"Daigo no Shizuku is produced using the Bodaimoto method, a ‘pre-modern’ method of brewing Sake, first originating from a temple in Nara. The Sake is has a full body with ripened fruit and a pickled ume and citrus character. It’s acidity is lively and refreshing.

Bodaimoto is a starter method created by combining raw polished rice, a small amount of cooked rice and water and incubated for 3-10 days. During this time, the mixture is fermented by naturally occurring lactic bacteria in the air and the liquid becomes acidic. After this, raw rice is steamed before being returning to the acidic mixture where Koji rice will be added (in Terada Honke’s case around 40% of the volume of raw rice). Then fermentation by natural yeast will take 2 weeks. Finally the mixture will be pressed gently in a ‘Fune’ or horizontal press before being bottled.

The leading light in natural sakes, Masaru Terada is the 24th generation kuramoto of an almost 350 year old brewery. As such, he believes in making sakes that hark back to centuries past.

Terada Honke employs kimoto and ancient bodai-moto methods, using natural yeasts that inhabit the air. The brewery also own 2 hectares of land where they grow their own rice. Here they cultivate pesticide and herbicide-free rice of different varieties including Kameno-o, Shinriki and Chiba Nishiki varieties. They are also leading the way in the recovery of old indigenous species of rice of their area. Apart from their own rice fields, they also have 10 local farms growing rice for them; they are all practicing organic farming, but each has its own originality in their natural rice cultivation, such as rice duck farming (a method where ducks are freed in the rice fields, to let them eat the weeds and the bugs) and non-tilled cropping (where rice is cropped without ever ploughing the soil).

All of the rice used in production is hand-washed without the use of machines. Terada Honke is also one of only a handful or breweries in Japan making their own Koji-kin."