Ramune Soda

Ramune (ラムネ, Ramune?) is a carbonated soft drink sold in Japan. It is widely known for the distinctive design of its bottle, often called Codd-neck bottles after the inventor, Hiram Codd. They are made of glass and sealed with a glass marble; the marble is held in place by the pressure of the carbon dioxide in the drink. To open the bottle, a device to push the marble inward is provided with the bottle. The marble is pushed inside the neck of the bottle where it rattles around while drinking. Two little glass nodes inside the bottle allow the drinker to hook the marble in place while drinking. People trying Ramune for the first time sometimes find it difficult to drink, as it takes practice to learn to stop the marble from blocking the flow. Ramune is one of the modern symbols of summer in Japan and is widely consumed during warm festival days and nights. Empty bottles are usually collected for recycling at stalls where it is sold.

Despite the unique design of the bottle, the Ramune flavour is quite conventional, similar to many other carbonated lemon-lime soft drinks. The word “ramune” is derived phonetically from the English “lemonade”. Both fizzy lemonade and the unique bottles were imported from the United Kingdom at the same time, becoming associated with each other. There are other flavours of the drink: pineapple, kiwi, melon, strawberry, orange, lychee, Blue Hawaii, and peach. It has been said that Ramune sometimes affects the taste of Sprite and similar soft drinks after it has been consumed, reportedly making it flavourless and “watery”. But this effect wears off after a while.

According to some sources, marble playing in Japan began when children started removing the marbles from the Ramune bottles in order to play marble games shortly after the introduction of the bottles in 1876. Ramune was a popular drink in the Japanese Imperial Navy before World War II and this aided its civilian popularity in Japan.

The codd-neck marble lock in the neck of the bottle.Ramune is also a kind of hard white candy with a fizzy flavour, and a flavour of gum. The name comes from the aforementioned soft drink bearing the same name and flavour.

(Taken from wikipedia.com)