Sake News from Japan / Sake Muse

The Iza site reports that a Shiga Research Association for the Promotion of the Fermentation Industry was established on 6 September 2019 to grow fermentation into a new basic industry capable of boosting the local economy. One of Shiga’s well-known regional...

The Yomiuri Shimbun reports on ten kuramoto (蔵元, brewery owners) in the famous Nada Gogō area who held a tasting event in the Kitano Kōbō no Machi area of Kobe on 7 September 2019, prior to launching their brand Nada Ki-ippon. Around 260 sake enthusiasts joined them...

Sanyo News Digital reports that the Miyashita Brewery in Okayama City launched a facial lotion on 2 September 2019, containing their junmai daiginjō Tenka no Shisei (天下至聖), which is made with locally developed Omachi rice milled to 20%. The brewery noticed that the...

The Kyoto Shinbun has a very brief report of a new product from Gekkeikan – a non-alcoholic, no-carbohydrate drink modelled on daiginjō sake. The Fushimi, Kyoto-based brewery release their new “Special Free” on 26 August 2019. It comes in a 245 ml bottle, with no...

Excite News report on a new drink from specialist sake shop Kurayoshi Yurakucho, who are taking the newly repopularised “drinkable intravenous nutrition drip” amazake and turning it into an amazake tapioca milk for the young and hip this summer. Amazake is renowned...

I’ve been going through some old news articles from December 2018, hence the recent article about heating sake, but here’s a more recent one on a more summery topic from Excite News – sake on the rocks. The first question, amusingly enough, is “Is sake on the rocks a...

The Noma site features a long but ultimately interesting conversation between Yūichi Hashiba, 6th head of the Izumibashi sake brewery, and Nobuhisa Iwamoto, president of the Sankt Gallen beer brewery, virtual neighbours in the town of Atsugi in Kanagawa Prefecture....

The Nikkei Style site features an article on how sake can be better hot, increasing its aroma and umami factor. Kicking off with the obligatory seasonal reference, it points out that winter is the season for enjoying your sake warm, particularly together with dishes...

Hideaki Nakayama, reporting for GetNavi Web, comment that’s he’s been to lots of new product launches in the drinks business, but nothing like this. A new collaboration between a big name in the whisky world and a long-established sake brewery has seen Chivas Regal...