Hakkaisan Amazake Sweet Rice Drink: I purchased this fermented rice drink (that's from Japan) at The Market in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn. While Amazake is generally a sweet sake, this drink is alcohol-free. Koji rice, the basis of this drink, is rice that has been affected with a fungus named Aspergillus oryzae that's commonly used for making familiar ingredients like soy sauce and bean paste. The drink is kept frozen for freshness and needs to be defrosted before consuming. It has a thick milky consistency and a distinct white rice flavor that's slightly acidic, but also heavily sweetened. It's so sweet that it would be very hard to drink this whole bottle in one go (and the serving size indicates that this bottle, the size of an Odwalla smoothie, is 4 servings). It made me wonder if it's meant to be more of a concentrate that's added to other ingredients to slightly dilute its flavor. Glad I got to try something new though and think it's worth trying! 3.5/5.0

japanese japan rice drinks koji hakkaisan amazake sweet drink 3.5