This sour is based on a craft sake from Haccoba, a pioneering brewery located in Fukushima Prefecture. “Craft sake” may sound trendy, but it’s a term that's currently sweeping through the modern sake scene with a pop-culture flair. Simply put, it refers to sake brewed using traditional methods while incorporating secondary ingredients such as citrus, herbs, and other flavors for a unique taste profile.

The base sake is made with 100% rice grown in Fukushima and is brewed with hops and kabosu (a type of citrus), creating a layered flavor with both sourness and bitterness. It's delicious on its own, but when mixed with soda water and lemon syrup, it transforms into a refreshing and vibrant sour.

For this special can, we took it a step further and added a splash of Nakamura—a premium sweet potato shochu produced by Nakamura Shuzo in Kagoshima, another leader in its field. The result is a drink that blends the umami of sake with a citrusy tartness, herbal aromas, and a nostalgic note of sweet potato on the finish.

As a side note, sake mixed with shochu is known as hashira shochu (lit. "pillar shochu"). The practice dates back to the Edo period, and old texts mention that it “sharpened the flavor.” There are various theories behind its origin—some say it was to improve taste, others to prevent spoilage by increasing alcohol content. In a way, it was the origin of what we now call alcohol addition (aruten), still common in sake today. In most modern examples, neutral distilled spirits (unlike true shochu) are added to adjust strength and aroma.

But this time, instead of a neutral spirit, we used a top-quality authentic shochu—too good, some might say, to be used for such a purpose. The resulting drink is like a high-five between a fine brewed sake and a fine distilled spirit. That’s why we’ve named it the Sake Shochu Sour.

We hope you enjoy it.

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