Note that the term JUNMAI may be used together with DAIGINJO and GINJO to describe a sake type. For example, a junmai daiginjo sake is one that is polished to less than 50% remaining, AND has no alcohol added to it.

Oddly, the term HONJOZO is never used together with DAIGINJO or GINJO. If the sake is polished to less than 50% remaining, and it has added alcohol, it is simply called a daiginjo sake.

The technique of adding distilled alcohol to the mash before filtering has been used by brewers for the past several centuries to enhance quality, or to stabilize the sake and to lower its cost. Whether the effect on quality is positive or negative is a matter of degree, and so the tax law specifies that to be labeled as HONJOZO, the amount of added alcohol must be limited to less than 10% of the amount of polished rice used in the mash, and that the rice must be polished to less than 70% remaining.

When such limited amounts of alcohol are added to such polished sake, the effect is to accentuate the sake’s natural aromas and to produce a pleasantly dry feeling on the palate. Thus, HONJOZO sake is understood to be “high-quality alcohol-added sake.”

Even today, there is far more alcohol-added sake on the market than junmai sake, although the junmai style is quickly growing in popularity because it is perceived to be purer and inherently of higher quality. For us it’s a matter personal taste, and we leave it up to you to choose one, the other, or both!