Podcast

Episode Intro

In episode 56 of the Japan Distilled podcast, your hosts Christopher Pellegrini & Stephen Lyman dive deeper into Ryukyu Awamori, which is the oldest distilling tradition in Japan.

CREDITS

Theme Song: Begin Anywhere by Tomoko Miyata (http://tomokomiyata.net/)

Mixing and Editing: Rich Pav (https://www.uncannyrobotpodcast.com/)

HOSTS

CHRISTOPHER PELLEGRINI Vermont born and bred, long-time Tokyo resident and author of The Shochu Handbook, Christopher learned about delicious fermentations as a beer brewer at Otter Creek (Middlebury, VT). He now spends most of his waking hours convincing strangers that shochu and awamori are unlike anything they’ve ever tried before. 

STEPHEN LYMAN discovered Japan’s indigenous spirits at an izakaya in New York City. He was so enthralled that he now lives in Japan and works in a tiny craft shochu distillery every autumn. His first book, The Complete Guide to Japanese Drinks, was nominated for a 2020 James Beard Award.

Stephen and Christopher love Okinawan awamori at least as much as Honkaku shochu.

If you have any comments or questions about this episode, please reach out to Stephen or Christopher via Twitter. We would love to hear from you. 

Show Notes

This episode was intended to build upon what was discussed way back in Episode 3: Discover Okinawan Awamori. If you haven’t listened to that one yet, you should probably go back and have a listen to that first. We also discussed quite a bit about Okinawan awamori in Episode 24: Searching for Spirited Shimazake, which focused on spirits made on the outlying islands throughout Japan.

In this latest episode, we spend a lot of time talking about the WTO Geographical Indication (GI) for Ryukyu Awamori, which has protected status just like champagne or congac. We had a series of episodes (42-44) on the WTO protected shochu Geographical Indications: Kuma Shochu, Iki Shochu, and Satsuma Shochu. However, at that time we skipped over Ryukyu Awamori. That may have been a mistake, but now we rectify it with this one.

So what is the Ryukyu Awamori GI?

• made with black koji from Okinawa
• made with local Okinawan water
• made from rice (no other starch source is permitted) with 100% of the rice inoculated with koji before starting the fermentation
• pot distilled
• no additives after distillation other than water and time
• produced, aged, and bottled in Okinawa Prefecture

If any of those standards are not adhered to, it can possibly still be sold as awamori, but it can’t be sold as Ryukyu Awamori. While those are the letter of the law, the spirit of the law is much more detailed. This GI explainer from the National Tax Agency of Japan takes a much deeper look at what truly makes Ryukyu Awamori a spirit worth protecting (see page 27 in particular).

Awamori Production

Black koji is an ancient mold from Okinawa that has been used to make awamori for hundreds of years. A part of the GI is that the koji needs to be grown in Okinawa. Also, all of the rice used needs to be propagated with koji before entering the fermentation making it a very unusual style of koji spirit.

A further interesting twist in awamori production is the use of horizontal pot stills rather than the usual upright stills used in most other spirits traditions.

Another thing that makes awamori unique in the spirits world is the use of fractional blending, which uses the shitsugi method. This is a process of blending younger distillate into older vintages to refill ceramic pots. Long aging of awamori in these ceramic jars creates incredibly beautiful spirits.

Awamori aged at least 3 years can be designated as kusu, or aged awamori, which often commands a premium price. Very long aged awamori can be some of the most expensive distilled alcohol in Japan if you can find it. Much of the oldest stuff is being aged in private collections rather than at distilleries.

Younger awamori is designated as ippanshu, which is generally aged in neutral tanks and bottled young, often less than 1 year after production. Its most often consumed mixed with cold water, soda water, coffee, or cirtus juice mixers and bottled at 30% while kusu is often bottled a full strength (generally around 43%).

Kanpai! (or as they say in Okinawa, Kari!)

INTRO

In episode 55 of the Japan Distilled podcast, Stephen & Christopher try to build a $200 USD home bar full of delicious koji spirits.

CREDITS

Theme Song: Begin Anywhere by Tomoko Miyata (http://tomokomiyata.net/)

Mixing and Editing: Rich Pav (https://www.uncannyrobotpodcast.com/)

HOSTS

CHRISTOPHER PELLEGRINI Vermont born and bred, long-time Tokyo resident and author of The Shochu Handbook, Christopher learned about delicious fermentations as a beer brewer at Otter Creek (Middlebury, VT). He now spends most of his waking hours convincing strangers that shochu and awamori are unlike anything they’ve ever tried before. 

STEPHEN LYMAN discovered Japan’s indigenous spirits at an izakaya in New York City. He was so enthralled that he now lives in Japan and works in a tiny craft shochu distillery every autumn. His first book, The Complete Guide to Japanese Drinks, was nominated for a 2020 James Beard Award.

