Sake Brewery Tour at Moritami Shuzo Honke & Unexpected Hayashi Rice Delight in Sendai!

Hello, fellow travel lovers!

This time, I visited the long-established sake brewery **Moritami Shuzo Honke** in Sendai🍶

I made an online reservation for the weekday-only 4 PM tour!

…or so I thought, but I got a reply saying, “We can accommodate you from 1 PM instead.” Wait, why 1 PM? I was a bit confused, but replied, “Sounds good!” anyway (lol).

Hayashi rice!? And then… a flavorful explosion of fermentation magic!

They said, “I can make hayashi rice,”—a dish I normally wouldn’t choose… but hey, let’s give it a try!

And it turned out to be surprisingly delicious!

It was a rich, demiglace-style recipe enhanced by fermentation— I can honestly say it was the first time hayashi rice ever impressed me!

For dessert, I had a perfectly balanced iced coffee with deep aroma and richness, paired with a moist, decadent Basque cheesecake.

I meant to just have “a little something sweet”… but ended up polishing it all off (lol).
This combo, to put it mildly, was absolutely amazing ✨

Next time, I’m going back for the full lineup—salmon rice ball, hayashi rice, and cheesecake! And yes, the iced coffee is a must-repeat too ☕🍰

And now… it’s finally time for the main event: sake tasting! 🍶

First up was a sweet nigori sake. Honestly… it tasted like alcoholic amazake!

Next came the junmai ginjo—fruity, smooth, and dangerously easy to drink (lol).

Then came the new brand “Moritami” junmai daiginjo. It was served in an aroma-enhancing glass—and my excitement hit max level ⤴ At this point… I was already a little tipsy 🤣

Next, I did a side-by-side tasting of two junmai sakes: * Made with sake rice: ◎ Delicious! * Made with Tsuyahime (table rice): △ A bit quirky, maybe not for everyone?

Finally, a dry junmai sake—served both chilled and warm 🍶🔥 Wait… how many cups have I had by now!?

And there was more… the grand finale: sake on the rocks! With a splash of lemon juice and a bit of syrup, that strong-flavored sake transformed into a refreshing cocktail-style drink!

It went down way too easily… and yep, I was officially buzzed (lol).

Off we went on the brewery tour, tipsy and happy— and the guide? Absolutely awesome!

After the tasting, it was finally time for the brewery tour.

First stop: the rice-washing station! It wasn’t brewing season, but apparently it can wash up to 100kg of rice at once (if I remember right—tipsy memory lol).

Next was the steaming kettle. After that, the steamed rice gets cooled down and moved into the koji room. They even showed the rice-cooling machine in action—but I totally forgot to take a photo because I was so drawn into the explanation. A bit fuzzy on the details… thanks to the sake 🤣

Here, they explained how the koji mold breaks down the starch into sugar. Watching the koji change from white to translucent was fascinating!

We also got to see the filter-style machine used to separate the sake from the lees. The sake kasu (lees) collects between the folds—pretty cool to see how it works!

Here’s the equipment used for quality control—like something straight out of a science lab! It totally got my inner nerd excited ✨

They also showed us the traditional sake barrels used for celebrations. These days, it’s common to only fill the top part for the ceremonial breaking—that was news to me!

By the way… the brewery was also featured on Tohoku Broadcasting’s show “Sand no Bonyari~nu TV”!