Takashima Brewery in Numazu City has been extending its range of brews made with the Shizuoka-grown Homare Fuji Sake Rice into the Honjozo variety, that is sake which has been blended with pure rice alcohol.

Takashima Brewery-Hakuin Masamume Tokubetsu Honjozo Homare Fuji

Rice: Homare Fuji
Rice milled down to 60%
Alcohol: 15~16 degrees
Bottled in April 2011

Clarity: Very clear.
Color: Transparent.
Aroma: Light, discreet, fleeting.
Dry. Custard, banana.
Body: Fluid.
Taste: Dry attack. Complex. Fruity: custard, pears, almonds.
Disappears quickly with a dry pear note.
More dry pears tend to linger with further sips.
Turns even fleeting with food.
Faint notes of coffee beans and plums appear later.

Overall: A dry sake evidently conceived to balance heavy food such as of an izakaya.
Easy to drink but very dry.
Probably best appreciated with food although quite pleasurable on its own.

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