Get Drunk a Bit after Hiking

Takamizu Sanzan consisting of three mountains of Mt. Takamizu, Mt. Iwatakeishi, and Mt. Sogaku has good hiking trails for hiking. It takes three to four hours to walk a trail that covers all of these mountains. So, if you start early in the morning, you can climb up all the summits and climb down to the base town before or around the noon. Last Saturday, I went for a hike there. The weather was fine and I could walk quite comfortably.


When I climbed down to the Sawai district in Ome City, I dropped in Ozawa Syuzou, a sake brewery located close to the JR Sawai Station.


This brewery brews Sawanoi sake, and is the largest company of those that belong to the Tokyo Sake Brewers' Association. The company produces about 7,000 koku (1,260 kilo litters) of sake annually.

In front of the company, just across the Ome-Kaido Street, there are Sawanoi-en, Mamagotoya, Kikizake-dokoro, and other facilities run by the company. Sawanoi-en serves light meals and sake and Mamagotoya is a Japanese restaurant specialized in tofu and its related foods. In the Kikizake-dokoro sake-tasting corner, you can try various Sawanoi sakes at reasonable prices. Also, Sawanoi-en provides the free-of-charge brewery study tour for visitors four times a day. In a nutshell, this place is a kind of paradise for sake lovers.

This time, I tried several cups of sake at Kikizake-dokoro.


The prices of sake vary according to sakes, and a cup of sake is priced 200 yen or a higher price. The price of sake includes the price of a sake tasting cup, and the second and subsequent helpings are sold at the price 100-yen lower. The sake tasting cup has 90 milli-litters of capacity and you can enjoy quite much of sake.

There is shikomisui (mother water) near the entrance of Kikizake-dokoro. When you feel you have drunk too much, you may drink this water as yawaragimizu (softening water, or a chaser).



Today's Sake
Sawane (Ozawa Syuzou Co., Ltd.)
This is the namazake version of the junmai namachozoshu Suzushizake from the same brewery, which I wrote about in a past article.
This sake is also low in alcohol exhibiting refreshing acidity. The characteristic taste originating in rice is quite attractive and, moreover, you can feel flavor specific to namazake.

Rice used: Akebono

Seimaibuai: 65%

Alcohol: 13 - 14%

Sake meter value: (+/-)0

Acidity: 1.5

Amino acid: 1.1