Akita Shuzos

Kodama Shuzo

Whilst I was in Akita I got to look at some great shuzos. One was a large facility, probably the biggest I’ve ever seen. It is located about 30 minutes out of the city of Akita so the landscape is quite rural.

I was shown around the facilities by the president, a very gracious man, I believe he said he was the 5^th generation of sake presidents (kuramoto). A great experience as I got to have a small drink of some junmai daiginjo that was at that moment being freshly pressed (removing the sake kasu or ‘lees’) and running through a small tap into a big tank. He ladled some out to me and I drank. I’ve only ever had that once before, at Banjo Shuzo that home of Kuheiji sake and it is a wonderful experience if you are a sake enthusiast like us.

They have 70 (huge) tanks. The president told me that if you drank half a 1.8L bottle every day, 7 days a week, it would take you 30 years to empty one. Of course you’d probably be dead by then J

Their sake was of excellent quality and one of the driest in Akita that we tasted. We look forward to supplying this great product.

We also look forward to importing their other products. They make traditional Akita pickles, miso, soy, dipping sauces and a large range of products.

If you go to our Facebook page you can see a short video of how they cool bottles of Junmai Daiginjo after heating them to pasteurise them. It’s quite simple actually. They bring them outside and let the cool in the cold Akita wind. It’s probably been done that way for centuries. Nothing like tradition.