Awamori is an alcohol

Alcohol

In chemistry, an alcohol is an organic compound in which the hydroxy functional group is bound to a carbon atom. In particular, this carbon center should be saturated, having single bonds to three other atoms....

ic beverage indigenous to and unique to Okinawa, Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

. It is made from rice

Rice

Rice is the seed of the monocot plants Oryza sativa or Oryza glaberrima . As a cereal grain, it is the most important staple food for a large part of the world's human population, especially in East Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, the Middle East, and the West Indies...

, and is not a direct product of brewing

Brewing

Brewing is the production of beer through steeping a starch source in water and then fermenting with yeast. Brewing has taken place since around the 6th millennium BCE, and archeological evidence suggests that this technique was used in ancient Egypt...

 (like sake) but of distillation

Distillation

Distillation is a method of separating mixtures based on differences in volatilities of components in a boiling liquid mixture. Distillation is a unit operation, or a physical separation process, and not a chemical reaction....

 (like shōchū

Shochu

is a Japanese distilled beverage. It is typically distilled from barley, sweet potatoes, or rice, though it is sometimes produced from other ingredients such as brown sugar, buckwheat or chestnut. Typically shōchū contains 25% alcohol by volume...

).

Awamori is typically 60–86 proof

Proof (alcohol)

Alcohol proof is a measure of how much alcohol is contained in an alcoholic beverage. The term was originally used in the United Kingdom and was defined as 7/4 times the alcohol by volume . The UK now uses the abv standard instead of alcohol proof. In the United States, alcoholic proof is defined...

 (30–43% alcohol), although "export" brands (including brands shipped to mainland Japan) are increasingly 50 proof (25% alcohol). Some brands (notably hanazake) are 120 proof (60%) and will catch fire. Awamori is aged to improve its flavor and mellowness.

The most popular way to drink awamori is with water and ice. When served in a restaurant in Okinawa, it will nearly always be accompanied by a container of ice and carafe

Decanter

A decanter is a vessel that is used to hold the decantation of a liquid which may contain sediment. Decanters are normally used as serving vessels for wine. Decanters vary in shape and design. They are usually made of an inert material and will hold at least one standard bottle of wine...

 of water. Awamori can also be drunk straight, on the rocks, and in cocktail

Cocktail

A cocktail is an alcoholic mixed drink that contains two or more ingredients—at least one of the ingredients must be a spirit.Cocktails were originally a mixture of spirits, sugar, water, and bitters. The word has come to mean almost any mixed drink that contains alcohol...

s.

Another name for awamori used in Okinawa is , or shima for short.

In general the price of awamori increases with the beverage's age.

History

Awamori originates from the Thai drink lao lao. The technique of distilling reached Okinawa from Thailand

Thailand

Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...

 in the 15th century; Thai-style rice is still used in its production today. The Okinawans refined the distillation process, incorporating various techniques from nearby countries, making it more suitable for the subtropical climate and incorporating the unique local black koji

Aspergillus oryzae

Aspergillus oryzae is a filamentous fungus . It is used in Chinese and Japanese cuisine to ferment soybeans. It is also used to saccharify rice, other grains, and potatoes in the making of alcoholic beverages such as huangjiu, sake, and shōchū...

 mold. From the 15th to 19th century, awamori was sent as tribute to Okinawa's powerful neighbors, China and Japan.

Although also a distilled rice liquor, awamori differs from shochu in two ways: it uses Thai-style, long-grained Indica crushed rice rather than the short-grained Japonica

Japanese rice

Japanese rice, or japonica, is a short-grain variety of rice which is characterized by its unique stickiness and texture. It also comes in a variety called mochigome which is used for making mochi...

 usually used in shochu production; and instead of using white koji

Aspergillus oryzae

Aspergillus oryzae is a filamentous fungus . It is used in Chinese and Japanese cuisine to ferment soybeans. It is also used to saccharify rice, other grains, and potatoes in the making of alcoholic beverages such as huangjiu, sake, and shōchū...

 mold in fermentation (as in shochu production), black koji mold, indigenous to Okinawa, is used.

Before April 1983, awamori was labelled as shochu, second class, but it is now labelled as "authentic awamori".

Kusu

When awamori is aged for three years or more, it is called . This pronunciation is unique to awamori and Okinawa; elsewhere in Japan, the word is pronounced "koshu" and refers to aged sake. Legally, in order to earn the designation "kusu", over 50% of the awamori must be aged three years; in practice, the remainder is usually six months old. If a specific age is noted, then all of the contents must be of at least that age. Awamori is aged underground in constant cool temperatures in clay pots or vases. Containers of awamori can be found in the caves of Okinawa.
Before the Battle of Okinawa

Battle of Okinawa

The Battle of Okinawa, codenamed Operation Iceberg, was fought on the Ryukyu Islands of Okinawa and was the largest amphibious assault in the Pacific War of World War II. The 82-day-long battle lasted from early April until mid-June 1945...

 during World War II, 200- and even 300-year-old kusu existed, but all were lost in the battle. Several attempts are being made to produce these kusu again.

Hanazake

On Yonaguni

Yonaguni

is one of the Yaeyama Islands. It is the westernmost inhabited island of Japan and lies from the east coast of Taiwan, between the East China Sea and the Pacific Ocean proper....

, Japan's westernmost island, the three distilleries of Donan, Yonaguni and Maifuna produce a variant of awamori called , lit. "flower liquor", which has an alcohol content of 60%. Originally intended for religious ceremonies, hanazake is traditionally consumed straight.

Etymology

Awamori is thought to get its name from the bubbles that rise and swell during its distillation. The more bubbles, the higher the alcohol concentration in the final product.

Despite being commonly written with the kanji

Kanji

Kanji are the adopted logographic Chinese characters hanzi that are used in the modern Japanese writing system along with hiragana , katakana , Indo Arabic numerals, and the occasional use of the Latin alphabet...

 character 泡 (bubble), there are other theories on the origin of the name. One of these is that the name derives from 粟 (also pronounced awa), meaning millet

Millet

The millets are a group of small-seeded species of cereal crops or grains, widely grown around the world for food and fodder. They do not form a taxonomic group, but rather a functional or agronomic one. Their essential similarities are that they are small-seeded grasses grown in difficult...

, a raw material used to make awamori centuries ago, now completely replaced with rice.