Talk:Ramune

Popular
Unless someone can support the claim with some kind of figures, I am removing the word "popular" from the opening. Based on my experience in Japan there is little evidence that anyone drinks it, as it is not widely available compared to other beverages (e.g. coffee, Coke, tea, etc) in Japan. Indeed, few people even seem to know what it is when I mention it. --Do Not Talk About Feitclub (contributions) 09:00, 19 February 2006 (UTC)


 * It is popular in Japan, trust me. But more popular in 'festival' periods. Especially Summer. You can buy it year-round at certain tiny marts near the big touristy temples, and (at least as of last month) in the 'ice cream & hot dog' stand to the left of the cafe at the Studio Ghibili Museum in Mitaka. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Okwhatev (talk • contribs).


 * Does anyone know, is this a specific brand, produced by a single company, or a more generic style/flavour? LordAmeth 18:51, 17 June 2007 (UTC)
 * It's a brand, made by Sangaria. -Rycr (talk) 21:50, 21 October 2008 (UTC)
 * I have seen many different brands of Ramune. Being born and raised in Tokyo, and a Japanese citizen, I used to drink raumne almost everyday after school. Each supermarket seems to carry their own brand. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.62.134.50 (talk) 23:16, 2 June 2010 (UTC)
 * It's a type of soft drink. There might be only one company that imports it into any given country, but a confederation of Japanese soft drink associations defines ramune as "a carbonated soft drink in a Codd bottle", and many different companies manufacture it in a variety of flavors, although usually lemon-lime. Since ramune isn't a proper noun, as mentioned in the first sentence of the body of the Japanese Wikipedia article on ramune (although unsourced, probably because it's considered common knowledge in Japan), I'm going to decapitalize the word in this article. Istaro (talk) 12:08, 15 February 2011 (UTC)
 * I was under the impression that it started out as a brand name, a unique flavor attached to a unique name made by a single company, but then it was made later in generic forms by other companies. Maybe the copyright expired, or the others are just imitators. There are also "ramune" flavored hard candies, ice cream, and other products out there.Boneyard90 (talk) 19:47, 17 February 2011 (UTC)

Pronunciation
Also, although a history of the name is provided, a standard pronunciation is not. I am not linguistically skilled enough to do this. Ztras 03:53, 17 September 2006 (UTC)
 * I don't know IPA, so I won't bother with that, but it's not hard: just "ra-mu-ne" (rah-moo-neh), pronounced the way it's spelled, unlike in English, where we are taught to think that the final 'e' should be silent and change the pronunciation of the word. LordAmeth 18:51, 17 June 2007 (UTC)
 * Using IPA spelling, I think 'ɺamɯne is the correct way to spell it phonetically...but I'm not entirely sure. You might want to check an expert first. -Rycr (talk) 21:50, 21 October 2008 (UTC)
 * I put up the way you say it, which would be pronounced "Rah-Muu-Nay" in Japanese, but I'm not sure if this is the correct format for wikipedia pronunciations. So if someone does know, change it to the way it should be, but that is how it would sound (Or, alternatively, Rah-Moo-Nei, that's the gist of it). —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.198.21.161 (talk) 22:16, 20 March 2009 (UTC)

Rude flavor combanations
Look, I don't want to sound crass, but I got a look at some of the flavor selections for Ramune... and I couldn't believe what I saw. I thought Jones Soda was crazy for coming out with a turkey-flavored soft drink... but flavors of wasabi and curry? I imagine it has to take someone with an asbestos mouth to enjoy those flavors! Elwin Blaine Coldiron 06:41, 12 November 2007 (UTC)

Clean up.
This product is also commercially available and distributed in the United States. I plan to clean up this article and provide better documentation in the near future. Including US distributor information. AtaruMoroboshi (talk) 20:09, 17 December 2007 (UTC)

Year of introduction
This article has "Introduced: 1876", while the Sim article states "In 1884, Sim introduced a carbonated beverage based on lemonade to the Kobe Foreign Settlement". Which year is correct?

