Gum Syrup

Today we headed over to Mizonokuchi to get a bite to eat. We went for some Indian food, which was fantastic :D. When we were waiting for our food, the chef/head dude at the restaurant came over to our table (I thought he was going to tell me not to talk so loud, cuz that's what I was doing...hee hee ;)). But he actually produced one of the little 'gum syrup' packages that they have for coffee and tea, and said "We've been having a problem with the name - what is the correct way to call this?". I figured 'liquid sugar' would be fine, and off he went. We didn't even get a free drink out of it! Sheesh.