In America, “Lemonade” refers to a drink made with lemon juice, water, and usually a sweetener of some type.
In England, “Lemonade” is a fizzy drink more akin to Sprite or 7-Up.
In Japan, there’s a drink called “Ramune”, which is a japanification of the word “Lemonade” but it takes its meaning from England, so it’s a fizzy drink - though lemon is probably the hardest flavour to find, and it comes in almost and fruit you can imagine, as well as matcha and yogurt flavours. I have tried most of these. There are multiple companies that make Ramune and while the iconic bottle shape is nearly identical, the packaging is different.
Yesterday I went to a Chinese restaurant, in America for context, and on the counter as you walked in were three Ramune bottles, in pink, blue, and yellow. I didn’t have the time as I walked by to see what flavours they were, and I couldn’t tell by the colour of the soda inside either, so when I sat down I asked for a “Pink Ramune.”
Our waiter, an older Chinese man in a stylish vest, told us he didn’t have any pink, just yellow, so I figured they were out of the pink and blue and said “alright, that’s fine.” not having known what flavours any of them were anyways, and able to enjoy any except matcha, which tastes like burnt seaweed soda.
He comes back to the table with a can of Minute Maid Lemonade, taking us full circle. It was so funny I didn’t even protest and accepted my role, because technically if you think about it he brought me the “right” drink.
