Izumo's spices are hot!

What is the charm of craft cola? September 23, 16:03

I want to leave the gritty city and live surrounded by abundant nature.

If you think so, what do you do in nature?

A man who moved from Tokyo to Shimane Prefecture noticed the local "spices" from Shimane.

The original handmade cola "Craft Cola" developed by blending various spices has become a quiet topic.

We covered the challenge of an I-turn man who rented a local field and started cultivating spices themselves.

(Matsue Broadcasting Station reporter Takato Horiba)

I turn to Shimane in search of nature

Unnan City in the Izumo region, in the eastern part of Shimane Prefecture, where the idyllic rural scenery spreads out.

Kentaro Yamada (30) moved to this town from Tokyo two years ago.

Originally from Osaka, Mr. Yamada moved to Tokyo when he entered university and got a job at a major company in Tokyo.

However, a few years after he started working as a salaryman, he began to feel stuffy in urban life and realized that he was "living while overdoing it."

Mr. Yamada

"While I can live with peace of mind in an environment where I have a job and get paid, I feel that I am living in Tokyo while overdoing it, or that I have little relationship with people, and I feel somehow squeaky. There ... When I wanted to do what I liked, I came up with the idea, "I want to live in nature."

Spices fascinated when I was a student

I wake up in the morning, watch the scenery of the rice fields spreading in front of my house, talk with the local people, and when I go to bed at night, I sleep surrounded by the frogs.

Mr. Yamada moved to Japan after being introduced by a friend of the university.

I started working at a friend's company that deals with product planning and farming experiences that utilize rice.

He said he was worried at first, but he gradually blended into this land as he touched on the kindness of the local people.

And he started thinking about what he could do here.

What came to my mind was "Spice," which I was fascinated by when I was a student, taking a year off from college and traveling around the world in 50 countries.

Yunnan also had a fascinating spice.

Mr. Yamada

"Every country has its own spices, and there was a life where local people cooked local food and lived by eating it. In India, there was a local land. There was a way to use spices, and even the same chai had completely different tastes, and I liked to come into contact with that kind of culture. Even after returning to Japan, I used to cook with various spices within my hobby. However, Yunnan City was famous for cultivating sardines, so I thought it would be interesting to make products using spices. "

I want to liven up the local area with products that use spices that I love.

That's where Mr. Yamada came up with ...

Play with "Craft Coke"!

It is a carbonated drink "cola".

In fact, cola contains spices such as cinnamon and vanilla beans.

Mr. Yamada noticed "Craft Cola," a handmade cola blended with various spices.

In Tokyo, "craft cola" is now a hot topic, with specialty stores gaining popularity.

By sticking to what can be obtained locally, we repeated trial and error to create an original cola that pursued "Shimane-ness."

Mr. Yamada:

"Even if I changed the spice blend little by little, the taste did not change so much in the end. I think that the trial was well over 50 times. Maybe 100 times. Still, I'm excited to discover what I don't know about how to use this spice like this, so I'm surprised that it's going to be like this, and I often hate it. But it didn't bother me at all. "

After more than a year of trial production, Yamada-san's special craft cola, which is a blend of 10 kinds of spices, was completed.

By using "Izumo ginger," which is a specialty of Izumo city, we are particular about "Shimane-ness."

In order to compete with this cola, we started selling immediately from the end of June, and now we are able to place products in 10 stores mainly in Izumo city.

Spice with your own hands!

I want to stick to "Shimane-ness" even more.

In February, Mr. Yamada rented a field of a local farmer for about 10 ares and started cultivating ginger and ginger, which is a specialty of Yunnan City.

Mr. Yamada has already developed four types of products, including not only cola but also chai and energy drinks.

I would like to continue to make original products that are particular about Shimane's spices.

Mr. Yamada

"The depth of spices is that you can make any taste depending on the combination and your own ideas. I would like to continue to make products that convey the fun of spices."

It's been about three months since we started selling it as a product, but some customers buy a lot of it because it's delicious, so it's very popular locally.

Cultivation of ginger and ginger is not straightforward, but I would like to continue to support Mr. Yamada's dream of delivering products using Shimane spices to as many people as possible.

Matsue Broadcasting Station reporter

Takashi Horiba Reiwa first

year in

charge of police, second year in charge of police, also interviewing Shimane's food

I like cola so much that I drink it like water