Recent Addiction

July 10th, 2008
Go to Comments Leave a comment

I am insanely addicted to this type of banana soy milk. How addicted you ask? Addicted enough to buy 12 small ones at a time because I cannot buy them on my island. Addicted enough to go to the websites I found mentioned in small print on the packaging to try and find out whether a larger container of it is available for purchase. It is really, really good. I hit these two sites: Tamabijin, the Honda Trading page about soy cultivation and importation, and Kibun Food Chemifa [sic], the folks who make the banana soy milk drinks with said soy - though they are apparently not proud enough to actually list the glorious banana drink on their products page. What gives?

Well, guess what I discovered? This beloved banana soy milk concoction is made with American soybeans. Beans from southern Michigan and Ohio, to be precise. Japan’s a huge soybean producer, right? I mean, the number one condiment associated with Japanese food is soy sauce, right? And tofu is a huge deal here too, right? So Japan’s gotta be big in the soybean market, right? WRONG. Surprisingly wrong. While Brazil comes in at a very close second place, America dominates the field. (U.S.A.! U.S.A.!) I was really bewildered when I discovered this fact. Granted, I’m from South Carolina - our agriculture tends to gravitate around corn, cotton and tobacco cultivation. (Though chicken, turkey, and cattle pull in gobs of money for us - the majority, actually. I’m discussing crops, so I’m ignoring them.) So maybe my soy ignorance is forgivable.

According to this animation put together by a consulting group, in 1961 America had a 69% share in the global soybean market. That’s nuts. (Soy nuts, even.) In 1972 it topped out at 74% of the market, and as of 2005, it sits at 40% of the global market. Wow. I had no idea. And according to the most recent data available, America produces 66,780,000 metric tons of the total 184,560,000 metric tons produced globally. Not bad. Japan, number 17 on the list of producers, contributes 230,000 tons. I guess that means that it would be way cheaper to buy American soy for banana drink purposes than domestic soy. (And I have no idea about governmental price controls for soybeans here, but I know that they do it with rice. In my opinions that hurts Japan’s agriculture and just makes the farmers dependent on government. But I digress.) Interesting stuff.

By the way, there are no large sizes that I can find. I went to the Kibun Soy Milk Lineup page, too, but they only offer the banana delight in 200 ml singles or 3 packs. However, it seems you CAN buy cases of 18 small ones online for delivery from retailers. (Yay for the Kibun-approved link to Rakuten!) Hmmmm…

  • Subscribe to Rocking in Hakata
  • E-mail this story to a friend!
  • Technorati
  • Digg
  • StumbleUpon
  • Facebook
  • Japan Soc it!
  • TwitThis

Deas Culinary, Customary Drivel

Hit JapanSoc.com today for the best social news about Japan!
Join JapanSoc.org to get plugged into the J-web community.
  • The is a lot of artificial estrogen in soy products, or so I hear, so be sure to only soy yourself in moderation.

    I loved Korean soy milk.

    claytonians last blog post was: This is my goodbye speech for the schools.
  • Kathy
    Another wondrous thing I had you try. mwahahahahah.
  • Clay - at least I know that this stuff isn't genetically modified. That's the stuff that freaks me out a bit. It stopped me from partaking of soy products at all when I was in high school and college, because it was said to be related to sterility. I'll take some added estrogen over sterility any day. But I'll be careful. Besides - I can't afford to go on a crazy binge and have 6 cases of it shipped to my house anyway. (Unless I start to save for it...which I won't.) Ha ha.

    Kathy - I saw that comment coming from a thousand miles away. :-P Yes, yes. You get credit for introducing me to the flavored soy milks. Sheesh.
  • Aileen
    I tried this stuff and thought it tasted WEEEEIRD

    Oh dear

    Anyway, I think you should drink lots and become a lady!
  • It's not artificial estrogen but natural substance called isoflavone, which works like estrogen and helps women having menopause.
    Once it was said that isoflavone could cause the higher risk of breast cancer because it mimiced estrogen. But there is no conclusive study about it.
    Soy products, which contain isoflavone naturally, are definitely considered very healthy and safe.
    So keep enjoying them, that will not make you a girl.
  • Aileen - HA! Read Blue's comment and you'll see what's up. Also, I never actually stated that it tastes like banana. Cause it really doesn't much. It's one product in a long, long line of things that don't taste like their real-world counterparts. Grape flavored things are notorious for this too. (But in spite of that - I think it's delicious.)

    Blue - thanks for the information! I will indeed keep enjoying the soy milk, and not turn into a girl. (Although I question the healthiness of this drink...it's loaded with sugar. Ha ha ha.)
  • Oh, yeah, soy beans are a major agricultural product through a large swath of the US, I would say everywhere from the latitude of Kentucky or so up north to the Canadian border, it's probably the third-most important food crop (*certainly* the third-most commercially important grain in any event) after wheat and corn. And I'm not surprised places that eat a lot of soy products, such as Japan, import it from us, because we, frankly, don't eat that much soy food in the midwestern US. I mean, yes, we have foods that are based on soybeans, but not in anything like the kind of volume that we eat a major grain like rice in, let alone corn or beef, to say nothing of wheat. (Wheat or wheat flour is an ingredient in approximately 103% of all American food products.)

    Jonadab the Unsightly Ones last blog post was: Bad Analogies 101
  • Jonadab - yeah, I often wonder how people with wheat allergies get by in the states. It's gotta stink.
blog comments powered by Disqus