【First Subscription Box Report】A Sake Subscription Experience Entrusted to Professionals

Are you familiar with what a "Hanpukai" (subscription box) is?

It is a system where you pay a fixed fee, and a liquor store selects and sends you products.

I have longed for this system for a long time.

While I was searching on social media for a good subscription box, I received this comment from "La jomon," a local sake specialty store in Yamagata Prefecture. (It is a famous shop in Yamagata Prefecture).

I immediately checked the store's website... it seems there are various "courses" available.

(The intensity of the photo is amazing. Even though it is a product page, it features an image shot of the owner because it is a "leave it to us" service. I wonder on which hill it was taken.)

I am intrigued.

Total coordination of your eating habits?
Why not leave it to us?

A sake professional is inviting me to leave it to them.
I will leave it to them. I have decided on this for my first subscription box!

Arrived via refrigerated delivery

I thought I would have to wait patiently, but it arrived quite quickly. Perhaps it is only natural since it is a liquor store, but it was so fast that I thought, "Wait, already?"

There was a coaster inside. Is it the store's logo or something?

Next, I will open the sake.

01 A sake that acts as a "business card" bearing the store's name

First up is a private brand (PB) sake that bears the shop's name on the label.
Yes, this is it. I'm so happy to find sake like this that you can't buy anywhere else. Some specialty sake shops actively exchange ideas with the breweries they work with, which is how these private brands are born.

They aren't just "liquor stores that sell sake they've received," but ratherthey are also producers who are deeply involved in the planning and branding of the sake itself.

By the way, La Jomon is the organizer of the "No. 6 Yeast Summit," and this sake also uses No. 6 yeast. It is gentle, with a perfect balance of sweetness and acidity.

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Shuho Sake Brewery (Yamagata Prefecture) Alcohol content: 16% Rice polishing ratio: 70% (It doesn't feel heavy at all when drinking!) Yeast: No. 6 Ingredients: Dewanosato rice grown in Yamagata Prefecture

02 Limited-time sake brewed with the Aramasa-style vinyl kimoto method

Continuing with another PB! Since it's the first delivery, I can really feel their desire to "make an impression." The dandy face of the shop manager came to mind.

It feels like I'm having a conversation between Yamagata and Tokyo through the sake, saying things like, "How about this?" and "Oh, you went with something like this!"

Mitobe Sake Brewery, known for "Yamagata Masamune." The yeast is, of course, No. 6. What's noteworthy is that this product is brewed using the "Aramasa-style vinyl kimoto" method.

As a side note, when you talk about No. 6 yeast, you're talking about Aramasa Shuzo in Akita (the brewery where it originated). They brew sake using the kimoto method, a technique from the Edo period. They have verified the mechanism and are working on a brewing process that is both old and new—and truly exciting—where they put the sake in vinyl bags and gently shake them to guide the microorganisms, even though it's a kimoto brew.

To think that a talented brewery like Yamagata Masamune would do that.

I love these curveballs. The fact that it's a limited-time sake also tickles my curiosity. Since different sake is released for each of the four seasons, a unique brewing method like this means I might never encounter it again. It's a once-in-a-lifetime experience. And it's an encounter that happened precisely because I didn't choose it myself.

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Mitobe Sake Brewery (Yamagata Prefecture) Alcohol content: 16% Rice polishing ratio: 60% Yeast: No. 6 Dewasansan rice from Yamagata Prefecture

03 That sake I was curious about but never bought

The last one is a bit surprising: a sake brewery from Fukushima Prefecture. It's sake from "Niida Honke," which is dedicated to natural sake brewing. (Since this isn't a PB, it must be the shop owner's current recommendation.)

I really like their sake and keep it stocked at home. But I had never bought this "Tamura" before. It's limited to special contract stores and is rarely seen, and it's also a bit more expensive than the rest of their lineup (though only by a few hundred yen), so I kept putting it off.

Perhaps the unique appeal of a distribution club is that you end up drinking something you might normally hesitate to buy, simply because it's a "professional recommendation." Of course, the taste is absolutely delicious.

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Niida Honke (Fukushima Prefecture) Alcohol content: 17% Rice polishing ratio: 60% Yeast: No. 6 Ingredients: Kameno-o rice grown without pesticides or chemical fertilizers

A bonus?? Seasonings have arrived too!

For some reason, there was also a chili pepper tucked in the back of the box. I suppose this is what they mean by "total coordination." According to the enclosed instructions,“Perfect with sake! A dash adds an accent to simmered or grilled dishes.”So, they want me to drink all three bottles with this, I understand! (The aroma is intense, and it’s spicy. It goes well with sake!)

A subscription box is a way of buying sake where you can see the people behind it.

(Contents of this delivery)

My impression of my first subscription box is: “It’s fun!”

1. Everything is something you can't buy in Tokyo, making you feel like you bought it while traveling.
2. You encounter unexpected sake that you might not have chosen yourself.
3. The joy of having a professional curator (someone with over 100 times more knowledge of sake than me) provide the sake you should be drinking right now.

I felt a completely different kind of enjoyment compared to searching for sake at a store.

Every time I look at one, I recall the face of the shop owner I saw on the website, and I get a sense of pen-pal-like enjoyment (while tasting it, of course) thinking, “So this is the person who selected this sake.”

(Repeated. I definitely think they are a person with incredible beliefs and policies.)

My first subscription box was fun!

I want to try many more subscription boxes. If you have any recommendations, please let me know!

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