Miyoko Yamakawa, co-founder and president of Pisces Beverage Corp.
Thirty years ago when Miyoko Yamakawa came to America from Japan, her dreams of becoming a singer were put on hold when she married Jiro, a top Japanese chef in New York City, and moved to Rockland County to raise a family.
A year after the move, the Yamakawas opened Maiko 2, a New City restaurant where Jiro cooked and Miyoko sang for customers on Friday nights.
“He created this drink, and customers loved it,” Miyoko said of Jiro”™s homemade strawberry vodka. “People wanted to buy it.”
So, after 20 years in the restaurant business, the family sold Maiko 2 and began the process of bottling Jiro”™s creation.
Now their new business venture, Pisces Beverage Corp., located in the historic Garnerville Arts & Industrial Center, has created two styles of all-natural flavored vodka that are creating quite a stir in the spirits business.
Available in 750 ml bottles in about 80 liquor stores throughout Rockland, Westchester and Orange counties, Me Oko (an Americanized version of Miyoko, which means “beauty” in Japanese) is now starting to show up in stores in Sullivan and Ulster counties, as well.
Selling for an average of $25 per bottle, sales have been brisk with stores re-ordering regularly, according to Jeff Cohen, vice president of sales and marketing.
“People loved it; they asked for seconds,” Rob Norden, proprietor of the Old ”™76 House restaurant in Tappan, said of the strawberry-flavored Me Oko vodka.
Cohen has a standard response whenever someone who “doesn”™t drink vodka” won”™t taste Me Oko: “If it tastes like vodka, you can slap me in the face.”
Me Oko”™s first flavor, strawberry, hit the liquor store shelves in September. The new flavor, ginger, was launched this month.
“This is unlike so many flavored vodkas that are basically vodka with a little artificial flavor in it,” Cohen said. “The difference is our product is all-natural, so we buy hundreds and hundreds of pounds of strawberries or ginger and actually infuse the vodka with these fresh products, and then age it with the products in it. Then it is filtered multiple times.”
Cohen, a graphic designer originally hired by Miyoko to design the liquor bottle, said Me Oko”™s smooth taste can be partly attributed to the fact that it is 60 proof, where most vodkas are 80 proof.
“People who normally wouldn”™t drink straight liquor of any kind find that this product is very drinkable,” Cohen said. “It”™s something that people really have to taste to appreciate.”
The vodka is infused with strawberries for four to five weeks; ginger infusion takes six to seven weeks.
For Miyoko, who is in the process of recording a traditional Japanese CD, the dreams she had when she came to this country at age 27 have come true at last.
“We hope this story will encourage people to follow their heart to reach their dream and never give up,” Miyoko said. “It”™s never too late.”
The Web site is www.me-oko.com.
