This is a Shochu Gumi selection featured in September 2024!

Since 1717, Takahashi has been a sake brewery in Kyushu in an area well known for rice farming. This is the only shochu that they make using sake kasu from their daiginjo and ginjo sakes, and it is no wonder they use yellow koji as that’s what sake is made with (usually shochu is made with black or white koji). 

They prize their handmade koji-process as they used to be a koji shop, selling koji to other breweries around town. Yuko Nonaka of Honkaku Spirits (the importer of this bottle) told me, "During the koji-making process they use the Futa Koji Method—a traditional technique. A kojibuta is a box-like tool used for dividing the warmed rice koji into smaller portions, a step known as "mori." 

Tasting Notes: Marshmallows, daiginjo sake, saltwater taffy, kiwi
Food Pairing: “Chee-tara” fish + cheese snack, Macanese-style Portugese Chicken in Saveur Magazine
How to Drink: On the rocks or with soda

Features

• Distilled in Yame, Japan by Takashi Shoten
• Distilled from 100% daiginjo sake lees
• Koji: Yellow
• Distillation: Vacuum
• ABV: 30.5%
• Age: 1 year enamel tanks
• 24 oz (720ml)