Ramune, Calpis and Green Tea in a Bottle: Japan's Soft Drink Story

Push a plastic plunger down onto a glass bottle, hear a gentle hiss, and watch a marble drop into the neck with a clink. That small ritual is the opening move of a Japanese summer. Ramune, the lemon-lime fizzy drink sold at festivals and old-fashioned sweet shops, comes in one of the most recognizable bottles in the world, and the story of how it got there starts with a Victorian inventor in London and a Scottish pharmacist in Kobe.

Ramune is only one chapter. Japan also gave the world Calpis, a milky, tangy drink with a famous blue and white package, and turned canned and bottled green tea into an everyday product. This guide explains how these drinks began, how the marble bottle works, why vending machines are so closely tied to drink culture, and how to choose a drink without any guesswork.

The Marble Bottle Explained

The ramune bottle is a Codd-neck bottle, a design patented in 1872 by Hiram Codd, a soft drink maker in Camberwell, London. It was created specifically for carbonated drinks. The bottle is filled upside down, and the gas pressure inside pushes the marble up against a rubber washer in the neck. That seal keeps the fizz in without any cap at all.

To open it, you press the marble down into a special chamber formed by pinching the glass neck. The marble then rests in that pocket instead of blocking the opening while you drink. The design was popular with soft drink makers in Europe, India and Australasia, but it faded after the steel crown cork cap arrived. Ramune in Japan and a drink called banta in India still use it. Because children often broke the glass to get at the marbles, surviving vintage bottles are scarce and treasured by collectors.

From Kobe Lemonade to Festival Icon

Ramune was introduced in 1884 in Kobe by Alexander Cameron Sim, a Scottish pharmacist who first offered it as a carbonated lemonade in the city's foreign settlement. The name ramune is a Japanese rendering of the English word lemonade. Newspaper advertising in Tokyo helped it reach Japanese customers, and it soon became a favorite with children.

The original flavor is lemon-lime, similar to the drink Japanese people call saida (cider), which has nothing to do with apple cider and is simply a clear, lightly sweet soda. Today ramune comes in many flavors, including melon, strawberry, peach, grape, yuzu, matcha and yogurt. It is not a single brand but a style of drink made by several companies, and reference works note that a law from 1977 restricts its production to small and medium-sized businesses. It is a modern symbol of Japanese summer, especially at matsuri (festivals), where bottles sit in tubs of ice waiting to be pulled out.

Calpis, the Milky Way in a Bottle

Calpis was created by Kaiun Mishima, who is said to have tried a fermented milk drink called airag during a trip to Mongolia in 1902. It aided his digestion, and he set out to make a version of his own. The company released Calpis on 7 July 1919. Its name blends "cal" for calcium with a second part drawn from the Sanskrit word sarpis, a term linked to dairy products.

The packaging, with white dots on blue, was meant to evoke the Milky Way, connecting it to the Tanabata star festival. In its original form Calpis is a concentrate that is diluted with water or milk, and a ready-to-drink version called Calpis Water first appeared in 1991. In North America the product is sold under the name Calpico. The flavor is mildly sweet and tangy, and it is also used in sodas and frozen treats across Japan.

Pocari Sweat and the Sports Drink Shelf

Japanese soft drink shelves include a category that surprises many visitors: the ion supply drink. Pocari Sweat, launched in 1980 by Otsuka Pharmaceutical, is the best known. It is a lightly sweet, slightly salty sports drink, and the "sweat" in its name refers to the water and minerals the body loses while perspiring. The word "pocari" has no meaning of its own and was chosen simply because it sounded refreshing.

Drinks like this are a staple during Japan's hot, humid summers, when schools, workplaces and event organizers remind people to hydrate. The brand began exporting in 1982 and now appears in many countries. Beside it you will find other everyday choices: barley tea (mugicha), served chilled in summer, citrus waters, and a changing lineup of seasonal flavors that appear and vanish within weeks.

How Green Tea Moved Into a Bottle

For centuries, green tea in Japan meant steeping leaves at home or in a tea house. Ito En changed that by turning tea into a ready-made drink. The company, founded in 1966 as the Frontier Tea Corporation in Shizuoka, introduced the world's first canned oolong tea in 1980, and it went nationwide in 1981. Canned green tea followed in 1985, and the product was renamed Oi Ocha in 1989.

The 500 milliliter PET bottle version of Oi Ocha arrived in 1996. Since then, unsweetened bottled green tea has become one of the default drinks in Japan, sold beside barley tea, jasmine tea and blended teas. Most bottled green teas contain no sugar at all, which makes them a natural companion to a bento or sushi lunch. If you prefer something sweet, check the label before you buy, since sweet and unsweet bottles can look similar.

Vending Machine Culture

Japan has one of the highest densities of vending machines in the world, with millions installed nationwide, and drink machines are the most common type. They stand on street corners, in station platforms, beside temple steps and along mountain roads. Juice vending machines became popular in the late 1950s and 1960s, and the habit of grabbing a drink in passing has lasted ever since.

Many machines sell both cold and hot drinks. Cold items have blue labels, and hot items, including canned coffee and tea, have red ones. Most machines accept coins and bills, and many also accept transit IC cards or mobile payments, though it is wise to carry a few coins. Cans and bottles are meant to be consumed on the spot or taken with you, and a recycling bin usually sits right beside the machine.

Tips for Choosing and Enjoying Drinks

If you want to try ramune, look for it at summer festivals, in supermarkets, and in souvenir shops, where gift sets in several flavors are common. To open a bottle, remove the seal, set the plastic plunger on the marble, and press down firmly over a sink or outdoors, since the first rush of bubbles can overflow. Keep the bottle upright afterward, and be aware that the marble is meant to stay inside; the pinched glass neck keeps it from falling out.

For first-time visitors, a simple routine works well. Try a chilled ramune on a hot afternoon, a Calpis or Pocari Sweat after walking, and an unsweetened green tea with meals. Convenience stores keep a wide selection of cold drinks, and vending machines offer hot tea and coffee in cooler months. Carry a small bag for empty bottles if no bin is nearby, since public trash cans are not always easy to find in Japan.