In 1922, a Munich innkeeper named Franz Xaver Kugler found himself facing a problem: thirteen thousand cyclists had arrived at his establishment outside the city, and he did not have enough beer to serve them all. His solution was to mix his remaining stock with lemon soda, doubling the volume and — incidentally — producing a drink so well suited to the occasion that it outlasted the improvisation. The word Radler means cyclist in German, and the drink named after that afternoon in 1922 has been a fixture of Austrian and Bavarian summers ever since. Pale gold, bright lemon over a light beer base, 2.4% ABV — the Radler is the drink that makes a long afternoon on a warm day manageable rather than something to pace carefully. If you are Austrian and living in Tokyo, it is the taste of a specific kind of summer that Japan’s own lemon drink culture already understands.
The cyclist’s drink, invented in 1922
The Radler concept was invented in 1922 by a Munich innkeeper responding to unexpected demand — a mix of beer and lemon soda that solved a supply problem and created a category. In Austria, the style was adopted and has been produced by various Austrian brewers across the country’s regions, with the Radler becoming one of the most widely consumed low-alcohol beer drinks in the Alpine region. The product catalogued here — Radler Beer with Natural Lemon Juice — is produced by Generic Radler (various Austrian producers), reflecting the category’s broad production base across the country.
The style is a lemon shandy: light beer base combined with natural lemon juice, producing a pale gold drink with bright citrus character throughout. The lemon is the dominant flavour note — clean and direct, neither artificial nor muted — with the light beer base providing enough structure to keep the drink from being purely a lemon beverage. At 2.4% ABV, the Radler is one of the lowest-alcohol beers in Omori Mart’s range, sitting comfortably in the territory of something that can be drunk over an afternoon without the need for careful management. The natural lemon juice specification gives this Radler a cleaner citrus character than versions made with lemon flavouring, which is the distinction that Austrians who grew up with the style tend to notice immediately.
How Radler Beer with Natural Lemon Juice is drunk at home
Prost! (PROAST) — the Austrian toast, used in the same contexts and with the same directness as in Germany. In Tyrolean dialect, Auf di! is the warmer, more intimate variant used among close friends in the mountain communities. For a 2.4% summer drink at an outdoor table, Prost tends to accompany the first pour and then the afternoon takes over.
In Austria, the Radler belongs to the outdoor afternoon — the Heurigen garden where the wine is already flowing, the post-cycling rest stop, the family table where not everyone wants a full-strength beer. Wiener Schnitzel is the Austrian dish most associated with a proper meal alongside beer or a light drink, and the bright lemon of the Radler cuts through the fat of the fried veal in a way that echoes the squeeze of lemon that traditionally accompanies the dish on the plate. Kaiserschmarrn, the torn sweet pancake served with stewed fruit, belongs to the dessert register — the Radler’s citrus character sits alongside it more naturally than a standard lager would. Sachertorte calls for coffee or something darker, but an afternoon that includes both Sachertorte and a cold Radler has arranged its courses correctly. The Christkindlmarkt season in late November through December is not the Radler’s natural setting — that belongs to summer — but it is the occasion that reminds Austrians why the warmer months are what they are.
How to drink it in Japan
The Radler is Japan’s summer in a bottle. June through August in Tokyo, when the humidity makes anything above 3% ABV feel like an effort, is where the Radler earns its place most directly. At 2.4%, it is a drink that suits the temperature and the pace of an outdoor afternoon without requiring the kind of intention that a stronger beer demands.
At 7-Eleven, try it alongside a lemon-flavoured yoghurt drink from the chilled section — the citrus of the Radler and the dairy acidity of the yoghurt occupy complementary registers, the carbonation of the beer providing contrast to the smoothness of the drink. For a composed pairing at home, serve it with cold chicken tatsuta-age — the ginger-and-soy fried chicken, eaten cold in summer — where the lemon character of the Radler performs the same function as the lemon wedge that accompanies karaage: brightening the dish and cutting the fat of the fried coating. It is a pairing that requires no explanation on either side of the cultural divide.
Japan has its own deep affection for lemon-flavoured drinks, which means the Radler arrives in a market that already understands the flavour register. By the case from Omori Mart — 330ml × 24 bottles — the per-bottle cost is accessible for a daily summer drink, and twenty-four bottles covers the season from first heat to the first cool evening of September.
Get Radler Beer with Natural Lemon Juice delivered in Japan
Radler Beer with Natural Lemon Juice is available from Omori Mart in a 330ml × 24 bottle case, delivered nationwide across Japan.
- Free shipping on orders over ¥15,000
- Pay at FamilyMart, 7-Eleven, or Lawson — or by bank transfer or card
- Nationwide delivery to any address in Japan
Rakuten and Amazon Japan do not carry this label. Omori Mart is where Austrians in Japan find the summer drinks that belong in the fridge from June onward — including the one that a Munich innkeeper invented out of necessity in 1922.
[Shop Radler Beer with Natural Lemon Juice →]
https://omorimart.com/product/radler-beer-with-natural-lemon-juice-330ml-x-24-bottles/
Prost outside a Viennese Heurigen on a July afternoon, and kanpai at a Tokyo rooftop in August — pale gold, bright lemon, 2.4% ABV, and the drink that has been solving the problem of a hot day since 1922.
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