Have You Tried the Herbal Drink Homeishu?
Visiting the brewery of a unique herbal sake in Hiroshima
During the Golden Week holiday, I went with group of sake enthusiasts on a 10 day trip to Shikoku. One of the stops was a sake-making experience at Miyoshikiku Sake brewery. (You can read an article about it here.)
On the way back, we visited Hiroshima and Okayama.
I’d heard of Homeishu and Yomeishu, but I’d never tried Homeishu before. Since we were visiting the town of Tomonoura in Fukuyama City, I thought, hey why not visit one of the 4 producers of Homeishu — Irie Toyosaburo Honten.
I knew of Irie Toyosaburo Honten as a producer of hon mirin. I included them in my google map list in the Hon Mirin article I wrote for the Japanese Food Guide, but this time, we visited to try out Homeishu 保命酒 instead.
Homeishu is made using 16 different herbs. It is categorized as liqueur but it’s more like putting 16 herbs in a bag and soaking it in Hon Mirin for more than a month.
It reminded me of herbal drink, Otoso Akazake 赤酒 in Kumamoto. A quite herbal sweet drink. The store owner claimed drinking 20 cc every day will give you a longer life. LoL.
The history of Homeishu started around 350 years ago. There is evidence Homeishu was served to Commodore Matthew Perry and was protected by the government as a premium drink. During the Meiji Era, Homeishu was exhibited at the Paris Expo and became famous domestically and globally at the time.
The scenic port town of Tomonoura has 4 Homeishu producers: Irie Toyosaburo Honten 入江豊三郎本店, Okamoto Kametaro Honten 岡本亀太郎本店, Hatta Homeishu 八田保命酒舗, and Tomo Shuzo 鞆酒造. Each uses a different ratio of herbs and maturation period.
In addition to Irie Toyosaburo, we visited Tomo Shuzo as well. They had Shirozake and Homeishu-kasu (similar to sake-kasu) as well. Their Homeishu tasted more medicinal than Irie Toyosaburo’s but nevertheless, was delicious.
If you ever have the chance to visit Tomonoura in Hiroshima, please visit one of the Homeishu producers. I bought a cute Tanuki (raccoon) bottle of Homeishu and a regular bottle.
Isn’t it adorable?
