Back after a brief hiatus, Andy and Jim wax lyrical over a truly overlooked, and sadly undersold style of sake: honjozo. A class that has fallen victim to misinformation, you might be surprised to find out that some of the most sought after and valued sake around is, in fact, honjozo. So, fill a tokkuri and sit back as we dig deep on this secret star of the dinner table. 

Vocabulary

• Honjozo - 本醸造 One of the tokuteimeishoshu classifications, a sake that must have rice polished at least to 70% and can contain a small amount of added brewer’s alcohol.

• Tokuteimeishoshu - 特定名称酒 Special designation sake. The government-designated rules for labelling sake as ginjo, daiginjo, junmai, or honjozo.

Recommendations:

Andy -  Juyondai Tokubestu Honjozo Honmaru

Jim - Ugo no Tsuki Tokubestu Honjozo (See also New Moon)

Don’t forget to support us on Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/SakeDeepDive 

Also, check out Andy’s new sake tours at: https://www.originsaketours.com/ 

And buy Jim’s book, Discovering Yamaguchi Sake wherever you order your books (print and ebook available)!

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