Kokuto Okinawa Island Sweetness - Journeys in Japan

0:01 [music] Blue and green,

0:09 the colors that define the scenery of the Okinawa Islands.

0:14 Fields of sugar cane sway and rustle in the breeze.

0:18 [music] The juice pressed from this sugar cane is carefully cooked

0:22 down to create a traditional form of sugar known as coco.

0:28 That's the way it's [music] been made here for over 400 years.

0:35 [music]

0:36 Okinawa was then known as the Ryukyu Kingdom.

0:39 Ever since, Koko has remained a staple in people's daily lives.

0:52 You do like this.

0:53 On this edition of Journeys in Japan,

0:56 Michael Kea explores the [music] enduring appeal of this homegrown

1:00 source of sweetness that encapsulates the spirit of these southern islands.

1:08 [music] [singing] [music] Around 1500 kilometers southwest of Tokyo,

1:25 Okinawa's main island lies on the edge of the East China [music] Sea.

1:33 Drawn by its subtropical climate and unique history and [music] culture,

1:37 tourists find this island archipelago has a very

1:41 different flavor [music] from the Japanese mainland.

1:49 Michael [music] lives in the countryside outside

1:51 Tokyo where he runs an organic farm.

1:59 Hi, I'm Michael Ke.

2:00 This time I've come to Okinawa.

2:02 Now, one thing I love about Okinawa is it has a wide variety

2:05 of foods that you can only find here and not on the mainland.

2:07 And this time I'm going to learn all about coto or black sugar.

2:11 Now, it's a sugar that looks like brown sugar, but it's completely different.

2:14 Has a new texture, flavor, and aroma.

2:17 And I'm sure if we look around, we're going to find it right away.

2:19 So, let's get started.

2:24 I found it.

2:25 It's over here.

2:28 If you look at it, you can see it's got a much darker,

2:31 richer color than uh your typical brown sugar does.

2:36 So, this must be a Okinowan sweets shop.

2:55 Just opening, I could smell that coto aroma.

2:58 It's absolutely strong.

3:03 That's really good.

3:04 It definitely has that distinct flavor that only kto has.

3:18 In the heyday of the Ryuku Kingdom,

3:21 [music] Okinawa was an important hub for trade between East Asian countries.

3:30 Sugar making was introduced from China in [music] the 17th century.

3:34 It's done by boiling down the sugar cane juice,

3:37 adding a small amount of lime powder to help it solidify.

3:42 To this day, cocoa [music] is still produced by this same simple method.

3:47 It's an Okinawan specialty.

3:55 Most coca is produced on eight small islands away from the Okinawa mainland.

4:04 Michael is set off to visit one of those islands.

4:07 It's called Eima.

4:12 Eima was formed by the uplifting of a coral reef.

4:17 The islanders have produced cocoo here since the days of old.

4:37 Looks like you're busy harvesting right now.

4:54 Looks like they have uh sugar cane here.

5:05 Tommo Chinati is a sugarcane farmer.

5:09 He was born and bred on Eima.

5:25 Fresh sugar cane.

5:41 the soil in Eima is dry as it doesn't hold the water well.

6:09 Just wait.

6:18 Harvesting sugar cane is hard work as the leaves and husks

6:22 have to be stripped off one cane at a time.

6:33 [laughter] Yeah.

6:58 [laughter] [music] The locals also work together to produce their cocoa.

7:14 The harvested sugarce is taken

7:16 to the local refinery where it's immediately pressed.

7:20 The juice is then boiled down until it can be solidified.

7:27 The finished coco is packed with flavor, sweetness,

7:31 and the concentrated nutrients of the sugar cane.

7:55 Wow.

7:55 You can see the entire island from up here.

8:02 From this vantage point down below,

8:04 you can see why sugarce would be such a staple on this island.

8:15 The ferry is waiting to take Michael back to the main island.

8:26 What's this?

8:29 [music] This building was a welfare institution offering loans to the villagers.

8:38 Built almost a 100red years ago, it suffered severe damage in World War II

8:42 and has been preserved as a heritage site.

8:52 In the final months of the war, Okinawa was the site of fierce ground combat.

9:00 The fighting left the islands scorched and in rubble.

9:04 About a 100,000 civilians are thought to have died.

9:10 But the islanders found strength and reassurance

9:13 in the resilience [music] and sweetness of their sugar cane,

9:16 which quickly springs back up even after it's knocked down.

9:40 Hey, how you doing?

