Salty Watermelon Pepsi

The taste of summer... salty watermelon Pepsi.

Japan is known for taking popular global products and putting a local spin on the flavours, from Kit Kats (green tea, wasabi, every flavour you can think of...), to Pretzels (okonomiyaki flavour, anyone?), to Pepsi. I had read stories about some of Japan's disastrous seasonal Pepsi varieties, with ice cucumber and azuki bean receiving awful reviews. Nevertheless, there seemed to be a sort of legendary hype surrounding Japan's limited edition Pepsi flavours. I immediately wanted to be a part of the taste-testing tradition.

Then it was announced that the special Pepsi flavour for Summer 2012 was going to be Salty Watermelon, a nod to all things summery and sweet, taking into account the fondness of Japanese for sprinkling salt on their fruit. I was excited. But also a little disappointed - it was almost too normal. I had actually had dreams about what Pepsi Japan were concocting in their laboratories, and was fully preparing myself for 'Pepsi: Bacon Blast' or 'Pepsi: Sushi Surprise' (complete with a live fish swimming in the bottle).

Salty Watermelon Pepsi was released yesterday, July 24th, and naturally I went straight to a conbini to find it. There it was, in Lawson, lined in a neat, pink, row in the refrigerator... pink. Was not expecting pink.

It was a very hot day, 34 degrees, and I was more than ready to swig the sucker down. It first hit me with a wash of watermelon, sort of sickly but at the same time refreshing. The watermelon assualt was followed by the familiar sharp, syrupy cola taste of normal Pepsi, creating a thought-provoking union of flavours. Retained fizz nicely. Satisfying 'chhhhhhh' when opening bottle, even an hour after first opening. Unique pink shade grew on me, despite initially reminding me of nail polish remover.

I think Pepsi might be onto a winner.