The Future of Okinawan Brown Sugar | Shingo Goto and Brown Sugar Liqueur

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📝 KOKUTO DE LEQUIO

In April 2023, renowned bartender Shingo Goto launched a brown sugar liqueur that he made in collaboration with Mizuho Brewery, the oldest brewery in Okinawa. The birth of the drink came about after a wonderful dinner - Shingo Goto was on a business trip to Okinawa and happened to have a dinner with Mr. Nakazato Bin, the brewer of Mizuho Brewery, and the two of them talked about Awamori, a traditional Okinawan sake, and brown sugar, a specialty of Okinawa. The two of them talked about Okinawa's traditional sake, Awamori, and brown sugar, a specialty of Okinawa, and immediately decided to make a liqueur combining Awamori and brown sugar, and “KOKUTO DE LEQUIO” was born.
Translated with DeepL.com (free version)

🤗 01 Brown Sugar from Okinawa

The history of Okinawan brown sugar can be traced back to the Edo period in 1623. At that time, the people of Okinawa (Ryukyu) learned the technology of sugar production from mainland China and began to produce brown sugar for exactly 400 years from 1623 to 2023. The development of the brown sugar industry made sugarcane the representative crop of Okinawa, and for a long time, 50% of Okinawa's arable land was planted with sugarcane. However, in recent years, due to the advancement of modern industry and the change in people's needs, large sugar factories on the main island of Okinawa have switched to making refined sugar such as white sugar, and now the only places where brown sugar is made in Okinawa are the eight small islands called the “outlying islands”.

The manufacturing of brown sugar is actually quite simple and particularly in line with the concept of sustainable development (SDGs).

Workers harvest the sugarcane, which is then cleaned, cut into pieces and pressed for juice. The juice is precipitated and filtered, then the bagasse left over from the pressing is used as fuel to boil and concentrate the juice, which is then stirred and cooled before being cut into pieces and sold, and even some of the wrapping paper is made from sugarcane. Due to this ancient manufacturing method, brown sugar not only contains the lowest amount of pure sugar among all kinds of granulated sugar, but also retains a variety of amino acids, calcium, iron, zinc and other minerals, as well as trace elements, which is a lot healthier compared to white granulated sugar. Because brown sugar contains molasses, it has a rich flavor such as caramel on the palate, and also adds layers to drinks and desserts. For this reason, premium wagashi brands in Ginza and Nihonbashi have long purchased brown sugar from Okinawa for use in their wagashi.

🤗 01 Awamori in Okinawa

Awamori is a rice-based distilled spirit unique to Okinawa, though it is probably most commonly found on the market not as an item on the shelves of liquor stores, but on the tables of Okinawan restaurants, where it is soaked in the liquid of small chili peppers, and a large portion of Okinawan locals use Awamori in their seasonings.

For some historical reasons, Awamori sake in Okinawa is now made from Thai fragrant rice. The general classification is also shochu, and the manufacturing method is similar to that of shochu, but some of the steps are quite different. The steps for manufacturing Awamori include:

① Washing the rice ② Marination (soaking the rice in water to make it swell) ③ Steaming the rice (to steam it and prepare it for saccharification) ④ Spreading black koji bacteria to make koji (unlike shochu, only black koji is used here) ⑤ Fermentation ⑥ Single distillation in a single still (unlike some shochu, only one distillation is done here) ⑦ Matured and adjusted with water. ⑧ Bottling

For those who are familiar with the distillation method, it looks particularly like whiskey, and similarly, Awamori made in this way has a lot of potential for aging. In the centuries since Okinawan Awamori was made, there have been many delicious old spirits.

🤗 03 Liqueur with Okinawan brown sugar

When it comes to liqueurs that use brown sugar, brown sugar plum wine has long been recognized as “unique”. Almost every famous sake brewery in Japan produces a brown sugar plum wine. It has the tart flavor of plums and the sweetness of brown sugar. It's very good, but it's a little bit uniform, and a lot of the brown sugar plum wines are very sweet.

