Making Shōchū (焼酎) in Haleiwa (Business In Hawaii)

Can Shōchū become the next big ripple in Hawaii?. He will discuss his apprenticeship at a traditional Kyushu “kura”
(Shōchū distillery), and how he applied his learnings to hand-made Shōchū, including hand-bottling and labels. (A small island, Kyushu has distinct Shōchū distllery regions — divided into rice, sweet potato, and barley-sourced Shōchū — with regional enthusiastic aficionados.) In the past decades, Shōchū no longer has just an older Japanese male following, and has made inroads to women, professionals, and overseas markets. Can Shōchū become the next big tipple in Hawaii? And can Hirata’s success lead to Shōchū as a new local industry, especially for export markets in Japan and other Asian countries, like rum was contemplated during the last years of the sugar industry in Hawaii? The host for this episode is Ray Tsuchiyama. The guest for this episode is Ken Hirata.

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