For the love of Shirobara coffee

The Yomiuri Shimbun

13:00 JST, April 1, 2021

This time around, I’d like to introduce you to a famous product of Tottori Prefecture that I absolutely love.

It’s Shirobara white rose coffee. As you all can probably guess, this is different from your ordinary coffee with milk. Made by the Daisen Dairy Agricultural Cooperative in the town of Kotoura, this beverage is the prefecture’s drink of choice. Seventy percent of the drink is high-quality milk produced in the prefecture, and caramel and other flavorings are not added.

This is a thing of beauty, capturing the essence of the aroma of milk mingling with coffee.

It’s pretty sweet and has a rich flavor. I highly recommend it for people who don’t even like coffee. There’s a supermarket in Tokyo that stocks it.

A white rose is the symbol of the Daisen Dairy Agricultural Cooperative, and in the language of flowers, it has meanings like “purity” and “I am worthy of you.” I used to drink Shirobara milk at my elementary school. It’s rich and tastes fantastic.

Unfortunately, due to the pandemic, you can’t tour the factory where these products are made, but I hope this Shirobara fan can visit it someday.

I hope to one day take on a job where I can promote Tottori Prefecture to the rest of Japan; kind of like being an honorary commissioner or a train station master for a day. In that spirit, today I declare myself the honorary PR chief of Shirobara coffee for the day!

Remi Tokunaga

Remi Tokunaga, AKB48 Team8’s Tottori Prefecture representative, was born on Oct. 1, 2006, and plays second base for her junior high school’s softball team.