Tensei Distillery Co, Ltd

Tensei Distillery – The Roasted Character of Mugi Hokka

Founded in 1901 in Kagoshima, Tensei Distillery has spent more than a century exploring the possibilities of Japanese shochu. Among its most distinctive expressions is Mugi Hokka, a barley shochu created to bring out an entirely different side of the grain.

Made from 100% barley and white barley koji, Mugi Hokka incorporates roasted barley into the fermentation. This unusual step gives the spirit its signature character — rich, toasted and gently bittersweet, with aromas reminiscent of coffee, dark chocolate and roasted grain.

The spirit is distilled at atmospheric pressure using Tensei’s exceptionally soft local groundwater, then patiently matured before bottling. Time allows the roasted character to soften and integrate, creating a rounded and surprisingly complex barley shochu.

Mugi Hokka shows how far shochu can go when a traditional spirit is approached with curiosity and imagination.

Roasted barley. Patient maturation. A new side of shochu.