Amazake literally means “Sweet Sake”, but it contains little or no alcohol. These days in Japan, women who care about their health are having amazake in their daily meals for their beauty and health. Amazake has a long history that it has been used to prevent heat stroke since Edo era. And nowadays, people drink it when it cold to warm up their body as well.
Amazake got its hit because an actress shared her beauty tips of how she drinks amazake often which gives her smooth skin and make her looks younger. There are 2 types of amazake. One is made from sake lees and sugar and another is called Koji-amazake and is made from fermented rice (koji: rice malt). Both are good for your health but the one made from sake lees contains a little alcohol and since there are sugar involved in the making process, Koji-amazake is preferred. Koji-amazake does not contain any alcohol and its sweetness is glucose from rice so sugar is not added to koji-amazake and still it tastes gently sweet.
You can get amazake at supermarket mostly but you have to check the ingredients that if it is made from sake lees or koji. Koji-amazake contains a lot of vitamin B that prevent your skin from drying, and glucose and amino acids which would heal your tired body.
Also it is so easy to make koji-amazake yourself as long as you have koji. I think it is the safest way without any artificial additive.
1. Make a congee-like base with rice cooker (Put more water)
2. Let it cool until it gets to about 50-60 degree Celsius
3. Mix thoroughly with koji
4. Let it rest with a temperature within 50-60 degree Celsius for 8 – 10 hours
When it is still congee form, the mixture is not sweet at all but you would be surprised after hours how it gets sweetened. That is because koji’s aspergillus oryzae generate glucose from rice’s starch.
Not only rice, amazake can be made from any grain, bean or vegetable that contains glucose. My favorite is “mixed grain amazake” with many kinds of rice, black beans, sesame and etc. I can enjoy unique texture of each grain and also can get each grain’s nutrition benefit.
Some people might not like the taste of amazake. Then you can use it for cooking instead of sugar or mix with something to make it taste better. My favorite is amazake soy milk. Because soy milk also good for your health, amazake soy milk would be perfect as a everyday drink. Eating with yogurt is also good. Since I started drinking amazake soy milk with my breakfast, my skin condition got better and better so you also should try amazake life!
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