Iyo Kagiya Muroka Ajikuchi Honjozo Blue (720 ml)

The Shuto family of Saijo City has held the keys to Ehime's rice stores since the Edo period — the brewery name Kagiya literally means 'Key-House,' and that custodial identity still shapes every production decision at Seiryo Shuzo. Founded in 1877, the five-person kura brews through Ehime's mild winters using water drawn from the subterranean aquifer fed by Mt. Ishizuchi (1,982 m), Shikoku's highest peak — an exceptionally soft source that enables the clean, low-fatigue fermentation the house is known for. The Dōzen Plain paddies supply Matsuyama Mii, a large-grained Ehime-native rice variety that ferments toward crispness rather than richness. This Blue label is a muroka honjozo: charcoal filtration is deliberately omitted, preserving the natural grain texture and the subtle savouriness that activated carbon would strip away. Fermentation is driven by Yeast No. 9 (Kumamoto-kei), which contributes a restrained floral lift without overwhelming the shokuchu-shu (food-pairing) architecture. The addition of a small measure of distilled alcohol — the defining honjozo technique — sharpens the dry finish and lightens body without sacrificing the muroka texture. The result sits outside the all-junmai orthodoxy the brand otherwise follows, making this the sole expression in the lineup where alcohol addition is used as a deliberate structural tool rather than a cost measure.