The Umami-Flavored Soda In Japan Will Give You Serious FOMO
One of the wonderful things about living in an increasingly global society is that it means we're exposed to a wide variety of foods. While some may seem unusual at first, we soon come to embrace them — often to the point that we can't imagine living without them. Japanese foods, in particular, have made great inroads in the U.S. Once upon a time, people may have been shocked by the idea of eating raw fish, but sushi is super popular now. Wasabi peas, too, have made the jump from a so-called "exotic" snack to being so mainstream you can even find them for sale at Dollar Tree.
Japanese sodas are also catching on with American consumers, particularly the Ramune brand since it's actually a lot of fun to drink through a marble. There's one Japanese soda, however, that may be a little harder to track down in the States: the Kimura brand's unagi (eel) flavor. The soda is actually an eel/cola mashup, so it has a flavor that's sweet as well as savory (and yes, somewhat fishy). Intriguing, isn't it? If you can't find it at your local Japanese supermarket, it appears to be available from certain retailers online.
There are other savory sodas out there, if you look
The most interesting thing about this eel-flavored soda is that umami is not usually something you can get from a carbonated beverage. Most sodas, it seems, trend toward the sugar-heavy end of the taste spectrum. Savory sodas do exist, though, with one of the best-known American ones being a Thanksgiving turkey and gravy soda from Jones Soda Co. Rocket Fizz, too, has a line of sodas in varieties ranging from Buffalo wing to ranch dressing. (Do people usually mix the two, we wonder?) Of course, we wouldn't want to forget Dr. Brown's Cel-Ray, a celery-flavored soda that's been around since the 19th century.
Savory sodas are not new to Japan either. Ramune has produced a number of such flavors — no eel, yet, but it has made a takoyaki one, as well as drinks with teriyaki, curry, and chili oil. After a search, we were unable to find any of these flavors available for purchase and suspect they may have been discontinued, but we were able to locate yakisoba, kimchi, corn, and even french fry-flavored Ramune sodas being sold online (albeit at a rather steep $10 per bottle price tag) by Sugoi Mart.