Kikoku

The true "sweetness of miso" is the taste that remains after that sweetness is gone.  It is the "unsweetened sweetness" that is released only at a certain time of drying out after repeated miso fermenting.

"Kikoku" is a miso to enjoy the "sweetness of miso".  Even though it is a naturally brewed miso made from long fermentation, it has the characteristic in its ingredients of including a large amount of rice.  This also includes sufficient amount of salt to withstand long fermentation.  This is where the miso shows its true value where the sweetness changes to "sweetness of miso".

To prepare miso, it has long been a common sense that "less malted rice for natural miso".  However, Aogen has been making miso for more than 300 years, and we dared to break that common sense, and continuing to make "Kikoku". 

Carefully skin peeled Tochigi soybeans and Tochigi rice, soft salt derived from seawater, and cool clean water from the Nikko Nasu mountain range are all the ingredients of "Kikoku".  Actually, there is one more; above all, the strong desire of the brewer to make genuine "Kikoku".