Ramune soda is a Japanese Carbonated Drink that is often seen on Anime and Japanese television. Curious about the flavor and drink I decided to purchase a few to perform my own Ramune Soda Review. For the average American, most know little about this drink, including me. Finding it on Amazon was not too difficult. The drink itself is not bad and comes in many different flavor. However, most are fascinated by the marble inside the drink. It is used to seal the carbonation within the bottle. Outside of Japan, most people often time will call this drink the Marble Soda.
Opening the drink stumped me initially and I had a difficult time figuring it out. Regardless, I will be looking at how the carbonation seal work, how to open the drink and whether the flavor is good.

How to Open Ramune Soda

I suspect that most have issues like me when opening the bottle. Luckily for me, I found the instruction on the side but for those who might have missed it I have it below.
1)Undo the plastic seal
2) Removing the plastic piece on top of the seal.
3) Remove the plunger from the top of the plastic piece.
4) Place the plunger directly on top of the marble and press down.
5) Hold firmly to try and prevent leakage.
Did you read step 5? I had no idea that the soda was going to squirt so violently and the end result was a sticky floor. This Ramune Soda is definitely more sensitive than what you will get from an american soda can. I do not even recall shaking the bottle that much. Anyways, after you figure it out, its quite simple, although not as simple as a twist off cap.

What does Ramune Soda Taste Like?

The taste of the soda varies based on the flavor that you get. The one that I drank was the original flavor that they make. It tasted light a lightly carbonated and flavor peach/lemon soda. Very mellow in flavor but good at the same time. For those who like assertive flavors like you will get from coke or dr pepper, you might be disappointed.

Ramune Soda Design

What does Ramune Soda Marble do?

You might be wondering how does a marble seal air, for the most part it doesn’t. What the marble does is that it is a stop, kinda like a cork. There is a rubber section surrounding the opening. When you apply enough force upward or downward toward the rubber seal, liquid or air will stop seeping. This design is called a Codd-neck bottle design. It was named as such after the inventor Hiram Codd. This type of carbonation seal is not used as commonly as it was in the past and Raume is one of the few manufacture who still employ this method. An Indian drink called Banta also use this method for sealing. Unfortunately, it seems like most consumer in the US is paying for this special manufacturing method, an 8 pack cost 24.50 on Amazon at the time of this review.

How to get Ramune Soda Marble out?

There is no easy way to get the marble out. The only way possible is to try and remove the top cap. The other easier way, if you do not mind destroying the bottle is to use a hammer.

Drinking out of the Bottle

Drinking out of this bottle was simply annoying. If you tip the bottle bottom too high, the marble will seal the opening and the soda will stop flowing. You need to hold the drink at the right angle to just drink it. From what I read, you apparently need to hit the bottle between the two eyes of the drink. That divot will hold the marble in place when you drink.
I highly recommend using a glass unless you want to do mental gymnastic just to drink it. But who knows, maybe it is done on purpose, there is only 6.76 oz in the bottle, less than a standard us soda can. It is there to prevent you from finishing the drink too fast. This is something that most other Ramune Soda Review fail to mention.

The eyeballs of the drink

Apparently the two eyeball purpose is to stop the marble from moving around. It serves no ergonomic purpose at all. So is the neck of the bottle, its to prevent the marble from falling too far down. Griping the bottle near the neck is not comfortable at all. I recommend that you place too googly eyes instead just to give it some comedic effect.

Ramune Soda Nutrition

Given that this is a bottle of soda, its not healthy at all. The vast majority of the nutrition is in carbohydrate or sugar, 20 grams to be exact. It is not that much healthier than an american soda counterpart. There is 80 grams of calories for this drink as well. Looking at the ingredients they also seem to have cheaped out on using actual sugar. The content is .95% of sugar and 8.5% of high fructose corn syrup.

Conclusion

This drink is great for a novelty drink. The flavor is not bad and comes in many different varieties. Unfortunately the high cost, probably due to importation fee is, what makes this drink a novelty drink rather than something you should purchase regularly.

Where to buy Ramune Soda

If you do want to purchase just to try it, which I recommend, go to a asian supermarket. They can be had for a lot less than what you can get from Amazon. Use amazon only if you don’t have those specialty shop near you.

I hope you like this ramune soda review, If you would like to see more, please visit our Food and Snacks Review page.