Root beer is a beverage that shine. Japan’s only expert, Yu Takada, talks about the depth of root beer.

Root in medicinal herbs? The more you know about root beer, the more interesting it is.

Celeina (MC): First of all, let me introduce his profile: He was born in 1990 and hail from Ishigaki Island. He is the representative of “THE ROOT BEER JOURNEY,” a specialty root beer store that sells homemade barrel-aged root beer and several other types of root beer from around the world. He says he tends to attend art events rather than food events. Drinking root beer from around the world and Ryukyu Karate are your life’s work, and I hear that you are very knowledgeable about root beer.

Takada： Yes. I study it on my own.

Takano (MC): The clothes you are wearing today also say “ROOT BEER. It is cool.

Celeina：It’s nice. I’d like to start by asking what root beer is.

Takada：I call it a “medicinal meal beverage”.

Celeina： Medicinal meal?

Takada：Root beer is the parent of Dr. Pepper and Cola, and is what is called a spiced carbonated beverage. It is said that the prototype of spiced drinks started with root beer.

Celeina： I didn’t know that.

Takada：It is not familiar in Japan, but there are many varieties all over the world, and it is actually a very major drink.

Takano：Do you mean that it was around before cola?

Takada： Yes, that’s right. It was originally a derivative of beer, but it is also a very mysterious drink and has a long history.

Takano: I was wondering if Dr. Pepper could also be lumped in with the root beer genre.

Takada： In a broad sense, it can be called root beer. The definition of root beer is something that has root in it and is schwirly.

Takano：Does the “root” in root beer mean “root” as in roots of plants?

Takada： Yes, it does.

Celeina: A root beer is the root of a plant. Does it mean that the roots are schwirly?

Takada: Roots usually contain ingredients called saponins. This is true for burdock root and dandelion root, but they become foamy just by boiling them. That alone is a root beer, but when ginger is added, it can be called a root beer completely.

Takano: Is ginger ale also root beer?

Takada： Ginger is also a root, so it is a type of root beer.

Takano: It is interesting to discover.

Takada：That’s right. It’s not well known at all.

Takano：It is very nice to hear from the definition of this area, as it seems to expand the world.

The reason why we started developing our own root beer is because it was not available in Tokyo

Celeina：I don’t think there are many places in Tokyo where you can drink it.

Takada: The places that sell it are mainly at Costco, Don Quijote, Cardi Coffee Farm, and other imported food stores. Or you can drink root beer if you meet me when I’m playing root beer.

Celeina： You’re selling root beer?

Takada: I’m at events in Tokyo, and they serve a lot of different kinds of root beer. I am happy to hear that many people drink root beer for the first time after meeting me.

Celeina： Do you also make your own root beer blends?

Takada：Yes. Root beer is very popular in Okinawa, so I have been drinking it since I was a child. I was a little peeved that it was not sold in Tokyo, so I thought, “If they don’t have root beer, I’ll make it! So I started making it.

Celeina：I see. Is A&W the only store that sells it in Okinawa?

Takada：Yes, A&W is a hamburger chain that originally started as a root beer stand.

Celeina： I was wondering, is there a mass-produced type of root beer, or is there a small-batch, luxury, carefully crafted genre?

Takada：There are many kinds all over the world. There are about 1,000 varieties of root beer, and while so-called colas and Dr. Pepper are also called “pepper beverages” or “craft cola beverages,” they are nothing compared to root beer. There are many types of root beer made from many different ingredients, and the definition of root beer is very broad, so it’s a very large world. Today, I brought to the studio a sample of a root beer I made that I am considering commercializing.

Takano: It means you can drink it. The bottle looks really cool.

Celeina： Fashionable!

Takada： Root beer is a drink made by boiling medicinal herbs, so our root beer comes in a so-called medicine bottle.

Takano：The brown bottle has a very cool label design.

Celeina: The lid is also designed to look like it is closed with wax.

Takano：I’d like to display it above my bookshelf at home.

Takada： Thank you very much.

Celeina：I don’t want to be rude in front of Mr. Takada, but it is said that root beer tastes like a poultice. ……

Takano：You said it (haha).

Takada：It is said to be the so-called poultice or the world’s worst carbonated beverage.

Celeina：No, no, I wouldn’t go that far (haha). But if I were to use a simple taste analogy, that’s the impression I get. (Looking at Root Beer) It’s very schwirly, isn’t it?

Takada：Root beer is made from various roots, so the bubbles are very high, but the bubbles are produced by the herbal ingredients in particular.

Celeina：The amount of foam is like a draft beer.

Takada：When you make it with craft, you can get this much foam.

Takano：It is fluffy.

