Photo/Illutration Colorful bottles are lined up at RiceWine’s store in the Harajuku district of Tokyo on June 20. (Takahisa Shimizu)

Even the naysayer chief brewer was surprised by the popularity of a new style of sake that he produced.

The taste is not the only unorthodox thing about the Hinemos brand.

The boldly labeled beverage comes in slim and colorful bottles, which were seen lined up recently on a store counter in Tokyo’s Harajuku district.

“I didn’t expect it to be sake,” a woman in her 20s said after a sip from one of the bottles. “It’s easy to drink. I like it.”

Another woman in her 60s bought a set of the bottles, saying: “They look cool, so I’ll give them to my husband. These are different from those sold at neighborhood liquor shops.”

Behind the colorful bottles is RiceWine, a sake venture founded in Odawara, Kanagawa Prefecture, in 2018 by CEO Yuta Sakai, 39, who used to work for Recruit Co.

RiceWine opened its store in Harajuku, a popular shopping area for young people, in April, to sell Hinemos, which means “all day long” in Japanese.

Based on that idea, the company produces variations of Hinemos sake to accommodate drinkers at different times of the day.

PACKAGED IN WINE BOTTLES

Sake has traditionally been offered in Issho bin, or 1.8-liter glass bottles.

RiceWine, however, believed those bulky bottles were unpopular with young women, so it chose slim, 500-milliliter wine bottles for its major products.

Hinemos comes in 12 varieties, starting with “Ichiji,” or 1 p.m., and ending with “Reiji,” or midnight.

The labels feature boldly designed numbers.

“I believe more young people are ‘allergic’ to the kanji characters on the labels of sake,” said Takuma Koga, 42, who designed the Hinemos bottles. “So I stuck to making them stylish and simple.”

The 12 varieties each assume a situation when and where people drink, and they provide a different taste for each occasion.

A bottle of “Shichiji” (7 p.m.) features sparkling sake that people can consume to start their dinners. “Hachiji” (8 p.m.) is cloudy with a smooth taste that whets the appetite.

“Kuji” (9 p.m.) is Junmai Daiginjo, a premium type using rice that is more than 50 percent polished and containing no added distilled alcohol. It pairs well with the main courses of dinners.

SWEET PINK SAKE FOR MIDNIGHT

Chief sake brewer Shunsaku Yuasa, 35, is the 12th generation head of a heritage brewery that used to stand in a mountainous area of Aichi Prefecture.

Yuasa accepted CEO Sakai’s request to produce Hinemos sake but strongly resisted Sakai’s idea of “making one that tastes sweet and is colored pink” for the midnight variety.

Yuasa felt that such a concoction was just too far removed from classical sake.

However, he was shocked by the reaction to the pink sake at a tasting event.

Despite the presence of products from well-known sake breweries, women in their 30s and 40s formed a long line for Reiji Hinemos.

“It is easy to drink,” a woman said. “It is not too spicy when it goes down the throat,” another woman said.

It was an eye-opener for Yuasa.

“I have been making sake without the perspective of drinkers,” he said. “I changed my mind. I had stuck to traditions before the event.”

BRINGING SAKE ACROSS THE WORLD

Soon after Sakai started RiceWine, the COVID-19 pandemic struck, and the brewery had to focus on online sales.

But after the pandemic was declared over, RiceWine opened stores in the Nakameguro district of Tokyo in July 2023 and in Harajuku this spring.

The company plans to set up additional stores and is also making inroads overseas.

Sakai has established a shop in Singapore and created a subsidiary in China.

“Other sake breweries sell their products through wholesalers and retailers. Our strength is that we can directly hear customers’ voices,” Takeshi Watanabe, the 37-year-old COO of the company, said. “We want to bring sake to tables across the world.”

RiceWine’s headquarters and brewery are located in a warehouse it rents from a transportation company in Odawara.

Production and delivery staff work at the warehouse but other employees usually work online from home. The company rents an office in Tokyo for meetings.

The workers’ average age is in the 30s.

Related News