Nankai Acou Rum: A Kagoshima Rum Made From Kokuto, Not Molasses

We already pour Nankai's kokuto shochu from the Amami Islands. This is the same importer, a different distillery, and a spirit that sits in an odd gap between two categories.

The Distillery

Ooyama Jinhichi Shoten is in Ibusuki, at the southern tip of Kagoshima, and has been making shochu since 1875.

Shochu is still the main business. But the sixth-generation distiller, Yohei Ooyama, also works on spirits that combine Japanese and modern distilling technique, and the rum is one of those.

The name comes from the Acou Tree of Miyagahama, the tallest ficus in Japan, which has stood through centuries of storms and is regarded locally as a kind of guardian. The importer describes it as revered for its calm strength.

Why the Base Matters

This is the part that makes the bottle interesting rather than just pleasant.

Most rum is made from standard molasses, the residue left after a mill extracts crystallized sugar from cane. It is cheap, abundant, and a by-product.

Nankai Acou is made from kokuto high-test molasses instead. Kokuto is Japanese unrefined cane sugar, made by boiling pure sugarcane juice for hours until it concentrates. Nothing is stripped out of it, so it keeps the flavor, the umami and the minerals that refining removes. It is a finished product in its own right, not a leftover.

Using kokuto as a rum base means starting from something that costs considerably more than the usual raw material. The numbers show it: the distillery needs 5,000 litres of kokuto mash to produce 500 litres of rum.

The kokuto comes from locally grown, communally harvested Kagoshima sugarcane, and the water is from Ibusuki's underground springs. Everything in the bottle is local, and there are no additives.

How It Is Made

For this rum, Yohei Ooyama distills the kokuto mash twice in small batches in a copper pot still, rather than using the distillery's shochu still.

That is a deliberate separation. A shochu still and a rum still are asked to do different things, and running the rum on its own equipment is a decision about character rather than convenience.

What It Tastes Like

The importer's notes: cane, citrus, papaya and lemongrass on the nose, then citrus, tropical fruit, chamomile, anise and cinnamon on the palate.

Papaya and lemongrass are the two that stand out, and they are not the words you would normally reach for with a Caribbean rum. They come from the subtropical climate the cane grows in, which is the whole argument for a Japanese rum existing at all.

The domestic bottling is 40% ABV.

How to Drink It

Neat or on the rocks first, to see what the kokuto is doing.

The importer also suggests a Rum Sonic, which is equal parts rum, soda and tonic with lime. That is a lighter build than a standard rum highball, and it suits a spirit with this much aromatic detail, since a full measure of tonic would bury it.

Pair It With

Grilled pork, anything with a sweet-savory glaze, and fried food that needs cutting through.

Try It at Juraku

Nankai Acou Rum is part of the rum selection at Izakaya Juraku, Lower East Side, alongside the Nankai shochu bottles. Check the current menu or ask the bar what is open.