Amazake — Sweet Fermented Rice Drink

Amazake is made throughout Japan and belongs to the household and shrine kitchen, where it is prepared in winter and handed out at New Year and Setsubun festivals. It stands in the same family of koji work as sake, mirin, miso and shōyu, all of which rest on the mould Aspergillus oryzae, and its method of working rice and koji together is of long standing in Japan.

Amazake (甘酒, literally 'sweet sake') is a Japanese drink of saccharified rice, thick, milky white and naturally sweet. In its koji form, cooked rice is held warm with rice koji, the mould Aspergillus oryzae, whose enzymes convert the starch of the rice to glucose and maltose without any yeast fermentation, so that the drink contains no alcohol or very little. A second form is made from sake lees (sakekasu), the pressed solids left from sake brewing, dissolved in hot water and sweetened with sugar; it may carry a trace of alcohol. Amazake is drunk hot in winter, often at shrine gatherings at New Year and Setsubun where it is given out to visitors, and cold in summer. It is also used in the kitchen as a sweetener in place of mirin or sugar in marinades, sauces and confections.

Koji amazake: sweet, milky, warm, with a subtle fermented grain depth underneath the primary sweetness. The flavour resembles diluted mirin or diluted sake-sweet without alcohol warmth. Sakekasu version: more complex, slightly funky, with sake's characteristic floral-yeast character. Both are warming, deeply satisfying, and distinctly Japanese.