What Lequio Is Made Of — Okinawa in Four Materials

According to Mizuho Shuzo, this yeast — sakura yeast — is a proprietary strain that Akira Nakazato isolated in 2015 from the kanhizakura on Yaedake, in Motobu. The rice koji is made from Thai-grown rice, using black koji as the mold. This awamori is designed as a new release rather than an aged kusu, and its 40% ABV is a strength chosen with cocktail use in mind. Mizuho Shuzo describes it as carrying a floral aroma like white blossoms, notes suggesting banana and strawberry, and a soft sweetness like mochi — a design that favors lightness over weight.

According to Mizuho Shuzo, in the decade or so since its discovery, this yeast was researched mainly as a base for gin and liqueurs, not for awamori. The ten years describe its research history, not the age of the awamori itself.

The "A" on the label stands for both Awamori and Start. The pink is the color of the kanhizakura on Yaedake.

Kokuto — unrefined cane sugar — is made by boiling down pressed sugarcane juice, with no additives, over several hours, until it sets; this is different from ordinary brown sugar, which is refined sugar with molasses added back in. This liqueur blends two kokuto, black sugars from Iriomote and Yonaguni: Iriomote plays a creamy, rich role, Yonaguni a bitter accent. The base is Ryukyu awamori brewed with sakura yeast, combined with a small amount of kokuto rum; the two kokuto are dissolved into it, and the blend rests for several days before bottling. Sweet on first impression, the finish runs dry and layered. ABV is 20%.

This liqueur stands in the lineage of ONERUM, the project through which Okinawan distilleries turn kokuto into rum.

The label is by Vancouver-based designer Benjamin T. Stone, drawing on bingata, shisa, and hajichi motifs.

JAL's international first-class lounges have served this liqueur since 2023.

The botanicals are three plants that grow in Yambaru, the forested north of Okinawa's main island: shikuwasa (peel and seeds), shell ginger, and pipachi. The base is a white rum made from 100% Okinawan-grown kokuto, fermented with the distillery's own yeast, sourced from its sugarcane fields. Rum double-distilled in a stainless pot still is then steeped with the three botanicals and distilled a third time in a copper hybrid still — the same method used in making gin. It is not aged. Mizuho Shuzo describes a tropical, spicy top, a mellow sweetness from the kokuto, a fresh shikuwasa aroma, and a lingering finish of shell ginger and pipachi. ABV is 43%.

Yambaru is the forested region across the north of Okinawa's main island. According to the maker, the shikuwasa used here is the peel left over after juicing.

Pipachi is a spice known in Okinawa as "island pepper."

The botanical is katsuobushi — several kinds, blended with the cooperation of the Motobu Fisheries Cooperative. The base is a white rum made from Okinawan-grown kokuto, unaged. Within this rum, smoke and umami are different in kind: smoke is an aromatic element, while umami is a flavor element that carries no aroma of its own. In profile: smoky first, with fruit and umami running underneath, through to the finish. ABV is 43%.

Katsuobushi is a dashi ingredient, used at the Japanese table for centuries as a source of umami. Motobu is a town in the north of Okinawa's main island. The umami of the katsuo has dissolved directly into this one bottle of rum.