- Winter-months only -

Super Premium Sake

Daiginjo-shu, made from polished rice (milled down to at least 40% or less of its original size), is specially noted for its excellent flavor, hue and luster. It is a higher grade of ｇinjo-shu and with its rich aroma and light, smooth taste, daiginjo is often described as the art of Japanese sake.

Premium Sake

Ginjo-shu is made from polished rice (milled down to at least 55% or less of its original size,) kome-koji (malt rice) and water, or else may contain all of these ingredients with the addition of brewing alcohol. Laboriously prepared by slow fermentation under low temperature, ｇinjo-shu is known for its characteristic fragrance (fruity aroma).

pure rice sake

Junmai-shu is made only from polished rice (milled down to at least 60% or less of its original size,) kome-koji (malt rice) and water. Made purely from rice with no brewing alcohol or sugar content added, ｊunmai-shu is characterized by the fullness of the flavor of the rice used as an ingredient

Pure super-premium sake is made from polished rice (milled down to at least 50% or less of its original size), kome-koji (malt rice) and water. The ginjo-making method of slow fermentation under low temperatures results in higher kasu-buai (or kasu ratio), bringing out the unique flavor, color and gloss of Junmai Daiginjo-shu.
Kasu-buai is defined as the ratio of the weight of leftover kasu (unfermented rice residue, usually called “lees”) to the weight of the original rice and is expressed as a percentage.
Daiginjo-shu without any added brewing alcohol is called “pure daiginjo-shu

Sake matured without being pasteurized

When sake is matured without going through the pasteurization process, but is then heat-treated (hi-ire) once prior to bottling, such sake is referred to as nama-chozo-shu. Since nama-chozo-shu is still in its raw state while aging, the natural fresh flavor is well-retained.

Clicking each photograph,please see the ingredients labels such as the standard of the taste and the smell, the sake degrees, the acid degrees, the alcohol degrees, and raw materials .

Nihonshu-do (Sake Meter Value)

Nihonshu-do, or the specific gravity of sake, is a numerical scale for measuring the sweetness or the dryness of sake, which until now had been measured only by one’s palate. Nihonshu-do is measured by rating the specific gravity of water at 4 ℃ as plus/minus zero. Sake with specific gravity above zero is rated negative, and for those with (lighter) specific gravity of below zero is rated positive. Specific gravity increases as the sugar content in sake gets higher, which in turn is indicated by the sake meter value going further down the negative scale. This means that the degree of sweetness increases as the scale moves further along the negative scale, and the degree of dryness increases as the value moves up the positive scale.

Kobo (Yeast)

Although kobo is not the main ingredient of sake, as sake yeast greatly affects the flavor of sake, it can be said that it is the key element in the making of sake. The official name for sake yeast is “saccharomyces sake.” Sake making process starts with first steaming polished rice, which is the main ingredient of sake. Part of the steamed rice is used to cultivate koji mold, which converts the starch of the steamed rice into sugar. This sugar is necessary for cultivating kobo or sake yeast, which is used for producing shubo, a yeast starter for a batch of sake. Shubo then undergoes a process called danjikomi (mixing together water, kome-koji (malt-rice), steamed rice, shubo) to produce moromi (a mash mixture for causing fermentation) out from which sake is pressed and squeezed. To produce moromi with high alcohol content, parallel-dual fermentation process is applied. In this process, koji and yeast become concurrently active in breaking down starch into sugar and then converting the sugar into alcohol through alcohol fermentation.

Seishu kobo (saccharomyces sake)

Seishu kobo (saccharomyces sake) is the generic name for yeast used in brewing sake and is one of the elements that determine the flavor of the resulting sake. Saccharomyces cerevisiae is the yeast type most used, and frequently, the strain of the highest brewage level is specifically selected to produce sake. Yeast used need not be from a single strain. Several shubo can be mixed together, or techniques for blending together several types of completed sake may be applied so that the best of each strain can be combined to bring out the superior qualities of each type of strain.