Stephen and Christopher have massive home bars and are happy to help you get started on your journey.

If you have any comments or questions about this episode, please reach out to Stephen or Christopher via Twitter. We would love to hear from you. 

SHOW NOTES

The Challenge

Inspired by the $150 home bar challenge Noah Rothbaum and David Wonderich recently undertook on the Fix me a Drink podcast, Stephen challenged Christopher to build a $200 koji spirits home bar from the following websites (out of stock products not allowed – some may have gone out of stock since we recorded).

https://www.astorwines.com/

https://www.kuraichibk.com/

https://mmsake.com/

https://specsonline.com/

https://umamimart.com/

For $200 each both Stephen & Christopher needed to build a 6 bottle koji spirits home bar. The assumption is that the listener is starting from scratch. US pricing was used to standardize for an overseas market so your mileage may vary.

Stephen’s Home Bar

Stephen went with a traditional Japanese style home bar, trying to hit the major shochu sub-categories along with Okinawan Awamori.

Ryukyu Ohcho Awamori ($34 at UmamiMart) – a popular awamori from Miyako Island in Okinawa.

Kawabe Kuma Shochu ($32 at mmsake.com) – vacuum distilled rice shochu made with sake yeast.

Ark Jakuunbaku ($39 at UmamiMart) – atmospheric 100% barley shochu that’s only very lightly filtered.

Tojii Junpei Sweet Potato Shochu ($42 at UmamiMart) – handmade sweet potato shochu in the US!

Jougo Kokuto Sugar Shochu ($27 at Astor) – a tropical fruit bomb.

Beniotome Sesame Shochu ($19 at UmamiMart) – incredible value for the only sesame shochu made in Japan.

TOTAL: $193

Christopher’s Home Bar

Chrisotopher went in a very different direction, thinking more about the home bartender.

Jougo Kokuto Sugar Shochu ($27 at Astor) – see above.

Beniotome Sesame Shochu ($19 at UmamiMart) – see above.

Yanagita Aokage Barley Shochu ($33 at UmamiMart) – not roasted, but smells like it. The engineer turned toji uses directional steaming to get the carmelized notes in this beautiful shochu.

Yamaneko Sweet Potato Shochu ($40 at UmamiMart) – an absolute gem from one of our favorite distilleries.

Masahiro Okinawa Gin ($38 at UmamiMart) – awamori based gin from Okinawa using local botanicals.

Okakura Bermutto ($36 at UmamiMart) – Japan’s first vermouth is actually based off of rice shochu.

TOTAL: $193

Stephen’s Budget Home Bar

Kumejima’s Kumesen Awamori ($24 at Astor) – extreme value.

Hakutake Zenkoji Rice Shochu ($23 on mmsake.com) – pairs with Popeye’s fried chicken! 100% koji rice shochu.

Chingu Black Barley Shochu ($34 at mmsake.com) – handmade barley shochu. Why wasn’t this in our lists above?

Kozuru Kuro Satsuma Shochu ($19 at UmamiMart) – extreme bargain.

Jougo Kokuto Sugar Shochu ($27 at Astor) – see above.

Beniotome Sesame Shochu ($19 at UmamiMart) – see above.

TOTAL: $146

More to Explore

Let us know what home bar you were able to build. We will certainly be updating this episode periodically – probably every year or two.

Kanpai!

INTRO

In episode 54 of the Japan Distilled podcast, we discuss something that is almost never talked about in spirits. Dilution. Nearly all distilled beverage alcohol has water added before bottling. Why is that? And why is it so incredibly important in Japan?

CREDITS

Theme Song: Begin Anywhere by Tomoko Miyata (http://tomokomiyata.net/)

Mixing and Editing: Rich Pav (https://www.uncannyrobotpodcast.com/)

HOSTS

CHRISTOPHER PELLEGRINI Vermont born and bred, long-time Tokyo resident and author of The Shochu Handbook, Christopher learned about delicious fermentations as a beer brewer at Otter Creek (Middlebury, VT). He now spends most of his waking hours convincing strangers that shochu and awamori are unlike anything they’ve ever tried before. 

STEPHEN LYMAN discovered Japan’s indigenous spirits at an izakaya in New York City. He was so enthralled that he now lives in Japan and works in a tiny craft shochu distillery every autumn. His first book, The Complete Guide to Japanese Drinks, was nominated for a 2020 James Beard Award.

Stephen and Christopher are almost as geeky about Japanese water as they are about Japanese spirits.

If you have any comments or questions about this episode, please reach out to Stephen or Christopher via Twitter. We would love to hear from you. 

