28-year-aged koshu turned into a canned highball

For a long time sake was thought to be “better the newer it is”, and koshu (aged sake) matured for decades is still not drunk all that often in Japan. Takumi Sosei Co., Ltd. (head office: Awaji, Hyogo Prefecture), a subsidiary of the major staffing group Pasona Group, wanted to make koshu easier to enjoy, so it developed ‘Inishie no Bishu Koshu Highball 1998’, a canned highball made by mixing sake brewed in 1998 and aged for 28 years with soda. General sale began on 1 October 2026.

Award-winning koshu mixed with soda

The base is a sake that won gold medals at both Kura Master 2026, the French sake competition, and the International Wine Challenge (IWC), one of the world’s largest drinks competitions, held in London. The deep flavour created by ageing is combined with the lightness of carbonation, aiming for a taste that is easy to drink even for people unfamiliar with koshu. The can holds 350 ml and costs 880 yen (tax included) per can in Japan. Advance orders had been taken since July on the crowdfunding site Makuake.

The launch date, 1 October, is “Sake Day” (Nihonshu no Hi), set in 1978 by the Japan Sake and Shochu Makers Association. It comes from the time when the sake-brewing year began on 1 October, and it is also a day to celebrate the season when sake brewing starts with the new rice.

Packaging dressed in a National Treasure scroll

The can design uses the National Treasure picture scroll ‘Choju-giga’ (Scrolls of Frolicking Animals), handed down at Kozan-ji temple in Kyoto. The work shows rabbits and frogs playing like people and is also called “Japan’s oldest manga”. It is used with formal permission from the temple. By pairing a picture handed down over hundreds of years with a sake aged for 28 years, the company expresses “value that time nurtures”.

A koshu-only brewery widens the base

Takumi Sosei was founded in 2017 and runs ‘Inishie no Bishu’, a brand of long-aged koshu. In 2023 it opened “Nihon no Koshu-gura”, billed as Japan’s first brewery dedicated to koshu, and works with breweries across the country to build a market for aged sake. Its products are also sold at a convenience store at Haneda Airport, which suggests an aim of offering a first glass to people who do not know koshu, such as younger drinkers and visitors to Japan.

Whether this can will be available in Europe has not been announced so far. Even so, the idea of turning koshu into a highball is easy to copy. The amber colour of aged sake and its aromas of caramel and dried fruit (ageing aromas such as sotolon) may feel familiar to people who like whisky or sherry. If you can get hold of an aged sake, first check the aroma neat, then mix it with chilled soda and compare how the aroma opens up. A bottle whose label says “BY” (brewing year) or “aged X years” is a good clue when looking for aged sake.