Hello there, long time no post anything on this board for me. Anyway, my wife and I had dinner at a Japanese Steak House this past weekend. You know, the ones where they cook in front of you and all. They had on the menu "Japanese Marble Soda", so I ordered one. Sure enough it was a bottle of melon flavored soda with a marble in the end corking the glass bottle off. It comes with a little plunger that pushed the marble down into the upper chamber of the bottle. The soda is in the lower half. Kind of neat. And it didn't taste too bad either. No pictures though. Sorry. I am sure some enterprising individual can come up with some though.

Here you go.. LOL Read the description.

Ramune Original

There are usually a few different flavors of Ramune 「ラムネ」 at any given time. The most common is the 「サイダー」 Cider flavor (the Japanese version of Lemon/Lime, very refreshing and crisp). My favorite, the 「メロン」 Melon flavor is usually green. Very green, and not tasting a lot like any melon I have ever tasted, either, but delicious nonetheless. Look at my icon, it's Fanta Melon Soda, which just happens to be my favorite carbonated non-alcoholic beverage the world over. Occasionally, you will see either 「みかん」 Mikan orange flavor, somewhat like mandarin or Clementine orange or 「ライチ」 Litchi flavored soda.

It is very common in Japan, available at many specialty shops and Asian grocers, anime shops, and high end grocers with good International sections.

If you like Iced Tea, try Ito-En's beverages, specifically the Tea's Tea section, which is the lovely American version of the O~i Ocha. It is pure, delicious, unflavored, unsweetened iced green tea. A commodity nigh impossible to find in the states.

These bottles, called "Codd" bottles after their inventor, were first used in England in the late 1800's. They were expensive to produce, and were often broken by kids trying to get the marble.

Ramune is pretty good stuff, but since it's always imported, has a complicated marble mechanism, and must be thick, durable glass to withstand the marble's "punch", it's almost always overpriced, and thus is difficult to rise above novelty status.

I've not seen it any cheaper than $1.50 for one of the little bottles. What is it, like a 6oz or 8oz bottle?