Japanese with Manga

That coffee with それ

Manga panel from ご注文はうさぎですか? showing example of That coffee with それ.
ご注文はうさぎですか? » Volume 1 » Page 11

Sampling the second coffee, Cocoa mistakenly identifies the coffee as Kilimanjaro. Chino corrects her.

ココア:
「この酸味(さんみ)…キリマンジャロだね」
“This acidity… it's definitely Kilimanjaro.”
チノ:
それがブルーマウンテンです」
That is Blue Mountain.”

Key Points

1それ points to the coffee near Cocoa
  • Chino uses それ because the coffee is on Cocoa’s side of the conversation, close to the listener rather than to Chino.
  • The English “that” matches Chino’s viewpoint. She is pointing out the coffee Cocoa is sampling, not something beside herself.
2この modifies 酸味(さんみ), not the whole coffee
  • この酸味(さんみ) means “this acidity”; この attaches directly to the noun 酸味(さんみ).
  • Cocoa is reacting to one quality of the coffee, while Chino’s それ refers back to the coffee itself.
3それが marks the corrected identification
  • In それがブルーマウンテンです, singles out that coffee as the item being identified.
4だね versus です in the correction
  • Cocoa’s キリマンジャロだね sounds casual and confident, like she is confirming her guess.
  • Chino’s ブルーマウンテンです is a simple, polite correction.
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