SHOW NOTES

Water

It’s not too much to say that water is the key to life. Without it, we would not exist. We could not survive. Of course, this is true of many other minerals, vitamins, and molecules, but water is fundamental.

Historically, water near population centers was dangerous – not fit for drinking but for risk of disease or even death. In Medieval Europe beer and wine were safer than water for drinking. Alcohol kills all kinds of bacteria and viruses that might otherwise do us harm.

But pure water is truly the elixir of life. Water out in nature, up in the mountains, out in the forests, away from people and animals and their stink became a prized commodity. A luxury good.

Water Hardness

Today most municipal water in developed countries is clean and fit for bathing or even drinking. But something that still differentiates modern water sources is the water hardness. Water hardness is defined primarily by the mineral content and that is determined largely by how long it takes the water to run through the soil and rock to the underground springs as well as what kind of rock it runs through.

American water tends to be moderately hard while European water is quite hard. Evian, a famed water source, is not soft water at all despite its excellent drinkability.

Meanwhile, in Japan

On the other hand, Japanese water tends to be very soft by Western standards. Japan emerged from the Ring of Fire in the recent past (geologically speaking) so the water run off from rainfall is relatively fast and the rocks it passes through does not provide a lot of minerality. This is a very long way of saying that Japanese water is very soft and, in our opinion, perfect for spirits dilution.

Spirits Dilution

Until the recent obsession with “barrel proof” or “cask strength” whiskies, spirits dilution was the standard in virtually every spirits tradition. Vodka, which if made in a column still, is 95% alcohol or higher before being diluted back down to 40 to 50% so at least half that bottle is water that has been added back in.

As a consumer, that may feel like cheating, but that could not be further from the truth. When alcohol is distilled, the water that carries over into the distilled spirit is also distilled. As a result, it’s lost all of the minerality and texture and mouth feel and even flavor that existed before distillation. With spirits dilution, all of that is reintroduced to the drink. Dilution is a good thing!

What do you think?

We realized spirits dilution and water quality generally may not be a great topic for a podcast, but we hope we’ve entertained you.

Kanpai!

EPISODE INTRO

In the 53rd episode of the Japan Distilled podcast, we complete Jokichi Takamine’s improbable journey and reflect on his legacy. This is the 2nd in a 2 part series so if you missed episode 52, we recommend you go back and have a listen about Jokichi Takamine’s formative years.

CREDITS

Theme Song: Begin Anywhere by Tomoko Miyata (http://tomokomiyata.net/)

Mixing and Editing: Rich Pav (https://www.uncannyjapan.com/)

HOSTS

STEPHEN LYMAN discovered Japan’s indigenous spirits at an izakaya in New York City. He was so enthralled that he now lives in Japan and works in a tiny craft shochu distillery every autumn. His first book, The Complete Guide to Japanese Drinks, was nominated for a 2020 James Beard Award.

MATT ALT is our first guest host! Author of numerous books including his most recent, Pure Invention: How Japan Made the Modern World, is an exploration of Japan’s incredible post-war rise to commercial diplomacy juggernaut. He’s also an accomplished drinks writer and cocktail historian.

If you have any comments or questions about Jokichi Takamine, please reach out to Stephen or Matt via Twitter. We would love to hear from you. 

SHOW NOTES

Immigrating to the US

In 1890, at the behest of his mother-in-law and to the relief of his wife Caroline, Jokichi Takamine moved his family to Chicago, Illinois where he established the Takamine Ferment Company.

Illinois Whisky Trust

By 1891, Jokichi Takamine had patented the use of koji for alcohol production in both the US and UK. In the same year, he licensed his US patent to the Illinois Whisky Trust, the largest producer of distilled spirits in America in the late 19th century.

The Chicago Tribune ran an article claiming that whisky was to become cheaper thanks to the proprietary Takamine Process. Exactly two weeks later, there was a mysterious fire at the Manhattan Distillery in Peoria, IL, where the koji whiskey experiments were underway. Not dissuaded, the distillery was repaired and experiments continued until commercial production was greenlit in December 1894.

Sadly, in February 1895, the State of Illinois and Justice Department enforced the Sherman Act to break up the Illinois Whisky Trust. The new owners of the Manhattan Distillery reverted to malting. Dr. Takamine sued in federal court to get his patent back, but he lost – the patent was considered an asset sold to the new owners.

A New Start

Health problems and potential backlash toward him and his family resulted in Jokichi Takamine moving with his family to New York City in 1897. By 1900 he had isolated adrenaline in his Harlem laboratory. This coupled with his previously patented Taka Diastase digestive aid had made him and his family very wealthy.

He’d gained notoriety back in Japan as well so when the St. Louis World’s Fair concluded, the emperor gave the Japan Pavilion structure to Takamine. This was a replica of one of the emperor’s summer palace, which Takamine moved by rail to the Catskills in Upstate New York where it was renamed Shofuden. Today it’s being renovated by private owners. Their Instagram is wonderful.

