Beniotome: The World's First Sesame Shochu

Shochu gets made from sweet potato, barley, rice, buckwheat, brown sugar, and occasionally green tea.

Sesame is not on that list, because sesame is difficult, and because until 1978 nobody had managed it.

Who Did It

Beniotome Shuzo was established in 1977 in Kurume, Fukuoka, in the Tanushimaru area.

The following year, after a long run of failed attempts, Haruno Hayashida succeeded in producing the world's first distillate made from sesame. Beniotome has built the entire distillery around it since.

The distillery is still there, still open to visitors, and still in a part of Fukuoka better known for growing fruit.

What's Actually In It

The mash is 60% wheat, 30% rice, and 10% sesame.

That ratio surprises people who expect sesame to dominate. It doesn't need to. Sesame is intensely aromatic, and the wheat and rice are there to give the spirit a body for the sesame to sit on. Push the sesame percentage higher and you get something closer to a cooking ingredient than a drink.

What It Tastes Like

The first impression is clean and almost neutral, soft, a bit shy, nothing that announces itself.

Then the toasted sesame arrives, and it's unmistakable. Rich, nutty, faintly sweet, exactly like the smell of sesame hitting a hot pan. It builds rather than hits.

That gap between the entry and the finish is the whole experience of this shochu, and it's why it's worth drinking slowly.

How to Drink It

Neat or on the rocks to get the full arc.

Oyuwari, hot water, is genuinely the best version. Heat lifts aromatic compounds, and with something built entirely on aroma the difference is dramatic. If it's cold outside, order it this way.

Pair It With

Sesame is already in half our kitchen, so this is easy. Anything with a sesame dressing, hiyashi chuka, seaweed salad, or crispy rice.

It's also excellent with karaage and with tebasaki, where the toasted note meets the fry.

Try It at Juraku

Beniotome is on the shochu list at Izakaya Juraku, Lower East Side. Ask for it hot if the weather is doing anything unpleasant.