This pattern is starting to look different. On Nippon Television's program “Another Sky” (Houjou Shingo chapter), a new production of brown sugar liqueur was introduced to viewers. The orange label with the words “KOKUTO DE LEQUIO” (Ryukyu Brown Sugar) is the first thing you can see, and the whole bottle gives off a feeling of enthusiasm and free-spiritedness. The bartender, Shingo Gohanai, also hopes that the expanding popularity of the brown sugar liqueur will drive the consumer market for Okinawan brown sugar.

This brown sugar liqueur “KOKUTO DE LEQUIO” is made with Awamori sake, brown sugar, and a small amount of rum. The ingredients are simple: water, rice, and sugar cane. However, the brewing process is not simple.

First, Awamori is fermented with Sakura yeast. Sakura yeast is a natural yeast isolated by Mizuho Brewery from the cherry blossoms of Okinawa, and after careful isolation and cultivation, the natural Sakura yeast, which is excellent in aroma and efficient in fermentation, is selected for use in the fermentation of Awamori after the rice has been sweetened. Awamori with cherry blossom yeast is sweet and delicious, and has a complex aroma of flowers and banana milk.

Secondly, the brown sugar is a mixture of two types of brown sugar from Iriomote Island and Yonaguni Island among the brown sugar from the eight islands of Okinawa (Iheya Island, Ie Island, Awakuni Island, TARAMA Island, Kohama Island, Iriomote Island, Hateruma Island, and Yonaguni Island), which gives it the smoothness of the Iriomote Island brown sugar and the complexity of the Yonaguni Island brown sugar.

Finally, the rum is also made from Mizuho Brewery's own rum. The clean, rounded rum connects the free-spirited Awamori and the complex, heavy brown sugar, making the brown sugar liqueur even more integrated, both in spirit and in form.

◆ Smell: Brown sugar, caramel Banana, Persimmon Premium and fruity, slightly creamy

◆ Pure Drink: Complex brown sugar White flowers, fruity Caramel, molasses Dark honey, copal

◆ Finish: Brown sugar Rice aroma, if any Flower, Banana Milk caramel

Drinking it neat is not at all like a liqueur in the usual sense of the word; the simple yet complex flavor is much like a brown spirit like whisky or brandy, and the first thing that strikes you is that you can drink it straight on the rocks.

Since it is a liqueur designed by renowned bartender Shingo Gohan, it is also quite good at mixing drinks. Shingo himself recommends drinking it in your favorite ratio with milk or drizzling it over vanilla ice cream to give the ice cream a twist. In addition, it can also be blended with tonic water, unlike the refreshing and clean gin and tonic, brown sugar tonic becomes more complex, carbonation and amplify the aroma in the foam and brown sugar is not usually easy to feel, so the whole cup of brown sugar tonic is both complex and easy to drink, people feel that kind of want to drink a big mouthful of it but also want to carefully taste the contradiction.

I prefer to make an espresso martini with this brown sugar liqueur, as the complexity of the brown sugar gives the cocktail a different layer than the simple syrup made with white sugar in the classic recipe. If you remove the vodka and replace it with fruit juice or fruit wine, it not only reduces the alcohol content, but also brings a fruity flavor, and when combined with the floral and fruity aroma of the medium-light roasted coffee, you get a floral and fruity, refreshing and easy-to-drink espresso martini.

◆ Brown Sugar Espresso Martini Recipe

Medium-Light Baked Espresso 45ml KOKUTO DE LEQUIO 25ml Wild Cherry and Black Currant Liqueur 20ml

Shaken over ice Pansy Garnish

📝 KOKUTO DE LEQUIO

🤗 01 Brown Sugar from Okinawa

🤗 01 Awamori in Okinawa

🤗 03 Liqueur with Okinawan brown sugar

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