Pepsico is launching a new flavor of their Pepsi soda later this summer—salty watermelon.
Supposedly, sprinkling salt on watermelon is a thing in Japan and this isn’t even the first food product there that mixes the two. Kit Kat has had a salt and watermelon version of their chocolates for years now:
Japan has a long history of weird food items and Pepsi is no stranger to that tradition—offering flavors that aren’t available anywhere else like Ice Cucumber:
So will Salty Watermelon Pepsi be any good? I have no idea, but the simple fact that it even exists is what makes Japan the awesome place that it is.
I’ve been doing the salt on watermelon for decades and I’ve never been to Japan. It’s a thing among may Mexicans.
I’m Filipino and remember my sisters and I putting salt on watermelon. We put salt on all sorts of fruit that we ate. I have no idea where we learned that technique from but I usually blame everything on my mom.
I too learned from my mother to sprinkle salt on fruits like watermelon, fresh pineapple and grapefruit. I don’t know where she learned it – she grew up in North Carolina. But we did live in San Diego and in Hawaii when I was a kid, so maybe she picked it up there and we copied her.
I see people put sugar on grapefruit and the thought makes me shudder!