This is the Suntory Tennensui Ume Salty, featuring 1% juice from lemon and ume, and one’s daily intake of Vitamin B6 and niacin.
The beverage presented with a translucent white hue. Aroma opened with mellow sweet-tart notes of ume, reminiscent of ripe apricot, with a gentle fruit sweetness.
Initial contact delivered sweet, honeyed notes of ume, capturing the fruit’s characteristic apricot-like profile alongside a smooth, lightly weighted mouthfeel. The sweetness presented softly rather than syrupy, establishing the ume as the dominant flavour from the outset. Through the mid-palate, a bright tartness developed that highlighted the fruit’s sweet-tart character, while the salty component emerged gradually. Rather than presenting as overt salinity, it contributed an almost electrolyte-like smoothness that rounded the acidity and enhanced the beverage’s refreshing quality. The interplay between sweetness, tartness and salinity remained well integrated, with each element supporting rather than competing with the others. Towards the finish, the salinity softened the vibrant tart notes of the ume, allowing a mellow fruit sweetness and delicate aroma to linger briefly on the palate. Despite the inclusion of lemon juice, the fruit profile remained distinctly ume throughout, with the lemon largely indistinguishable and likely serving to amplify the ume’s brighter acidic notes. Aftertaste carried lingering sweet-tart ume notes alongside a gentle saline minerality that reinforced the beverage’s refreshing character.
Overall, a flavoured water beverage with a layered flavour trajectory and cohesive texture integration, resulting in a refreshing and well-balanced interplay between sweet-tart ume and gentle salinity.
This Suntory Tennensui Ume Salty contained 540 mL. It was produced in Japan and purchased in Sydney, Australia in 2026.