Chef Takumi
Black Soybean Tea (黒豆茶, Kuromame-cha)
Whole black soybeans, roasted until their skins split, make a clear amber tea with a roasted sweetness and no caffeine. Drink it plain, then eat the softened beans while they still hold their warmth.
Culinary Explorer
A cooking platform built around craft, culture, and the stories behind what we eat.
Salt-Lemon Squash (塩レモンスカッシュ, Shio Remon Sukasshu)
Created by
A hot day asks for a cold glass, not ceremony: salt-preserved lemon, sugar, and soda, sharp enough to wake you and clean enough to keep drinking.
Beverages
Japanese
Quick Meal
Outdoor Dining
Picnic
5 min
Active Time
0 min cook•5 min total
Yield2 servings
Alemon at its best needs very little help. Salt, sugar, cold soda. This is the plain answer to a hot day, the kind of drink that looks almost too simple until the first sip tells you the balance was the whole point.
The one detail that decides it is the salt-lemon base, shio remon: lemon sliced thin, packed with salt, and left until the peel softens and the juice turns fragrant. Salt doesn't make the drink taste salty when used properly. It pulls out the lemon's oils, rounds the bitterness of the pith, and gives the sugar something to stand against. Without it, you have sweet lemonade with bubbles. With it, the glass has a clean edge.
Mash the preserved lemon with sugar before the soda goes in. Do it in the chilled glass, and don't be delicate about it. You want the sugar to scrape the peel a little and pull the syrup into the bottom of the glass. Add ice, then soda, and stir only enough to lift the syrup. Stir like you're angry and the sparkle leaves the room. Even a drink has manners.
This belongs to summer and to the easy side of the Japanese table: after a quick meal, outside with bentō, or beside something grilled and salty. Use unwaxed lemons if you can, because the peel is the flavor here. Nothing hidden, nothing dressed up. The real thing is lemon, salt, sugar, cold bubbles, and restraint.
Lemon squash, remon sukasshu, became familiar in Japan through kissaten coffee-shop culture, where carbonated fruit drinks sat beside coffee, cream soda, and other Western-style refreshments adapted to Japanese taste. Shio remon, salt-preserved lemon, spread widely in Japanese home cooking in the 2010s, helped by cookbooks and magazines that treated it as a bright seasoning for fish, vegetables, noodles, and drinks. Hiroshima, especially the Seto Inland Sea islands such as Ikuchijima, is now strongly associated with domestic lemon growing, making Japanese lemons a seasonal point of pride rather than an imported afterthought.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
salt-preserved lemon
Quantity
2 tablespoons
finely chopped, plus 2 thin slices for garnish
granulated sugar
Quantity
3 tablespoons
adjust to taste
juice from the salt-preserved lemon jar
Quantity
2 tablespoons
cold plain soda water
Quantity
2 cups
ice cubes
Quantity
for serving
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| salt-preserved lemonfinely chopped, plus 2 thin slices for garnish | 2 tablespoons |
| granulated sugaradjust to taste | 3 tablespoons |
| juice from the salt-preserved lemon jar | 2 tablespoons |
| cold plain soda water | 2 cups |
| ice cubes | for serving |
Equipment Needed
- •Tall chilled glasses
- •Muddler, or the handle of a wooden spoon
- •Long spoon
Instructions
- 1
Chill the glasses
Put two tall glasses in the freezer for ten minutes, or fill them with ice water while you gather the ingredients. A cold glass keeps the soda lively longer, and this drink depends on that quick sparkle against the salted lemon.
- 2
Mash the lemon
Tip out the ice water if you used it. In each chilled glass, add 1 tablespoon chopped salt-preserved lemon, 1 1/2 tablespoons sugar, and 1 tablespoon of the lemon brine. Mash with a muddler or the handle of a wooden spoon until the sugar looks wet and syrupy. This bruises the peel just enough to release its oil and turns the salt, sugar, and lemon into one base instead of three separate tastes.
Taste the preserved lemon before you start. If it is very salty, use a little less brine and a touch more fresh lemon juice. Sensible adjustment is not betrayal. - 3
Add ice
Fill each glass about two-thirds with ice. Leave space at the top so the soda can rise without spilling and so the drink looks calm in the glass. Crowding a drink is still crowding.
- 4
Pour the soda
Pour 1 cup cold soda water slowly down the inside of each glass. Stir three or four times from the bottom, just enough to lift the lemon syrup through the soda. Too much stirring knocks out the bubbles, and then the drink becomes flat before it reaches the table.
- 5
Finish and serve
Set a thin slice of salt-preserved lemon against the ice in each glass and serve at once. The first sip should taste bright, faintly salty, and clean, with the sweetness coming after the lemon rather than covering it.
Chef Tips
- •Use unwaxed lemons for shio remon, because you eat the peel. If all you can find are waxed lemons, scrub them well under hot running water, but know plainly that unwaxed fruit gives the cleaner drink.
- •Plain soda water is the right partner. Sweet lemon soda makes the drink heavy and hides the careful salt-sugar balance you just made.
- •If you make your own shio remon, slice lemons thinly, weigh them, add 10 percent of their weight in sea salt, and refrigerate until the peel softens, usually one week. Shake the jar daily so every slice meets the brine.
Advance Preparation
- •Salt-preserved lemons keep for about one month refrigerated when kept covered in their brine and handled with a clean spoon.
- •The lemon, sugar, and brine can be mashed together in the glasses up to one hour ahead and kept chilled. Add ice and soda only at the last moment.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 290g)
Calories
85 calories
Total Fat
0 g
Saturated Fat
0 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
0 g
Cholesterol
0 mg
Sodium
950 mg
Total Carbohydrates
22 g
Dietary Fiber
1 g
Sugars
20 g
Protein
0 g
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