We at Enjoy Dohoku have produced mead made with honey collected in Kembuchi Town. We have two brands: “Akatsuki/Sunrise” and “Minori/Agri” “Minori” has a sweet flavor. After fermentation, the Japanese sake yeast, which is the fermenting agent, is filtered out to bring out the sweetness. The finished product is clear, and the red label stands out. “Minori” has a rich flavor. It retains the sweetness while leaving some of the fermenting agent, creating a complex flavor. The raw material is 100% honey in Kembuchi Town. We outsourced the brewing to “Deerlet Field Brewery” in Chichibu, Saitama Prefecture, which has excellent track records as a brewery specializing in making mead.
Mead is made very simply. The only raw material is honey, which is diluted with water and fermenting agent is added. The alcohol content is 10%. Depending on the outside temperature, it is fermented for about 1 to 2 months and then bottled. Enjoy Dohoku makes three brands. The three varieties are “Sunrise”, “Agri”, and the filtered and dry “Tsurugi/Sword”. (“Sword” is scheduled to be produced in the middle of this year.) This is the first production by Enjoy Dohoku, so we consulted with the brewery and mixed multiple honeys with mild flavors to balance the taste and flavor. Bees collect honey from the flowers that are in bloom at the time. Naturally, the flavor changes depending on the flower species, but even the same flower species can have a different flavor depending on the season and climate. One way to enjoy mead is tasting these differences. As long as a bottle is unopened, mead can be stored for years without deterioration. (Please avoid direct sunlight and places below -10℃.) You can enjoy the differences among each production lot.
Because mead is smooth for your tongue, there are various ways to drink it and it can be paired with a wide range of snacks/dishes. We recommend drinking it by being well chilled and straight, with a protein-based snack that is not strong in flavor. It is also delicious by on the rocks, mixed with soda, or with juice. Cheese is one of the best partners with mead. Mead also goes well with light meat and fish dishes. For something different, you can have mead by being poured onto ice cream.
For Westerners, mead is unnecessary to explain. The other day, I explained it to an Australian couple who came to Hokkaido for sightseeing, and he was surprised that mead, which has been made since ancient times, is made of Hokkaido honey. However, Japanese mead is different from Western mead. In the West, mead is basically made with wine yeast. However, in Japan, it is often made with sake yeast. In Japan, the person who started making mead and gave technical guidance to others is a sake maker. Also, when Enjoy Dohoku’s manufacturing contractor tried both sake yeast and wine yeast, they found that sake yeast can make mead rich in taste and flavor. Enjoy Dohoku made it with sake yeast, following the manufacturer’s recommendation. Some manufacturers also make it with wine yeast, and create unique meads to suit the different flavors of the honey. We would like foreigners to try mead made with sake yeast.
You can buy our mead at Enjoy Dohoku Head Office, Seicomart Kembuchi Store, both of which are located in Kembuchi, Supermarket Saijo (currently only at Shibetsu Store, but will be available at its other branches in the future), Roadside Station Kembuchi, and the online store of Enjoy Dohoku. (There is a button on the top right of the top page in our website.) It is also available as a return gift for hometown tax donation to Kembuchi Town. (Mead as gift will be uploaded as early as February.)
We asked Ms. Yamamoto, a first class arichitect, at Tocoto First Class Architect Office in Numata Town to design the labels. In the West, it was customary for newlyweds to drink mead every day for one month after their wedding. According to the brewery, quite a few people also order it as a memorial gift such as for birthday or anniversary. We asked her to incorporate into the label design the features of climate and nature of Kembuchi Town, as well as preference for the gift.
In the future, we will show ways to enjoy mead and the characteristics of Kembuchi Town mead. Please look forward to them.