Celeina：It’s like cotton candy. And it smells great.

Takano：It’s delicious!　It’s refreshing.

Takada： It tastes like medicinal herbs, different from other root beers like A&W.

Celeina：That’s totally different.

Takada： The image of this root beer is that of Seirogan.

Takano：I guess you could say that, but it doesn’t taste medicinal at all.

Celeina：I have never had a root beer that tastes this good.

Takada：It has a proper taste that is different from what we call cola, and it tastes like wood.

Celeina：The taste of wood is very fitting. The bubbles are also very unique.

Takada：It’s just a splash.

Celeina： It shows such bubbles, doesn’t it?

Takada：I say it is a beverage that shows.

Making an original root beer with ingredients from Okinawa, where I am from.

Takano： Are there any particular points you focus on when making root beer?

Takada：I am from Ishigaki Island in Okinawa Prefecture, so I try to use herbs that grow in the wilds of Ishigaki Island. I use Okinawan ingredients such as pepper, which is called pipachi in Okinawa, and turmeric. Also, I am the son of a sugarcane farmer, so I use 100% sweetened sugarcane from Ishigaki Island.

Celeina：I see. It is very sweet, but has a clean aftertaste.

Takano: It’s not at all cloying.

Celeina：That’s why I want to drink one more sip. I have never had a root beer like this before.

Takada：It goes really well with junky food, like when you are eating meat.

Takano： Of course it is delicious with a meal, but it is also very satisfying to drink root beer by itself. It’s refreshing and makes me feel refreshed.

Takada：I think it tastes like a chill, relaxing drink.

Celeina：It makes you like root beer.

Takano：I think I’m going to get hooked on this one.

Takada：It’s a niche drink.

Takano：I want to follow social networking sites so that I can meet Mr. Takada.

Celeina：I want to drink more root beer where Takada-san is. I am definitely looking forward to the commercialization of this product. I would like to send you a song here, which was selected by Mr. Takada. Could you tell us why you chose the song?

Takada：This is a root beer song called “Root Beer Rag” written by Billy Joel, a famous singer, and it is from his 1974 album. Root beer has a chemical smell that works like a mouthwash and brings me back to the first sip every time. So it makes the junky stuff taste better.

Celeina: It’s like a mouthwash.

Takada：Billy Joel calls it a mouth-freshener, and he always plays it in between very famous pop songs. It’s a light piano instrumental song. Listen to it.

https://open.spotify.com/intl-ja/track/3dWUJZbTSnt03Vx2oKfrp9?si=9510c5bf5de54fc9

The depth of root beer connected to folklore and cultural anthropology

Celeina： Earlier, I heard about the original root beer syrup that you make, and I also heard that you have visited other countries to enjoy root beer in various ways.

Takada：I drank 50 glasses of root beer a day while traveling across the Americas and other places.

Celeina： Is there any root beer that you have encountered so far that has left a strong impression on you?

Takada： Vietnamese root beer is interesting; even the foam is black. It tasted out of this world, and there were root beers that were so black that no matter how much research I did, I couldn’t tell what they were made of. When I introduce root beer on Instagram, I also introduce songs and movies that go with root beer, and the movie that went with this root beer was “Apocalypse Now” about the Vietnam War.

Takano: Is there a sweetness to it?

Takada：There was some sweetness, but I was a bit disoriented. Also, it tasted like water that had accumulated under a cowshed, and the smell was fermented.

Celeina：That’s amazing (haha). So you are saying that root beer can be enjoyed in many different parts of the world, each with its own local flavor?

Takada: It’s not terroir, but what is interesting about studying root beer is that it is rooted in the land, so it goes into the realm of folklore and cultural anthropology. It’s a drink that got its name in America, but I believe it really started when humans invented earthenware and boiled something. That is a fascinating area to study.

Takano: It is very interesting to dig into.

Celeina: Interesting. Is there a root beer that you would like to drink again?

Takada：There are many root beers that I would like to drink. I would like to drink the root beer that the Amish still make in the pioneer days of the United States when there was no electricity or gas. Also, Taiwan is called the root beer capital of the world, and there are about eight different kinds of root beer. There is a very exotic Taiwanese flavor with salt in it, but there are also root beers with a lot of octagonal flavor. There are root beers all over the world that I haven’t tried yet, and I would like to drink them as I travel.

Takano: That sounds great.

Celeina：When I was listening to you talk about root beer, we could even talk about the history, root beer is very deep.

Takada：Thank you very much.

Celeina： “FIST BUMP”, today we welcomed Yu Takada of THE ROOT BEER JOURNEY, the only root beer expert in Japan. Thank you very much.