Sake is a beverage that stands to deepen the South’s complex and ongoing relationship with rice. Here’s how a burgeoning Southern sake brewery is growing the drink’s American identity.
Mii no Kotobuki brewery’s label for its sake for export is labeled Hojo Biden, meaning “pastoral beauty” in Japanese. (Takuya Miyano)
TACHIARAI, Fukuoka Prefecture When demand suddenly started pouring in for a sake mostly popular with connoisseurs, Tadatsugu Inoue at the Mii no Kotobuki brewery here was baffled.
But the chief sake brewer soon realized why: the alcoholic beverage is called “Hojo Biden.”
“We have always had good fortune,” Inoue said of the coincidental, but timely association with President-elect Joe Biden.
The second time is the charm for the century-old sake brewer, which has struggled to buck a downturn in sales last year following the coronavirus pandemic.