RAMUNE (ラムネ) Japan’s Favourite Summer Festivals’ Drink

INTRODUCTION

Ramune is a Favourite drink enjoyed during the summer festivals of Japan. This drink has its sibling in India called goli soda or the Banta Soda sold from the 19th century. The features of the bottle containing the drink are the same the Codd neck bottle with glass marbles used as a stopper against the holding the carbonation intact and preserving the fizz of the Soda!!

Ramune is the Japanese name for Lemonade.

Today, we will see only about Ramune and not its Indian Sibling.

HISTORY

Ramune has varied history and each story features the drink introduced as a soft drink and with lemon or orange flavours.

But the most well known as per most writings is that of a Scottish pharmacist, named Alexander Cameron Sim who introduced it is Kobe foreign settlements in 1884. A newspaper, Tokyo Mainichi Newspaper, published about the drink and the drink became fiercely viral and became a favourite summer drink among people .

Yet another story says that the American Naval Commodore Matthew Perry introduced the drink to the Shogunate officials in 1858.

The third theory is that Hannbee Fujise sold it first in Nagasaki in 1865, with the name Lemon sui or Lemon water.

About the Bottle

The Bottle has a distinctive Codd necks. ?Named after its inventor Hiram Codd, these bottles have their mouth sealed with marbles. The neck broadens and again narrows down to the portion which contains the drink. The broader part houses the marble pushed in, when the bottle is opened and holds it away from blocking the flow of the drink.

This kind of Codd Neck bottles fell out of use but the Ramune is the one of the few and rare drinks which uses it.

In the initial stages the bottle used to be closed with cork. That said, the Codd neck bottles became a norm from the Meiji Period and became popular for novelty and ease of drinking.

?How the Ramune Bottles are filled?

Firstly, the bottle is filled with the Syrup. Then with the mouth of the bottle open the. When carbonated water is filled in, the air within the bottle escapes leaving room for the carbonated water. When the bottle is filled fully with the carbonated water, that very moment the bottle is inverted. This causes the marble to fall into the mouth of the bottle and held as such by the pressure inside the bottle. The marble presses against the mouth and acts as a stopper. ?

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Flavours

The Soda has a lime or lemon flavour with a drizzle of the bubble gum flavour. Its also available in orange, strawberry, blueberry flavours.

Nevertheless, the original Lime lemon flavours remain the most loved flavour till now.

Future of Ramune

Ramune faces a bleak future as far as the bottling goes. This is because of the advent of plastic and glass bottles with caps. Their survival is also quite doubtful and difficult.

But the drink is tied to the Japanese hearts with an invisible chord and is very much a soul food for the Japanese. This may act as a saving grace for Ramune ans help it survive as a drink which has traditional, cultural and hirtoric value in Japan.

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