9:42 Hey, I'm Michael.

9:42 Are you Crystal?

9:44 Yes.

9:44 Nice to meet you.

9:44 Nice to meet you.

9:47 Crystal Bernett is from the US.

9:49 She's lived on Okinawa's [music] main island for 10 years.

9:53 Her deep interest in health [music] and longevity

9:55 has led her to study Okinawa's food traditions.

9:59 She also leads [music] tours for visitors to experience life on the island.

10:05 [music] They drive north.

10:07 They're heading to Higashi,

10:08 a village where Koko plays a part in people's everyday lives.

10:17 [music] Nice to meet you.

10:42 Nice to meet you.

10:42 [laughter] 73-year-old Moto Mura Tamiko has lived in this area all her life.

10:49 She's an Okinawan through and through.

10:54 She takes them around her fields.

11:00 Take it.

11:14 Tomato.

11:34 All right.

11:34 So, I've uh been in Okinawa for a few days now,

11:38 and I'm looking forward to getting breaking a sweat and helping out.

11:41 I love digging soils.

11:43 So, let's get started.

11:50 Okay.

12:07 [music] So, this is basically how I spend most of my days back in Kanagawa.

12:19 So, I'm kind of on uh cruise control while doing this.

12:31 [music] Easel.

12:32 Crystal, how you getting along over there?

12:35 Apparently, I need more power.

12:36 [music] Need more power?

12:38 Apparently, I'm not strong enough.

12:40 She's She's stronger than me.

12:46 [music] Oo.

12:49 Wow.

12:50 It's not necessarily [music] the biggest farm,

12:52 but in this Okinawa sun, it's really hot out here.

12:56 I'm breaking a sweat.

13:23 What I always say about coto is that it's like the equivalent

13:26 of the energy drinks that people drink now these days when they work out.

13:31 Yeah.

13:31 So this this dark brown sugar was like

13:32 a Okinowan's energy drink back in the day.

13:36 It has a lot of vitamins and minerals in it

13:38 that really replenish everything that you lose through your sweat.

13:40 Oh, nice.

14:09 Moto also uses coca in her everyday cooking.

14:17 She's preparing local wild boar seasoned with coca, salt, and sake.

14:44 It's so good.

14:45 Um, unlike regular white sugar, it's got a lot more depth in the sweetness.

14:49 I'm tasting different minerals in there and it uh really

14:53 makes for a lot more depth in this type of recipe.

15:13 Despite [music] its long reputation as a healthy food,

15:16 demand for coca has been hit by [music] changes in people's

15:20 diets and the drastic drop in tourism during the co pandemic.

15:25 In 2021, [music] unsold inventories rose to a critical level.

15:31 However, that challenge has given rise to even greater possibilities.

15:47 This distillery produces aamorei, the [music] local liquor of Okinawa.

15:55 It's a distilled spirit made from rice and a black type of cooji mold.

16:04 Drawing on his [music] expertise in distilling awamorei,

16:07 Nakazato Akida has developed a line of rums,

16:11 each made [music] with a different type of coco.

16:44 Oh, it's so good.

16:46 It's got It actually breaks down much easier.

16:49 It's a very soft texture and it has almost

16:52 like a like a almost a fluffy type of flavor.

17:07 Wow.

17:07 It's got a much stronger bitterness to it.

17:10 Heavier flavor.

17:12 This one actually kind of reminds me of molasses.

17:29 Michael tries the rum made with cocado from Auni.

17:33 It has a mellow sweetness.

17:36 Oo, it's got a buttery type of uh aroma to it.

17:46 That's really smooth.

17:49 It's got it's it's a little bit of a higher alcohol content,

17:52 so it's got a bit of a spiciness to it,

17:55 but uh yeah, it doesn't have any aggressive tones in it.

17:58 Very uh nice melt.

18:30 Nakazato's [music] passion has given rise to a new line of Okinawan liquor.

18:38 Wow.

18:42 Wow, this place is beautiful.

18:44 Thank you.

18:47 Bartender Sugioda Satoshi has a growing international reputation.

18:52 [music] He's developed a range of spiced rums that combine

18:56 Nakazato's Kokoto rum with flavors drawn from Okinawa's [music] food tradition.

19:07 This is another approach to the cocado to see the cockto's [music] potential.

19:14 M.

19:17 Oh, it's completely different.

19:18 [music]

19:19 Actually, this is a main flavor come from the assa,

19:21 which is like a sea lettuce in Okinawa.

