Okinawan awamori absorbs flavors of Hawaii

Randy Kuba, founder of Lotus Spirits, has taken a traditional Okinawan drink — awamori — and enhanced it with the same flavors used by Hawaii’s sugar plantation workers, who turned whatever was at hand into their own kind of liquor.

It was were jokingly called “swipe,” he said, sort of like an okolehao or moonshine distilled from native ingredients.

Kuba, a Realtor whose real passion centers on importing and bottling awamori, has developed a few new flavors based on the recipes of the oldtimers, which he will introduce at a tasting this weekend at the 36th annual Okinawan Festival, held at the Hawai‘i Convention Center.

One new flavor incorporates chili peppers in a nod to Hawaii’s widely loved chili-pepper water; another blends ginger and sugar cane. He is bringing six to be sampled at the event, presented by the Hawaii United Okinawa Association to celebrate the bond between the Japanese island and the immigrants who brought their culture to Hawaii in the early 1900s. A total of 10 varieties will be sampled at the festival’s tasting; four will be provided by wholesalers The Cherry Co. and Wismettac Asian Foods.

Also planned is a pairing of awamori with dishes from six restaurants. They include a dish from chef Alan Wong, who has Japanese roots. It will be paired with Wong’s own Nakijin awamori, aged three years in a traditional earthenware pot. The taste is mild and mature, with a slightly sweet rice aroma, and works well in specialty cocktails. It is a potent 43 percent alcohol (most of the other varieties at the tasting are about 24 percent.)

Awamori is made with Thai indica rice, once prized by the rich and royalty, and black koji mold indigenous to Okinawa. Together, they produce the purest, most well-balanced spirit, Kuba said. Awamori has been made since the 15th century.

Kuba, who along with his wife has ancestral roots in Okinawa, started bringing awamori to friends and family 15 years ago, following his frequent visits there. (His wife, Frances Nakachi Kuba, is a master instructor of Okinawan dance.) He soon began importing it by the case and supplied many military servicemen who had acquired a penchant for the beverage while stationed in Okinawa.

In 2003, Kuba set out in search of his grandparents’ roots and found them in the tiny mountainside village of Kunigami in Northern Okinawa. Distilling awamori was the main livelihood or “lifeblood of the village,” he said. The heart of the community was shaped by a cardinal belief in working together and putting each other above themselves.

The villagers’ values and work ethic so impressed Kuba that he was determined to share their beliefs, as well as their distilled spirit, with Hawaii, which he calls a gateway to international tourism. His product tag line: “Born in Okinawa, Brought to Hawaii, Filled With Aloha.”

He put his name on the villagers’ brand of awamori, and today Kuba Awamori is his best-seller. He will bring it to the festival. “I worked with Okinawan distillers to blend sugar-cane spirits (sugar cane is abundant there) to suit the international taste palate. Kuba has a smooth melon- like flavor, no bite, excellent to pair with Hawaii Regional Cuisine dishes,” he said.

At the festival, he is introducing Aloha Awamori, flavored with chili pepper, which can be used like Tabasco sauce to make a bloody mary; and the sugar cane-ginger blend that’s good for cooking and marinating meat.

He predicts that another new offering, Shaka Awamori, will appeal to younger drinkers. “It is an adaptable spirit, which can be utilized as a tropical tiki cocktail (it mixes well with citrus fruits) or consumed by itself on ice,” Kuba said.

It is similar to a light rum, he said, a reflection of a plantation practice brought on by necessity.

“The immigrants hand-carried small amounts of awamori when they first came here, so they needed to stretch it. They combined rum with the awamori and shared it with the other ethnic plantation workers as a pau-hana beverage.”

Three years ago, Kuba opened a small factory in Kalihi where he bottles and mixes blends of awamori in bulk. He works with Okinawan families who have recipes originating from the plantation days. Kuba also sells Okinawan “kame,” ceramic bottles artfully made of earthenware and stoneware, in which customers can age the spirit at home to bring out its smoothness and aroma.

Okinawans are known for their longevity, commonly reaching 100 years old, but Kuba stops short of saying that awamori is the secret to long life.

In introducing the liquor in private tastings, he puts emphasis on the cultural aspect of awamori and its part in a healthy lifestyle. Awamori is often mixed with herbs with medicinal qualities, such as turmeric, that become more effective when mixed with alcohol.

In order to control the potency of awamori, Okinawans believe in sipping it in moderation, a mere half-ounce per day in a tiny cup called a “choko.”

“It’s not just partying every night,” he said.