Nova Doburoku - Sunflower Edition (500ml)

Mango, pineapple, creamy, tropical, and a touch sweet, but super balanced too-- with freshness and high acidity. This custom brew from Nova Brewery in Los Angeles has been on my mind for years-- particularly as James honed in on his doburoku recipe the last 2 years (it still blew me away when I visited for the first time in 2021). There's something about chunky doburoku that is so satisfying, and I say that as someone who very rarely drinks nigori (cloudy) sake. But the stuff we get imported pales in comparison to what you can drink in the countryside of Japan, bottled a few days prior and brimming with life and energy. This is one drink where freshness really pays off, and we simply can't get that with a Japanese product unless it's air-mailed.
This doburoku was bottled January 26th, 2026 and you taste it in the fantastic, vivid, tropical fruit flavors. This is clearly rice, but it's also like a bowl of fresh mango puree.

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When I approached James last Summer with the doburoku proposal, he asked me if there was anything I wanted to customize about the recipe. I had plenty of ideas, but using organic rice was really at the top of the list. And having enjoyed beautiful bowls of Luna Koshihikari, being a big fan of Den 90 Kimoto Junmai which is also made from Luna Koshihikari... being able to taste James' doburoku with (I think) the best US-grown Japanese rice, would be a dream come true.

In addition to the thoughtful cultivation practices which include crop rotation, drill seeding, AWD: alternate wetting and drying, no synthetic chemicals-- the rice is naturally air-dried (instead of using hot blowing air, which is faster but leads to harder rice) and the polishing machines are 85% solar powered. The result is excellent rice, which breaks down beautifully despite being polished to only ~90%, suitable for eating. Supply is very limited, and James (Nova) had to wait until early December before it was dried, milled, and ready to purchase.

I love the story of Luna Koshihikari and its champion Wendy Tsuji, described here and in great detail by 3-star restaurant Singlethread here.

“Premium rice is never overly fluorescent white. This usually means it has been over processed or over milled to correct something else. The best umami flavor comes naturally just between the brown bran to white kernel where the true rice flavor lies. I named my rice ‘Luna Koshihikari’, because in Japan the best rice is the color of the moon, a translucent soft ivory. You can both see and taste the organic local freshness and especially the years of experience that the farmers, dryers and mill have been put into this beautiful rice.”