19:23 It's quite an important ingredient for the Okinawan cuisine.

19:27 Oh, sea lettuce.

19:30 Assa or sea lettuce is a local seaweed

19:33 [music] that is harvested in the early spring.

19:37 The reason why we use this like a botanical because like

19:41 uh the the harvest time of the sea lettuce is very limited.

19:45 So but we can see like a sho lettuce on the table in entire year in Okinawa.

19:50 But how could they keep it?

19:52 They keep inside a freezer.

19:54 But sometimes like a surface of the sea lettuce became a bad color.

19:58 Yeah.

19:58 Then they try to put it back to the ocean.

20:00 Even the flavor is still fine.

20:02 So we just try to let them stop.

20:04 Please, we just use it for the distilleration.

20:07 Oh, so rather than it being wasted,

20:09 you decided to turn it into delicious alcohol.

20:12 Oh, that's a point.

20:15 Other examples [music] include shiquasa limes,

20:18 which are mostly discarded after being squeezed for juice,

20:22 [music] or local bonito flakes, which are facing a drop in consumption.

20:28 Sugi [music] is promoting his cocoo rums abroad

20:31 as a way to support Okinawa's food [music] producers.

20:47 [music] Wow.

20:49 Absolutely incredible.

20:52 He also [music] adds a playful touch to some of his creations.

20:55 The inspiration for this one is Okinawa soba noodles.

20:59 [music] It's made with rum flavored with bonito flakes.

21:05 M.

21:08 Oh wow, that's so good.

21:11 There.

21:11 So there's a depth and there's so many different flavors.

21:13 A little bit of sweetness, sour, and that umami coming through.

21:18 So much happening at once.

21:19 My mouth is surprised.

21:22 I just work in the big city.

21:24 This is my first challenge to work in the local bar

21:27 but uh I realized like it's quite easy to connect

21:31 with our the first industry see like a master distiller aan

21:37 like local factory like a local farmers and we decided to support

21:41 them in somehow what we can do as a like a bar team

21:46 we have like a strong connection to the world so we just want

21:49 to support them for introduce how Okinawa has a great product in here.

21:54 That's beautiful.

21:55 Thank you.

22:12 [music] The roots of Koko culture run deep in Okinawan society.

22:22 In the old [music] days,

22:23 each village had its own small refinery producing its own local cocoa,

22:29 even on the Okinawa [music] mainland.

22:44 Toguchi Suguru is one of the few

22:46 Kokoto artisans [music] left on the main island.

22:50 He continues the tradition passed down by his grandfather.

22:54 He also offers hands-on coca workshops.

23:13 Toi goes to great lengths to capture the flavor of the fresh sugar cane.

23:26 He pours about 25 L of juice into his cauldron

23:30 and simmers it down over a wood fire, reducing the liquid fast.

23:43 H smells almost like roasted marshmallows.

24:01 As he works, he draws on his memories

24:03 of the aromomas and textures he learned from his [music] grandfather.

24:08 He was a true artisan, and he taught Toguchi everything he knows.

24:23 Toguchi worked as a salary man until his 30s.

24:27 But after his [music] grandfather died,

24:29 he quit his job and became a Kokoto craftsman.

24:39 foreign.

25:17 sticky.

25:21 After just an hour and a half, it's done.

25:31 Oh, okay.

25:34 Once the pot is removed from the fire,

25:36 the thick syrup has to be stirred constantly as it cools.

26:12 It's still really warm and it's bringing that really nice rich aroma.

26:28 Coco when it's still only half hardened.

26:32 It's a very special treat.

26:45 All right.

26:56 [music] Cotto has always reminded me of the southern Japanese islands,

27:01 but I never pondered exactly why.

27:03 [music] On this journey,

27:05 I learned that the connection between sugarcane and Okinawa

27:08 goes deeper than the soil in which it is grown.

27:11 Historically, it [music] has helped sustain the society here

27:14 thanks to its ability to be grown in difficult conditions.

27:17 And culturally, I learned that to this day,

27:20 it is still [music] tightly woven into the fiber of the local's lifestyle.

27:24 And this can be easily seen in the food culture as well as in Yuimaru,

27:27 [music] or a community of mutual support.

27:30 And I hope that this culture continues for future generations.

27:39 [music] From Tokyo, flights to Naha take around 3 hours.

27:45 To reach Eajima, it's about 30 minutes by ferry

27:48 from Moto Port in the [music] center of Okinawa's main island.

27:56 [music]