() is a
carbonated soft drink
A soft drink (see #Terminology, § Terminology for other names) is a class of non-alcoholic drink, usually (but not necessarily) Carbonated water, carbonated, and typically including added Sweetness, sweetener. Flavors used to be Natural flav ...
served in a
Codd-neck bottle.
It was introduced in 1884 in
Kobe
Kobe ( ; , ), officially , is the capital city of Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan. With a population of around 1.5 million, Kobe is Japan's List of Japanese cities by population, seventh-largest city and the third-largest port city after Port of Toky ...
as a carbonated lemonade by the Scottish pharmacist
Alexander Cameron Sim. The name is derived from the English word ''
lemonade''.
History
In 1884, Alexander Cameron Sim introduced a lemonade
carbonated beverage to the
Kobe foreign settlement. The drink soon became popular with Japanese people after it was advertised in the
Tokyo Mainichi Newspaper.
is one of the modern symbols of
summer
Summer or summertime is the hottest and brightest of the four temperate seasons, occurring after spring and before autumn. At or centred on the summer solstice, daylight hours are the longest and darkness hours are the shortest, with day ...
in Japan and is widely consumed during
festival
A festival is an event celebrated by a community and centering on some characteristic aspect or aspects of that community and its religion or cultures. It is often marked as a local or national holiday, Melā, mela, or Muslim holidays, eid. A ...
days. As is popular among children, there have been package design collaborations with popular Japanese franchises such as
Hello Kitty.
The original flavor is effectively identical to the modern Japanese use of the word "cider" (a lemon-lime soft drink), making the distinguishing characteristic of its Codd-neck bottle. Any soft drink in a Codd-neck bottle is generally regarded as , while ciders and soft drinks in any other container are generally not called . It is not a brand name and it is produced by several companies. Like
tofu
or bean curd is a food prepared by Coagulation (milk), coagulating soy milk and then pressing the resulting curds into solid white blocks of varying softness: ''silken'', ''soft'', ''firm'', and ''extra (or super) firm''. It originated in Chin ...
, its manufacture in Japan is restricted to small-to-medium-sized businesses.
There are many flavors of , including peach, cola, melon, and bubble gum.
See also
*
Banta
*
Sangaria
*
List of soft drinks by country
References
{{Japanese food and drink
Japanese drink brands
Lemon-lime sodas
Soft drinks
Scottish inventions
1884 introductions