I buy the 1.75 liter bottle. A local liquor store carries it because a couple of restaurants use in in their cooking.
It costs $40. The man never says anything, his wife rings it up and says "good stuff" - I told her that I was making vanilla extract.
She said she makes coffee syrup with "spices" using Everclear. For making coffee "strong" - They are asian but I'm not sure where exactly. They have a little shrine in a corner of the store but it is unlike the ones at the Thai or other SE Asian. To me it looks similar to a Shinto shrine that was in the home of a Japanese friend I worked with for several years.
Anyway, it is obvious they are not Muslim.
Now I know. I asked a neighbor, who is friends with the couple who own the store and in fact she was the one who told me they carry it in the big bottles a few years ago.
The couple are from Okinawa and apparently coffee is a very big "thing" on the island. They are actually growing coffee there for about 25 years. Some growers are also experimenting with growing the vanilla orchids on the island which is in the "zone" where the day and night temps are ideal.
(TMI - I know, I just thought it was interesting)
