Oka Vodka and Oka Yuzu Vodka: Rice Spirits From a Kuma Shochu House

We already pour Oka's gin. These are the two vodkas from the same brand, and they come from the same unlikely place.

Where They're Made

Tsutsumi Distillery, in the Hitoyoshi Basin in Kumamoto, about five kilometers from the Kuma River.

Tsutsumi has been making shochu there for close to 150 years, and it's one of only 28 distilleries certified as a Kuma Shochu producer, a protected designation of origin that works the same way as Scotch or Cognac.

OKA itself is a brand rather than a distillery, founded by Yuno Hayashi and named for her grandfather.

Oka Vodka

A 100% rice base, pot distilled.

Rice makes a distinctly different vodka from wheat or potato, lighter in body, with a soft sweetness that survives distillation. Coming from a house whose entire expertise is rice distillation, that's not an accident of the recipe; it's the thing they already know how to do better than anything else.

Oka Yuzu Vodka

The same rice base, then yuzu twice.

First: yuzu pulp and peels are macerated and pot distilled together, so the citrus goes through the still.

Second: after distillation, yuzu peels are macerated in the finished spirit for a week.

Those two steps do different jobs. Distilling captures the deeper, rounder citrus oils and locks them into the structure. Post-distillation maceration adds the fresh, volatile top notes that heat would have destroyed. Doing both is why it smells like actual fruit rather than like a flavoring.

Bottled at 35%.

Nose: Bright, juicy yuzu

Palate: Vibrant and oily, focused on yuzu peel, with jasmine blossom and a note of underripe mango

How to Drink Them

Oka Vodka cold and neat, or in a martini where the rice sweetness gives it body.

The yuzu one is the more useful bottle behind a bar. Soda and ice is almost enough on its own. It also makes a very good vodka gimlet and turns a plain highball into something worth ordering.

Pair Them With

Both go with clean, cold food, handrolls, crispy rice, seaweed salad.

The yuzu vodka also cuts fried food well. Try it beside karaage or tebasaki.

Try Them at Juraku

Both Oka vodkas are on the list at Izakaya Juraku, Lower East Side, next to the Oka gin.