I saw my coworker having this Mango Lassi drink at work one day. She’s from India, so it was rather appropriate that she be drinking lassi. Being very interested in it, I immediately asked her questions about her drink.
“Is it authentic?”, I asked.
“It’s good, but it’s a bit different. Real lassi is thicker”, she responded.
And that is basically how I found this drink to be. Quite good, but not as thick as the lassi I know of. And I say, “the lassi I know of” because I’ve never been to India, and my only point of reference is the lassi served at Indian restaurants in Japan.
The fact that this lassi is not thick enough to be considered real lassi did not detract from my enjoyment of it, but it does falsify their claim of its authenticity, which they imply by having the fake India postmark at the bottom right of the packaging.
Another thing I noticed is that the type of mango they used was different from the variety that I am used to. I have tried mangoes that taste like the one used in this lassi, but I can’t remember what kind. It might be the variety that is seen on the packaging, which has some reddish hues. Asking my Indian coworker didn’t shed any light on the matter. She said there were several varieties in India, and she was unfortunately not familiar with what they’re called.
This drink is produced by a company called LB (or Elbee?), which prior to buying this, I had never heard of before. They appear not only to produce their own drinks but also have tie-ups with other companies. One of their products is a type of Calpis drink, the brand of which they don’t own. As far as I know, Calpis is a subsidiary of Asahi Breweries.
Mango Lassi is a part of a series of drinks that LB calls “World Trip”. I suppose the concept is that they select famous drinks from around the world and introduce them to Japan. They’re produced on a short production run basis, so the drinks are available for only a limited time.
There are at least two other versions of this drink, banana and strawberry, though I have not seen them in stores. I always only see the mango variety. They’re available at 7-11 and Daily Yamazaki, which are convenience stores in Japan.
Before the lassi drinks, LB had a World Trip drink from Vietnam. The name of the drink was SINH TO FRUITS MIX. Unfortunately, that drink’s production run is over and I wasn’t able to try it.
Another thing worth mentioning about this drink is that it only has a little less than 10% fruit juice, and if you were to look at the ingredients, it’s actually not just mango juice. They’ve blended it with some apple juice as well, which I think is not what they do with real Indian lassi.
The box contains 450 ml of the drink, has roughly 153 calories, 2.25 grams of protein, and 36.45 grams of carbs.
The liquid itself is a pale yellow which has a somewhat thick appearance in its consistency, but as mentioned before, is not as thick as real lassi.
Overall I’d give this drink a rating of 3.5 out of 5. While it does taste good and can be refreshing when served cold, it’s a bit too sweet for me. I actually couldn’t finish it!
Also, I was looking for something closer to real lassi. This one was probably heavily localized for the Japanese market. That’s not to say that it’s terrible, but it’s just not what I was expecting.