This is the third installment in our JFEX2022 series. This week we feature a product from Yachiya Shuzo, an award-winning kura in Kanazawa, Ishikawa Prefecture. We will confine our comments to only one of their outstanding products—their unique Tea Sake. We encourage our readers to explore their other offerings, as well.
Twinkle, twinkle, little bat!
How I wonder what you’re at!
Up above the world you fly,
Like a tea-tray in the sky!1
Well, perhaps unlike Lewis Carroll, we at drinkingjapan.org have never seen a tea-tray in the sky, but if there is one at such lofty heights, it might very well be serving this appealing combination of tea and sake, black tea and junmai-shu to be precise, Kaga black tea steeped in junmai-shu to be more precise. This is a low-alcohol beverage, weighing in at 9.1% ABV. It has enough alcohol to be taken seriously but not so much as to distract from the flavor of the tea. We drank it cold, but according to the producer, it can also be served hot or at room temperature. Milk may also be added. We are not alone in our assessment of this terrific tea + sake beverage. It was a Gold Medal winner at the FEMINALISE World Wine Competition 2021-2022. We just cannot resist ending this entry with a “TTTTT-rrific!”
Footnote
1Songs from Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll et al. (A&C Black, Ltd., 1921).
Drinking Japan 