Koji, a type of mold, has been used in Japan for centuries in the fermentation needed to produce soy sauce, miso and sake. It can also be used to ferment grain for whiskey, which is usually made with malted barley. Takamine, an exceptionally smooth koji-fermented whiskey from Shinozaki Brewery & Distillery in Japan, is now available in the United States. It has a slight mushroom aroma and deserves to be sipped neat. You could call its arrival a return: In the 1890s, Jōkichi Takamine, a Japanese chemist who married an American woman, settled in Chicago and started producing koji-fermented whiskey. After the distillery was destroyed by a fire, he turned to medical research in New York and went on to isolate chemical adrenaline. His success allowed him to donate cherry trees to Washington, D.C., and to establish the Nippon Club in New York. He played a diplomatic role after World War I and is buried in Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx. The 8-year-old whiskey is the first product to bear his name.
Takamine 8-Year-Old Koji-Fermented Whiskey, $99.99, drizly.com.
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