Ramune Melon - ハタ鉱泉 ラムネ メロン味
200 mL bottle
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History The first lemon-flavored soda pop was brought to Japan by Commander Perry in 1853, or so the legend goes. Entrepreneur Fujise Hanbe began selling lemon water sodas inspired by Perry's sodas in Nagasaki in 1865. Gradually the English word "lemonade", translated into Japanese as "ra mu ne" (ラムネ), became associated with these foreign drinks. The first sodas were sold in round-bottomed bottles closed with a wired-on cork. In 1884 Scottish expat pharmacist Alexander Sim began selling lemon soda in the Kobe foreign settlement using the English Codd stopper bottle which is sealed with a marble, which he called "mabu soda" or "marble soda". Three years later a bottler named Kotsugoro in Tokyo also used the bottles which spread their popularity. Later, when the crown cap bottle was introduced, the name "ramune" came to mean the marble-stoppered sodas exclusively. Despite the higher costs of manufacturing the bottles and washing them for reuse, many ramune bottlers flourished as small family-run businesses with very localized distribution in the first half of the 20th century. After World War II, ramune soared in popularity as a nostalgic refreshment, but production peaked in the early 1950s. Soft drink vending machines were introduced in 1955 and new food-safety laws favored larger bottlers over the small family businesses. Coca-cola began sales to Japanese civilians in 1957 and many other soft drinks entered the scene as well. Despite the competition, ramune survives on the fringes of the soda market as a cheap nostalgic drink. Nowadays there are many more varieties than just the original lemon soda, with many fruit flavors as well as octopus, chili and kimchi! The Hata Spa Co. began manufacturing soft drinks in 1946. Review Wow, this is incredibly fizzy - it foamed over the top of the bottle when I popped the stopper. And suddenly the room was filled with intense honeydew smell. So I guess that is the melon involved here. Which seems to me a difficult melon to recreate in soda pop form. Honeydew is sweet & floral but also slightly bitter. And sure enough this soda has a mellow bitter aftertaste so that you can't drink it too fast. Its like the bitterness of apple peels, a fruity kind of bitterness. This soda is flavorful, but not really above average as a refreshing or energizing drink.
Ingredients Water, sugar, high fructose corn syrup, citric acid, artificial flavor, FD&C yellow no. 5, FD&C blue no. 1. Made by Hata Spa Co., Ltd. |
