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Company name: Helios Distillery
Co., Ltd.
Founded: 1961
Address: 405 Aza Kyoda, Nago City
TEL: 0980-52-3372
FAX: 0980-52-0878 |
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This distillery with a license
to produce five different kinds of liquor created a well-known Nago
brand that is already an established name although it is only 23
years old.
Of the 48 awamori distilleries in Okinawa, Helios is unique
in that it has gone through dramatic changes over the years. When
the distillery was founded in 1961, it engaged in manufacturing
rum made from sugar cane for the U.S. Army stationed in Okinawa.
After obtaining a license to make liquor, it began production of
black sugar liquor and habuzake, a liquor made from a habu
snake pickled in awamori. It also obtained a license to make
shochu spirits and began production of awamori in
1979. The distillery is very young in comparison with others, but
during the twenty years since then, its Kura brand-stored
in oak barrels-has become its main product, and it has won numerous
major international prizes. In the meantime, it also obtained a
license to produce beer and opened a brewery restaurant called 'The
Helios Brewery'.
Helios is the only distillery in Okinawa to produce awamori,
spirits, liqueurs, whiskey, and local beer. The undertaking
was motivated by the management concept of its founder, Tadashi
Matsuda, to create real and tasty alcoholic beverages. His successor,
Ryo Matsuda, has taken over not only the company but also the founder's
policies, to produce the Kura awamori brand, paying
due respect to traditional distillery techniques and developing
unique distillation and maturing processes. The awamori is
made from tasty natural water after unwanted iron and manganese
have been removed. The main ingredient, rice, is milled to remove
the outer part of the grain to produce ginjoshu. The awamori
made from strictly selected ingredients is kept in oak barrels,
which have also been carefully selected. It is kept there until
it matures into Kura, an awamori with an amber color.
The secret to the popularity of Helios' products is the distillery's
resolve to produce fine alcoholic beverages. |
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