Sake Kasu

Few months ago, Taichi from Sakemaru (a sake subscription service – check them out) asked whether I could make chocolate with sake kasu. I immediately said YES because this is one of my dream ingredients. I can smell it all day.

Sake kasu, also known as sake lees, are the leftover rice from brewing sake. It has recently gained popularity as an ingredient due to its abundance of nutrients and incredible flavor. Some hardcore sake fans simply bake them with salt to make a chewy side dish. If you manage to get your hands on some, definitely try this out. It’s delicious!

Sake kasu is soft and mushy. It smells like sake.

The sake kasu we got were produced in the process of brewing Daiginjo, which is the highest grade of sake brewed by Asahara Shuzo Brewery, a family brewery located in Saitama Prefecture. To make them into chocolate, we dehydrated the sake kasu for a few hours over low heat to remove moisture and alcohol. The result is a chewy “jerky” that has all the flavors of sake without the alcohol so it’s suitable for people on alcohol-free diet.  This kasu “jerky” is then combined with our house-made white chocolate and some sea salt flakes to round off the flavor. 

Dehydrated sake kasu is still sticky.

Talking about white chocolate, this bar would be the first and probably only batch of white chocolate we will make with natural undeodorised cacao butter sourced from Peru. We managed to get our hands on a few kg of these special cacao butter and it's all going into this batch. This is easily one of my favorite bar now. Only 250 bars were made so do grab them fast before they run out!