Koji Saryo’s Koji Amazake Sweets Make Great Snacks for Remote Workers and Kids

VISON is a large retail complex in the town of Taki, Mie, that offers a variety of dining, lodging, and hands-on experiences centered on Japan’s rich culinary culture. On a corner of San Sebastián Street, VISON’s main street, is a fermentation-themed café called Koji Saryo operated by Uonuma Jozo, a rice koji malt producer.

The café’s sweets and drinks made with Uonuma Jozo’s premium koji amazake [a sweet drink made from rice malt] are compelling because of how nutritious, filling, and versatile they are. And because they are non-alcoholic, they can be enjoyed by everyone, from babies to older people. We spoke with Morita Sayaka, a nutritionist and sales manager at Koji Saryo, for this article. She says “our hope is Koji Saryo’s menu will act like a springboard that gets people to learn about the splendid benefits of fermentation and of koji amazake.”

Relying on the natural sweetness of koji amazake, without using any alcohol or sugar

Uonuma Jozo, which operates Koji Saryo, is situated in Tokamachi, a municipality of Uonuma, Niigata. The area is famous for its rice production and for receiving some of the heaviest snowfalls in the country. It also boasts delicious rice and clear fresh water, which are essential for producing amazake.

What Uonuma Jozo produces in this location, which seems practically purpose-built for amazake production, is koji amazake, the base for Koji Saryo’s sweets and drinks. Koji amazake is the definition of simplicity, as it has only three ingredients: Koshihikari rice produced in Uonuma, rice koji, and water.

“What makes koji amazake special is its natural sweetness that goes down so easily. We don’t use any sugar at all. So you get a refreshing deliciousness that leaves no aftertaste with just the natural sweetness of rice that has been saccharified with rice koji.”

There are two basic types of amazake: those made with rice koji like koji amazake and those made with sakekasu [saké lees]. Both types contain plenty of nutrients, but amazake types made with sakekasu do have a trace amount of alcohol, which makes them unsuitable for kids and people who are intolerant of alcohol. Another big difference is amazake made with sakekasu is sweetened by adding sugar. People who don’t like the peculiar alcoholic aroma of amazake or believe it to be too sugary likely formed those impressions from amazake made with sakekasu.

“Amazake has such high nutritive value that it is sometimes called the drinkable IV drip. Despite this, many people are reluctant to drink amazake because their past impressions were not that favorable, while others have heard about amazake’s health benefits but are still hesitant to try it. To overcome these preconceptions that amazake is hard to get down or that it contains alcohol, our store provides koji amazake as very palatable sweets and drinks.”

Three recommended Koji Saryo koji amazake sweets that are also beautiful to look at

What kind of sweets made with koji amazake does Koji Saryo serve? To answer this, let’s look at some of the store’s most popular menu items.

Koji balls with just a touch of natural sweetness

Koji balls are one of Koji Saryo’s signature menu items. They were developed with the idea of bringing a new Western sensibility to koji amazake, which tends to have a strong Japanese-food image. The sweets are made in the image of the snow-covered Echigo-Sanzan mountains in Uonuma and koji, whose character is written as flowers of rice.

Koji amazake and mascarpone cheese are kneaded into the sponge dough, and the jam filling is also made with concentrated koji amazake. The koji balls’ mild sweetness tastes delicious even to people who don’t like koji.

The fluffy texture when cut in half and the melt-in-your-mouth softness will make you wonder — “Is this like a soufflé cheesecake or a like sponge cake?” — even as you quickly polish them off with relish. They are also very filling and perfect snacks for kids.

Koji amazake and Echigo Yakuso ginger syrup together create a ginger ale with a pleasant tang

This drink was conceived with the idea of adding some kind of accent to the sweetness of koji amazake to make it easier to drink and to introduce people to novel ways of using koji amazake. The ginger syrup used in the drink is made in Joetsu, Niigata, where the koji amazake comes from. The syrup contains fermentation extracts and powders from some 80 types of medicinal herbs that are added to ginger and lemon produced by Echigo Yakuso. The addition of Echigo Yakuso ginger syrup’s refreshing tang to the sweetness of koji amazake results in a thirst-quenching drink that blooms with natural umami flavor.

A cup of koji amazake soft ice cream with Ise matcha and sweet azuki red beans symbolizes everything good about Japanese sweets

The koji amazake soft ice cream, supervised by world-class gelatiere Shibano Taizo, comes in four variations: Ise matcha and azuki, plain, strawberry and rose pedals, and lemon.

The soft ice cream made with Noto Milk is rich, but with a plain sweetness, allowing the azuki sweetness and matcha tartness to blend together harmoniously. The leaves of matcha grown in the fertile Ise soil are thick, especially fragrant, and rich-tasting. This soft ice cream represents all that is wonderful about the world of Japanese sweets.

Experience Koji Saryo and then add koji amazake to your daily diet

Koji Saryo’s extensive menu also includes koji amazake lattes and coffee floats topped with koji amazake soft ice cream. Everything on the menu is colorful and photogenic, so many customers take a photo first before enjoying their treat.

“Koji and amazake contain a lot of nutrients that help us live an active life. We see our role as getting people to eat or drink our sweets and drinks, as a first step in becoming more familiar with koji and koji amazake. We’re committed to devising new food items that will encourage more people to lead healthier lives, as we serve as an entry point to interest in and knowledge about the benefits of fermentation and koji. We want to make our café a centerpiece for health that people want to visit again.”

Koji Saryo sells koji amazake made with Uonuma Koshihikari rice in souvenir packs. Why not incorporate some of their koji amazake goodness into your daily life and aim for a life free of summer fatigue and winter ills?