On French fries it takes some beating. On salads it is palatable, in small doses. But straight from the bottle? Japan, a country not immune to some unusual gastronomic quirks (squid-flavoured ice-cream, to name but one), is hooked on vinegar, and without a shaking head or screwed-up face to be seen.
We are not, to be fair, talking about the unadulterated malt version that occupies chip-shop counters. These concoctions are made from fruit, and the Japanese, ever willing to grasp the latest quick route to physical health, are gulping down litres of the stuff. Japan’s drinkable vinegar market reportedly tripled in value to R1,3-billion between March and August last year, from just R473-million in the same period in 2000.
Uchibori, which has been brewing vinegar for about 120 years, says average monthly sales at its six fruit vinegar stalls have jumped by 10% since it opened its first outlet in Nagoya two years ago.
This year, total sales are expected to be even higher as other vinegar makers jump on the bandwagon. New products will include plastic bottles of the unappetisingly named vinegar-water sold at 24-hour convenience stores.
Uchibori’s Oaks Heart stall in Takashimaya department store in Nihonbashi, Tokyo, stocks an improbable array of fruit vinegars, including lychee, raspberry, cranberry, mango, apple, and rosehip flavours, which sell for about R77 for a 250ml bottle. The most popular is blueberry, about 80 bottles of which are sold every day.
Vinegar is by no means a latecomer to the Japanese diet. Rice vinegar arrived here from China in the fifth century and had established itself as a staple in ordinary households by the 1700s.
The sticky rice used in sushi would have none of its distinctive sharpness without it, and cold dishes of, say, octopus and seaweed in a vinegar dressing are popular summer staples in parts of Japan.
Enthusiasts swear by vinegar’s health-giving properties. It is said to purify the blood, thereby ridding the body of fatigue. Habitual imbibers, with scant medical evidence, are convinced that regular vinegar intake enables them to burn calories effortlessly.
The craving for something sour to relieve humidity-induced fatigue has survived for decades in Japan, but it isn’t clear how long the liking for vinegary drinks will last.
Only last year the craze was for desalinated deep-sea water from Hawaii, with otherwise sane people prepared to pay R36 for a 1,5-litre bottle of water retrieved from the Pacific seabed. — Â