Awamori

Long-grain indica rice, mostly imported from Thailand, is washed, soaked and steamed, then cultivated entirely with black kōji. Long-grain rice is less sticky than Japanese rice, which makes it easier to grow kōji evenly on it. Black kōji produces large amounts of citric acid, which keeps the mash from spoiling in the heat. Water and yeast are added, the mash ferments for about two weeks, and it is distilled once in a pot still.

Awamori is usually bottled at 25 to 43 per cent alcohol, with 30 per cent a common standard. It is legally classified as a honkaku shōchū, but it is labelled and marketed separately, and Ryūkyū awamori is a protected geographical indication for spirits made in Okinawa by the traditional method.

Awamori that has been aged for at least three years is called kusu (in standard Japanese koshu). Since 2015, the label may say kusu only if the entire contents have been aged for three years or more; a stated age refers to the youngest part of a blend. Aging softens the spirit and develops sweet, vanilla-like and nutty aromas.

Traditionally, kusu is aged in large earthenware jars (kame). Families would set aside awamori at the birth of a child and open it on a later celebration. Kusu matured for a century or more once existed in old Shuri households, but nearly all of it was destroyed in the Battle of Okinawa in 1945.

Awamori is commonly drunk mizuwari (diluted with water and ice) with Okinawan food such as gōyā chanpurū, rafute (braised pork belly) and tofu. Good kusu is often sipped neat in small cups (chibuguā), or with just a little water. Awamori is also the base of koregusu, a hot-pepper condiment for Okinawa soba, and of mixed drinks with local citrus such as shīkwāsā.

On Yonaguni, Japan's westernmost inhabited island, a traditional first-run spirit called hanazake is bottled at up to 60 per cent alcohol; because of its strength it is legally classed as a spirit rather than awamori.