Also once this is straightened out I'd like to see year of introduction mentioned in the article text proper. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.14.228.137 (talk) 21:25, 10 June 2011 (UTC)

Marble Soda
I'm a Japanese national, and I've never heard of the term "marble soda"/"mabu soda" until I read this article. I thought of the possibility of the term being used outside the Kanto region I live in, but a search for "マブソーダ" (Mabu Soda) or "マーブソーダ" (Marb Soda)　yield no results on Google search (I also feel the term sounds awkward as a Japanese), and a search for "マーブルソーダ" yields links to "Marble Soda Gum," (which has a marbled blue and white colors, hence the name) and a soda drink with marble-like tapioca balls in it. So, from my experience and the search results online, I'm quite confident that the term is not used in Japan. (Otherwise I'm sure there would be retailers using the term.) Now, I see the term "Mabu Soda" does yield results in English, so I believe it maybe something popularized by Korean/Chinese markets that often handle Japanese food as well. Atlasia (talk) 02:00, 23 July 2013 (UTC)


 * Agreed. I've never heard the term "marble soda" in or outside of Japan. I modified the description so that it specifies outside Japan, and added a cite needed tag. If a citation isn't added after at least a week, we can remove the description entirely. -Boneyard90 (talk) 15:26, 23 July 2013 (UTC)

Hello, Chinese American with Hong Kong Heritage. I been to Hong Kong Several times, and the term Marble Soda or in Cantonese 波子汽水 (波子(Marble) 汽水(Soda)) is widely used in Hong Kong Retailers and Restaurants that served Japanese Products and Cuisines. 2603:3020:2500:E000:A952:F4CE:B52A:ACBE (talk) 16:27, 20 February 2018 (UTC)

This article is a mess
This article is mostly unreferenced. How about removing what isn't referenced?

I don't even know how to parse "by both Japan and American companies such as Sangaria U.S.A., Inc.".

Here in Japan the stuff is normally (always?) called Ramune (ラムネ) and it's a product of Morinaga Seika. -- Hoary (talk) 13:20, 17 October 2022 (UTC)
 * It looks like an IP is trying to hijack the article, it seems. I've reverted them again and requested full-protection; if they're that adamant they can defend their position here. —Jéské Couriano  v^&lowbar;^v  a little blue Bori 18:52, 17 October 2022 (UTC)
 * I'd say removing all unsourced additions would be a good start to clean this article up. As one editor noted on the Teahouse (where I started a thread asking for help), the IP is claiming that "the majority of the population of Hawaii is of Japanese ancestry. This is false. Only 13.6% of the residents of Hawaii are Japanese-Americans." Given that jumping from 13.6% to a majority is a leap, I'd be hesitant to assume any of their other claims are reliable as a result.—Ineffablebookkeeper (talk) (&#123;&#123;ping&#125;&#125; me!) 19:49, 17 October 2022 (UTC)

A good source
There's at least one good historical source, in Japanese but accessible wherever the interwebs are spun. 「ラムネの沿革について」 is part 6 of 「清涼飲料よもやま話」 (i.e. a variety of tales of soft drinks), and is informative. It's published by 一般財団法人日本清涼飲料検査協会: quite a mouthful, literally "Japan soft drink inspection society general foundation"; I see no authorized English name, but a nonce englishing might be "Japan Foundation for Soft Drink Safety". Clearly this publisher primarily concerns itself not with history but with consumer protection, but its work for the latter is recognized (see this page about it) and it has a reputation to protect. The web page is reproduced from the 15 March to 1 April 2002 issue of 清飲通信, a periodical that had been published for decades (ending in 2004). The article specifies its own source: a book published in 1935. It names its author: 堀部義巳, the reading of which is most likely Horibe Yoshimi (or as the MoS would dictate, Yoshimi Horibe). -- Hoary (talk) 00:40, 18 October 2022 (UTC)