Yamamoto Honke ‘Yuzu Omoi’ from Fushimi Kyoto and Takachiyo 59 Junmai Nama Red Sake Yeast
Sake #1: Yuzu Omoi by Yamamoto Honke in Fushimi, Kyoto was the first sweet sake to be featured this week. It is the best yuzu infused sake available in the US market and I was excited to share it on video! The SMV is -70, so it is very sweet. But it also has an acidity reading of 11 (most sakes fall between 1-2), which balances out the intensity of the sugar and makes the yuzu pop. Think of a sweet lemonade on a hot summer’s day! On their website, they recommend heating it up in the winter, which was a new concept to me. I had only ever enjoyed this sake super cold to almost freezing. When I experimented with heating, I got it to tobikirikan (133F) and the first thing I noticed was the pungent citrus smelling steam coming off the top. On the palate, the sake became a bit less sweet and the acidity was intensified. I am happy to know I can enjoy Yuzu Omoi freezing cold in the summer, as well as pipping hot in the winter!
Sake #2: The next sake is a semi-sweet Junmai Nama with a pale red color. It’s called 59 Takachiyo ‘Red Sake Yeast’ from Minamiuonuma, Niigata. The yeast is a mutation of kyokai kobo #10, where a compound develops inside the yeast cells which then oxidizes and changes the color of the sake. Pretty cool! There were aromas of vanilla bean, steamed rice and papaya on the nose, with some peaches on the palate. This is an interesting sake, but it lacks complexity and dimension. It is also unpasteurized, which I didn’t even notice while tasting it. The semi-sweet character with some elevated acidity (not as high as the yuzu-shu) was what stood out the most. I was hoping for a more fulfilling experience, as this sake costs $47 for a 500ml bottle!
Four of the 7 kitkats featured in my video! From the left… Masuda Shuzoten Masuizumi Karakuchi Sake KitKat, Niizawa Sake Brewery Yogurt-Shu KitKat from Niigata, Hamakawa Shoten Yuzu-shu KitKat from Kochi and Heiwa Shuzo Umeshu KitKat from Wakayama.
Secret Video: Sweet sake week ended with a surprise video. The theme was… sake KITKATS! While doing some research, I realized that since the first sake kitkat was released in 2016, there have been six more styles and 5 of them are brewery specific! The original sake kitkat seems to no longer be produced. It’s a sad fact, because that was my favorite of them all! It had a white chocolate coating, with sake flavor between the wafers with some banana notes. Oh well! The new basic sake kitkat comes from a brewery called Masuda Shuzoten from Toyama Prefecture. They use sake from their Masuizumi brand and it is actually karakuchi, which means it’s a dry sake. The kitkat was still sweet, but the sake taste was more severe. Next up was Niizawa Sake Brewery’s yogurt-shu. This one smelled like mozzarella, tasted like sweet fresh cream and then got very tangy, bitter and acidic. I think they were trying to replicate that authentic yogurt flavor. Not my favorite, but very complex and I think it could grow on me! The remainder of the kitkats were yuzu-shu from Hamakawa Shoten in Kochi, ume-shu by Heiwa Shuzo in Wakayama and a Daiginjo style kitkat by Sakura Masamune in Hyogo. One of the six was not brewery specific, and that was the Sakura Sake kitkat made for hanami, aka cherry blossom viewing season. I threw in a ‘sparkling wine with strawberries’ kitkat which was probably my least favorite of all. I think it’s nearly impossible to replicate the flavor of sparkling wine in a candy, so this was kind of a fail. It had pleasing strawberry aromas, but the wine part just tastes weird and off. Check out the video here: Sake KitKats!