It was a exceptionally warm and sunny day in Oakland for our first ever
Awamori Festival in August. It was a success! After spending five days in Okinawa with Yoko back in February, I brought back a suitcase full of bottles and treats to share with y'all. We invited our friend Nick Korn, an awamori and spirits expert from Boston, and we were ready to throw a fun party! Oakland showed up for it!
Awamori is Japan's ancient spirit, dating back to the 15th Century. It must be made in Okinawa using black koji and rice. Aging awamori in clay pots is a part of the tradition and it's not uncommon for a bottle to be aged for at least three years.
Here are some of the bottles we featured (from left to right in photo above):
Terroir Okage Method by Chuko Moon Distillery, made in 2022, 43% ABV
Danryu, 3yrs aged, 40%
Koshu No Sato, 44%
Awamori Umeshu by Seifuku
Ginger Liqueur by Seifuku
Santa Maria Gold Rum by Ie Island Distillery
Imuge by Seifuku, made with sweet potato + kokuto
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In addition to the bottles, we had tastings of kokuto (raw black sugar) grown on Ishigaki Island, and tofu-yo (tofu fermented in awamori). The tofu-yo was from the
Awamori Caves we visited in Kin Town, north of Naha. We highly recommend!
First thing's first: everyone received a welcome drink which was our Okinawa Punch, made with
Seifuku Awamori, shikuwasa juice (an Okinawan citrus), pomegranate juice, Campari, kokuto syrup.
Nick brought these amazing little earthenware cups for awamori called chibugawa – all guests tasted the awamoris in these and got to take one home!
Our awamori tasting bar!
We poured the awamori from vessels called kara-kara:
As a super special treat, Casa de Kei aka Keisuke Akabori made bowls of Taco Rice, a beloved local Okinawan dish. It is exactly as it sounds and it was deeeelicious!
This is the tofu-yo – you just have a tiny nibble, you can't have too much. It's funky and strong and goes perfect with sips of awamori:
Nick is awesome and actively engaged with all our curious guests. What exactly is awamori??? He had all the answers!
And Nick agrees we have the best community of spirit lovers!
At the end, we raffled off prizes like snacks and totes and this poster with all the awamori makers of the Okinawa Distiller's Association:
Thank you all for joining our Awamori Festival. We'll be sure to do it again next year!
A very special thank you to Nick Korn who was instrumental in making this event such a success.
Photos by JC, Sachiko, and myself.
