Barley malt x Japanese botanicals!
The domestic spirit TUMUGI.
<Part 1>

This time we bring you
TUMUGI, a 100% made-in-Japan cocktail base spirit.Let's find out the secret of its taste in its birthplace, Usa City, Oita Prefecture.

writer：Ryoko Kuraishi

Sanwa Shurui is located in the highlands of Usa, in an area of good water.

This is Usa City, Oita Prefecture.
Located at the base of the Kunisaki Peninsula, the city is home to Usa Jingu Shrine, the headquarters of some 40,000 Hachiman shrines across the country.
It is here that TUMUGI, a cocktail-based spirit from Japan, is born.


Two years after its release, it is produced by Sanwa Shuyu, known for its authentic barley shochu iichiko.
The brewing and distillation is carried out in a corner of the research facility at the company's headquarters.


The origin of our sake making is the koji culture.
Like authentic shochu, TUMUGI was born from the idea of creating a cocktail-based spirit based on koji, which is unique to Japan."


TUMUGI The person in charge of development, Mr Shinsaku Okamoto, told us about the background to the birth of TUMUGI.
Just as there is Gin in the UK, Tequila in Mexico, Rum in Latin America and Vodka in Russia, Japan should have its own local spirits!
This is why Sanwa Shurui calls TUMUGI "WA (Japanse) + SPIRITS = WAPIRITS".

It is built in a separate building from iichiko, which is mainly for research and development.It is normally closed to the public, but we were given a special tour.

Koji is a micro-organism essential for traditional Japanese fermented foods such as miso, soy sauce and vinegar.
This koji, which converts starch into glucose and protein into amino acids, supports the basis of Japanese food culture.
Koji is a useful micro-organism that occurs naturally in Japan's unique climate and is unique in the world, and has been designated as a 'national fungus' (!!!).The raw material for TUMUGI is high-quality Nijo barley.


The raw material for TUMUGI is high-quality two-row barley.
To make the most of the barley's unique flavour, we first spend a lot of time and effort making barley malt.
The technology cultivated in Iichiko is lavishly applied to TUMUGI, including parallel double fermentation in which saccharification (= barley starch is converted into sugar by the koji) and fermentation (= sugar is converted into alcohol and carbon dioxide gas by the action of yeast) take place in a single process, and single distillation to bring out a rich aroma.The technology cultivated in Iichiko is lavishly applied to TUMUGI.


The resulting spirit (authentic barley shochu), nurtured by koji mold, has the aroma, sweetness and full-bodied flavour of barley.
TUMUGI adds carefully selected Japanese botanicals to this original shochu."


The local Oita kabosu, Hita City mint, Shizuoka Mikkaichi mandarin oranges are macerated in this original shochu,The sake is steeped in local Oita kabosu, mint from Hita, yuzu from Shikoku, and lemons from Setouchi.
During the development stage, about 20 to 30 different ingredients were obtained from all regions of Japan, and the ingredients were tested many times with different cuts, quantities and soaking times.
The deciding factor in selecting the ingredients was the aroma and flavour of the botanicals that would enhance the goodness of the koji, which is also the main ingredient in TUMUGI.

This is Okamoto-san, in charge of development at TUMUGI.

In deciding on the ingredients, we actually visited the production areas and had a lot of communication with the producers.
TUMUGI is particular about using only fresh ingredients harvested in their season.


Drying them makes them last longer, but changes their flavour.
Fresh botanicals allow us to bring out the best in the ingredients.
Lemons are brought here between December and January, when the fruit has changed colour from blue to yellow.
The taste and aroma of a blue lemon and a yellow lemon are completely different, so it's important to know when to have them harvested."


Mint is used fresh as it is, but the problem is with citrus fruits.
The white, cottony (or fibrous) inner part of the rind is carefully removed one by one by hand and only the outer rind, which contains the essential oil, is used.
This is actually a very labour-intensive process.
At one time, the training for new employees at Sanwa Breweries was this inner skinning ...... .

The lemon peel is chopped in different ways and its soaking is tested.It is a constant process of trial and error to achieve a better product.

Anyway, the botanicals thus obtained are individually macerated in the authentic barley shochu stock.
The reason for doing this individually is that the time taken to pull up the botanicals varies according to the ingredients.


'Once the botanical ingredients have been pulled, we then distil each of the raw materials.
You bring out the aromatic fragrance by slowly distilling them.
Then, when we blend the botanical sake distilled from each ingredient with the shochu sake made entirely from barley malt, which gives it a rich malted rice flavour, TUMUGI is complete.


The current line-up includes fiveThe current line-up includes regular shochu made from a combination of five types of botanical sake and authentic shochu, BUNTAN, which uses only Tosa buntan from Kochi as a botanical ingredient, and <a12>NEW OAK CASK STOCK, which is aged in new white oak barrels for about 40 days.>"NEW OAK CASK STORAGE" .
What makes them different from so-called flavoured vodkas is that they not only have an aroma but also a botanical taste and a malted rice flavour.


'Tosa pomelo, with its excellent balance of sweetness and acidity, has a shorter season than other citrus fruits.
This makes them rare, but in the same way, only the rind is macerated in the original liquor for a few days and distilled only once.
In this way, the unique bursting aroma and flavour of pomelo can be brought out.

This is freshly picked mint.The key is to throw in a large quantity and pull it up in a short time.

We started the NEW OAK CASK STORAGE to emphasise the rich taste produced by koji.
Originally, there is no concept of ageing in Japanese sake culture, but there is the idea of 'acclimatising'.
For example, freshly brewed sake was acclimatised in storage containers during transport from the production area to Edo and Kyoto.
"NEW OAK CASK STORAGE was created with this idea in mind."


Mr Okamoto himself is in charge of the development, TUMUGI cocktails.
Now, what do you recommend?
'If it's a regular, I'll start with a Sonic style.
If I'm travelling to a regional city on business, I often order a TUMUGI cocktail using local seasonal fruit.
The "BUNTAN" in particular has a wide range of fruits to match.
In winter, it is also interesting to drink it with hot water, which brings out the aroma of TUMUGI.


"NEW OAK CASK STORAGE" is my favourite to drink straight, well chilled.
I recently tried a twisted Manhattan with TUMUGI, which was also quite good.
It would be a great honour for the brewer if bartenders could develop various recipes.


In the second part, we will introduce the "mother" of TUMUGI, koji, and also the brewing of the original sake.In the second part, we will introduce koji, the "mother" of TUMUGI, as well as the making of the original sake.


Continued in Part 2.