As a child my taste-buds had always been fond of vinegar. While my brother scrunched his face up as I poured it atop of my dishes, I kept munching on salt n’ vinegar chips, dousing it on homemade collard greens and naturally placed it on fish with chips. Without ever knowing vinegar was a good thing for the body, I simply kept it around because I liked it, but in Japan in turns out people have found more inventive ways to mix vinegar into drinks and desserts. This makes me stop in my tracks.
As much as I like vinegar I’ve never thought of drinking it in a beverage, but oh, how popular the Vinegar Bars and Cafes have become in Japan! The trend of drinking vinegar picked up in 2004 when people started to realize that is a good remedy to high blood pressure and from there started mixing it with soy milk in addition to orange and grapefruit fruit drinks. At Kurozu Bar in Tokyo’s Shinbashi Station interested foodies can get a blueberry vinegar shake or vinegar with blood orange juice beverage. That ought to cool you off on a hot day in the city if you can just get past the sound of the entire concoction.