The Tokyo Islands東京島酒
Tokyo makes shochu. On islands, with barley koji, and it is a GI.
0 bottles here · Imo (sweet potato), Mugi (barley)
Protected origin: Tokyo Shimazake東京島酒
Made on the Izu islands with barley koji, using domestically grown sweet potatoes and only water collected on the islands, then fermented, distilled, stored and bottled on the islands.
Designated March 2024 by Japan’s National Tax Agency. Source.
The Izu islands are administratively Tokyo, and they have been distilling shochu since a distiller was exiled to Hachijojima in the nineteenth century. The style is distinctive for using barley koji on a sweet potato mash, or blending the two, which is not how it is done anywhere on the mainland.
In March 2024 the National Tax Agency designated Tokyo Shimazake as a geographical indication. It is the fifth shochu or awamori GI and the first new one in eighteen years, after Iki, Kuma and Ryukyu in 1995 and Satsuma in 2005.
We do not currently carry a Tokyo Shimazake bottle in this catalogue. The region is here because a map of Japanese shochu that omits the newest protected name would be out of date on the day it shipped.