in on the canned coffee action. Georgia leads the other companies in sales of canned coffee so it’s not surprising that they’d also be the most innovative. “Innovative coffee?” you may ask. Yes, Georgia is aiming their newest product directly at drivers and has even designed the bottle to be more driver friendly!
W's as a great makeshift karaoke mic
W or Double
What the… that grip section on the bottle looks nothing like a “W”. That’s because “W” means “double” in Japan. Just ask any overworked and underpaid English teacher in Japan about the careless use of “W” in Japan and they’ll gladly inform you that, as a marketing ploy, “ダブル” in katakana just doesn’t have the same ring to it as “W” does. When Japanese people say “ダブル” (double) it ’s pronounced the same as they would say the letter W. Confused? Just say “duh-boo-loo”, that means “double” and “W” in Japan! Convenient, right? So instead of writing “ダブル” in advertising it’s much, much cooler to use the letter W, thereby saving space and looking cool while doing it. With that out of the way, what’s the W-Grip?
W-Grip
You can grab the bottle from the “top grip” as you would when taking it from a cup holder, or you can grab the bottle in the usual manner about half way down using the “side grip” for times when the bottle is lying on its side on the seat… yes they explain this on the website. With this bottle either position is as comfortable and easy to grip as the other; very important when you take your eyes off the road momentarily to quench that hard earned thirst.
Available in Black (for refreshing drive) and Ice Coffee (for fun drive), Georgia Gear fits most cup holders and is sold in large 450Ml bottles for those longer drives. Well after I beat my top score of 587,809 in the Georgia Gear Special Game, I’m off to the convenience store across the street to pick some up and enter the draw to win a Nissan Skyline Crossover (Infiniti EX35)!
http://www.georgia.jp/info/product/gear.html
Words: Justin Karow
Images: Coca Cola Japan
Got 584,207, lol.
Pretty cool stuff. For me RedBull works for driving.
japan is just too cool lol
maybe a stupid question but is it good coffe?
i got only 420 in that game its retarded grrrr ! !
That looks mighty tasty. I’m more of a milk tea person (especially Kirin brand) but the canned coffee is good too. Plus it doesn’t have that crash you get that makes you even more tired after the effects of an energy drink wear off.
Hmmm…I can’t decide whether this an “innovative grip design for drivers” or Coca-cola’s way of reducing drink size while charging the same amount as a 500ml bottle?
Umm, this may be good but classic Coke, Mountain Dew and Powerade are the only things for me. Still, it’s a real crime that it’s really hard to find Dr. Pepper in Europe, I like that stuff too.
Weird I got 614,165. But that was on my second try though.
I just had my second bottle of Georgia Gear… actually it’s quite good! I prefer the black version, it’s strong compared to other “black” labelled canned coffee and tases better when its ice cold.
“For refreshing drive”? I give it four thumbs up!
Hey Mr. “Refreshing Drive”,
I just noticed the label and it appears it’s actually “GE-AR” and not “GEAR” as we all assumed. Looks like they pulled another fast one on us!
Perhaps they meant “ge” (or “gei”), as in, “a skill or trade” and “ar”, as in, “arubaito” (for “part time job”).
In other words, this coffee gives you the skill to get a part time job, so get off your fat ass already and get a JOB you coffee-drinking freeloader!
It’s a bit harsh, but I can respect a beverage with a message.
Those coffee kinda looks like engine oil or something. It will feel so weird when you drink that into your stomach
Steve: It’s just the font for the logo. They’ve spelled it properly (Gear) on the website and in katakana it’s “ギア”… gear basically.
… but I like your theory better
Can they heat the plastic bottle? They usually use hot cans!
I am actually creating the first hot canned coffee for the U.S. market!
Any comments?
The canned coffee in Japan is weird. There are hundreds of different “flavors” but they all taste exactly the same. Georgia must have something like 8 flavors in a vending machine at once. The only difference (besides black vs milk and sugar) is the shape of the can and the designs.
I think they taste really bad and only get one if I am desperate.
Hotshot-
I think a common misconception about “hot” beverages out of vending machines in Japan is that they’re actually hot. This isn’t exactly accurate, though, as they’re actually more warm than anything.
In fact, a typical Japanese vending machine with “hot” beverages and the ubiquitous corn soup (seriously, who eats that stuff??) actually says in hiragana “attaka-i”/”atatakai” or “warm” which is what they are–not “hot”.
So, to answer your question in a roundabout way, you see both plastic bottles and cans served warm from vending machines. It’s not they’re made of any special JDM materials, they’re just not heated high enough to burn your hand/melt plastic. Hope this clarifies things.
Hotshot: If you manage to get a “working sample” of your coffee going, I’d like to take part in taste tests… anything has got to taste better than some of the canned coffee here in Japan. They’re ok, they’re drinkable, but not the type of thing you want to wake up in the morning to.