Category: Food & Drink

Orion Beer Announces Orion The Premium 🍺

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Orion The Premium Lineup

First teased on their Twitter account, Orion Beer is releasing a new drink called Orion The Premium on 10/25. Made with a “miracle yeast” from Okinawa, it has a rich taste that’s not bitter like other beer and leaves a clean and smooth aftertaste. (Sounds like the perfect beer for us!). The new beer’s motto is “From Okinawa to the World” so hopefully we’ll see it imported at your favorite local store. Karii! 🍻

Orion The Premium CM

Oh, and if you notice the voice for the CM’s song, that’s Awich and it’s a cover of Mongol800’s “Ryukyu Aika” which she’s releasing (see her Tweet below)!

“Kuro-chan” Cooks Okinawan Food with Anne (YouTube)

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Yuina Making a Kokuto Chai

This is back in April (yup, we’re still playing catch up!) but Kuroshima Yuina (“Chimudondon“) appeared on Anne’s YouTube channel where she was introduced as her friend “Kuro-chan”. Yuina and Anne cooked Okinawan food with vegetables sent from her father in Okinawa. If you’re not familiar with “Chimudondon” (which just finished airing this week), Yuina plays the role of Higa (later Aoyagi) Nobuko who is a chef that runs an Okinawan food restaurant in Japan and later in Yanbaru so it’s neat to see her cooking outside of her character. The video is English-subtitled so we can all learn how to cook Yuina’s Okinawan recipes — especially the kokuto chai pictured above.

Kuroshima Yuina (“Chimudondon”) on Anne’s YouTube Channel

Actress Touma Ami Becomes the 14th Calpis Water CM Character

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via Twitter

What a year for Okinawa! We have the drama “Chimudondon”, we’re seeing a lot of new single and album releases, and we now have news that actress Touma Ami has been chosen as the new Calpis Water CM character! Ami is the 14th in a line that includes many famous actresses. If the song sounds familiar, it’s a cover of The Boom’s “Kaze ni Naritai”. We’re big fans of Calpis so this makes us happy. 🤗

Touma Ami’s Calpis Water CM

Chunican & Blue Seal’s Big Dip Day

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Blue Seal’s CM Featuring Chunican

Blue Seal is currently running their Big Dip Day promotion (started on January 1st) and the CM features Chuning Candy! You can watch the other Chunican x Blue Seal videos on the ice cream company’s official YouTube channel.

Buy a single scoop of ice cream, get two mini-scoops for FREE on the 10th & 20th of every month!!

https://www.blueseal.co.jp/blueseal_topics/BigDipDay.html

Kachimba1551’s New Single “Bueno!”

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via Bueno Chicken

Okinawan salsa band KACHIMBA1551 released their first single CD “Bueno!” on 10/19! The song is a collaboration with the restaurant Bueno Chicken in Urasoe and is a KACHIMBA5 rearrangement of their song “Bueno!” which was originally released in 2014.

Check out their fun CM down below.

KACHIMBA1551 on YouTube

The band has a couple of albums you can stream on Apple Music.

Orion Beer’s First Collaboration “Shuri 1427”

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via Twitter

It’s amazing that Orion Beer is doing its first collaboration with a special beer named “Shuri 1427”. The collaboration is with Wolfbräu, a microbrewery located in Shuri, and the resulting product looks amazing (we bet it tastes amazing too). 1427 is the date that Ryutan and the Ankokuzan was created. Read more about the collaboration on Orion Beer’s website.

2nd Okinawan FEASTival

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We’re so happy to see a return of Shari’s Okinawan FEASTival! This year it’s running from September 1st to the 14th and there’s a lot of food 🍱 and drink 🍺 to be excited about. 😋

From the opening of American Cafe in 1923 to today, there has been over 350 Okinawan owned restaurants in Hawaii. Most of the original restaurants have closed but there is a new generation operating today. In the spirit of Yuimaaru (communities supporting one another, especially in times of need), we are asking the community to help support these local Okinawan owned restaurants. This year, FEASTival is teaming up with the Okinawan Festival! Festival will be virtual this year at okinawanfestival.com on  September 4th & 5th.

https://www.hawaiiokinawans.com/about

Be sure to check out the website’s FEASTival Specials page as there are limited time specials that can be pre-ordered. Be sure not to miss the handy text-only timeline version Shari created so you won’t miss out any specials.

2021 Virtual Okinawan Festival

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The Hawaii United Okinawa Association’s (HUOA) popular Okinawan Festival will sadly be virtual again this year but we’re still excited for it. They also have a t-shirt design contest going on that ends July 19th (check out their website for more details). Looks like for this year they’ll even be doing smaller in-person events and we loved the Okinawan FEASTival from last year so it’s great that they’re continuing it. This year it will take place on September 4th and 5th so be sure to subscribe to their YouTube channel to catch the virtual festivities.

We learned a lot in 2020 as we created our first ever Virtual Okinawan Festival. This year, we will continue our virtual format for the continued safety of our community. HUOA will continue to strive to bring you the best our culture has to offer with all the entertainment, singing, dancing, interviews and fun videos from the comfort of your own home. We will also be celebrating Okinawan FEASTival and encourage you to pre-order food from your favorite Okinawan-owned restaurant.  

In an effort to elevate the experience, we will also have a number of drive-through food orders and small in-person events. Be sure to check with your HUOA club and this website for more details.

https://www.okinawanfestival.com

They also have a presale for this year’s festival merchandise at https://shophuoa.com. Presale ends July 24th so don’t miss out!

(h/t JTB USA Honolulu)

Starbucks Okinawa’s Special Limited Frappuccino

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Starbucks Okinawa Chinsukou Frappuccino

To celebrate its 25th anniversary of coming to Japan, Starbucks is commemorating it with special Frappuccinos for each prefecture in Japan. Okinawa (#47) gets one made with chinsukou called the Karii Chinsukou Vanilla Caramel Frappuccino. It’s available from June 30th to August 3rd or while supplies last.

The product focuses on the traditional Okinawan confectionery “Chinsuko,” which has been carefully passed down from the Ryukyu dynasty to the present day. With a vanilla flavor base and a gentle taste of milk, put a whole “Chinsuko” with a slightly salty taste and blend it with ice and combine it with caramel sauce. To finish, top with whipped cream and crushed “chinsuko”. The crispy and crushed “Chinsuko”, vanilla flavor, and caramel sauce are intertwined, creating a dessert-like cup with a slightly salty and gentle flavor and a pleasant texture.

https://www.starbucks.co.jp/cafe/jimoto_frappuccino/okinawa/

So for those outside of Okinawa, if you can get your hands on chinsukou I wonder if it’ll be possible to make your own? Request a vanilla caramel Frap and make your own chinsukou crumbles? 🤔