Later Years

Dr. Takamine would spend the remainder of his life focused on philanthropy and attempting to help bridge American Japanese relations. He founded the Nippon Club, a private gentleman’s club in NYC for Japanese businessmen. It’s still active today.

And in perhaps his greatest contribution to American culture, he donated the cherry trees that ring the Tidal Basin in Washington, DC, as well as trees in Baltimore, MD, and New York City.

Sadly, he would die relatively young on July 22, 1922 at the age of 67. He is interred in his mausoleum in Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx.

Legacy

Dr. Takamine remains a giant in his own right. The first person to isolate a human hormone, the first Japanese person to make whisky, the donation of the cherry trees to the US, founding a still existent pharmaceutical company in Japan, and establishing a gentlemen’s club that is still active over 100 years later.

Sadly, his son Jokichi, Jr., passed unexpectedly under mysterious circumstances in his early 40s and Ebenezer struggled to keep the family business afloat. He was finally granted American citizenship just a couple years before he died. Caroline would remarry, but when she died in her 80s, she was laid to rest beside Jokichi Takamine.

Of course, he is gone, but not forgotten. His koji whiskey lives on in Takamine Whiskey from the Shinozaki Distillery in Fukuoka, Japan, imported to the US by Honkaku Spirits. Available at fine retailers in many states.

KANPAI!

EPISODE INTRO

In the 52nd episode of the Japan Distilled podcast, we take you through the foundational years of the improbable and remarkable journey of the first Japanese person to ever make whiskey: Jokichi Takamine. It’s probably not too much to say that Jokichi Takamine is the most important Japanese immigrant to ever live in the United States. His whiskey is just a small part of his story.

CREDITS

Theme Song: Begin Anywhere by Tomoko Miyata (http://tomokomiyata.net/)

Mixing and Editing: Rich Pav (https://www.uncannyjapan.com/)

HOSTS

STEPHEN LYMAN discovered Japan’s indigenous spirits at an izakaya in New York City. He was so enthralled that he now lives in Japan and works in a tiny craft shochu distillery every autumn. His first book, The Complete Guide to Japanese Drinks, was nominated for a 2020 James Beard Award.

MATT ALT is our first guest host! Author of numerous books including his most recent, Pure Invention: How Japan Made the Modern World, is an exploration of Japan’s incredible post-war rise to commercial diplomacy juggernaut. He’s also an accomplished drinks writer and cocktail historian.

If you have any comments or questions about Jokichi Takamine, please reach out to Stephen or Matt via Twitter. We would love to hear from you. 

SHOW NOTES

Upheaval

The mid-1800s brought incredibly fast change to Japan as the US opened the country at gunpoint and the shogunate collapsed. Jokcihi Takamine and others like him were born into and grew up in this turbulent time. For many this lead to radicalization and extreme violence. For others, like Jokichi, this lead to opportunities uinmaginable just a few years earlier.

Early Years

Born November 3, 1854 to a samurai physician and the daughter of a sake making family, Jokichi Takamine was the first of 13 children.

He’d quickly be recognized as a prodigy by the Kaga Domain leaders, who supported his educational journey from Nagasaki to Kyoto to Osaka and ultimately to Tokyo University where he would be part of the 1st graduating class of the School of Engineering with a degree in applied chemistry. He would then, like so many others, be sent abroad to study western industrial practices.

Early Career

As with many young men of this era, Jokichi Takamine went to work for the central goverment in Tokyo, assigned to the Department of Agriculture and Commerce where he is tasked with modernizing 3 key Japanese industries: indigo dye production, paper-making, and of course, sake brewing. Before long he would be assigned to join a delegation to the World’s Exposition in New Orleans where he would be welcomed as a visiting dignitary (Americans saw the samurai class as knights and though he’d officially lost his title, this didn’t seem to matter).

While in New Orleans, Jokichi Takamine would meet and fall in love with a young debutante, Caroline “Carrie” Hitch. Lacking the resources to ask for her hand in marriage, he returned to Japan to earn enough to marry her.

Upon his return, was assigned as the interim director of Japan’s patent office. Shortly thereafter he took leave of the post to establish Asia’s first superphosphate mine. Fortunate secured, he returned to New Orleans in 1887 to marry Caroline.

Tokyo

Caroline gamely moved to Tokyo with her new husband, but the culture shock appears to have been too much.

She did manage to bear two children during their brief stay in Tokyo, Jokichi, Jr. and Ebenezer. Just 3 years later, the family would be encouraged to return to America by Caroline’s mother who had a business proposition. But that will have to wait until next time.

KANPAI!