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Fermentation Atlas

Alcoholic drinks from Japan

Kuchikamizake (chewed-rice sake) and Okinawan/Amami miki口噛み酒

Kuchikamizake was a ritual rice drink made by chewing rice, so saliva turned its starch into sugar before wild microbes fermented it. Its descendant, miki, is still made for festivals in Okinawa and Amami, now sweetened by the enzymes of raw sweet potato instead of saliva. Fresh miki is a sweet, sour lactic drink with almost no alcohol. Made in 5 steps over 3 months – 3.1 months. The longest step, keep it, cold or warm, takes 3 months (常盤豊 2009) and runs at 5 °C (常盤豊 2009). Lactic acid bacteria, including an alkaliphilic lactic bacterium and Alkaliphilic or alkali-tolerant yeasts do most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step3 monthsMeasured[okinawa2009]Keep it, cold or warm
Temperature5 °CMeasured[okinawa2009]Keep it, cold or warm
AciditypH 3.8–4Measured[okinawa2009]Ferment overnight in a cool place
Fully documentedAlcoholic drinks3 months – 3.1 monthsMore alcoholic drinksMore from Japan

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceThe shrine recipe gives only the 0.75 kg of washed rice; the Amami home recipe gives no amounts. Ancient kuchikamizake had no recorded amounts.
Rice, cooked to a thin porridge · Unjami festival miki, Shioya Bay, Okinawa[okinawa2009]
Sweet potato, peeled and shredded[okinawa2009]
0.75 kgWashed raw rice · Mixed into the warm porridge[okinawa2009]
Sugar · Added the next morning[okinawa2009]
Amami home recipe: rice flour, white sugar, grated raw sweet potato juice and water[maff-miki]
Starterspontaneous: saliva (ancient) or raw sweet potato (miki) for sugar, then wild lactic bacteria and yeasts

Total time across the recorded steps: 3 months – 3.1 months

Start
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What changes: Chewed rice goes into the vessel, and saliva starts turning its starch into sugar

Step 1 of 5
Ancient method: chew the rice
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Lactic acid bacteria
Yeasts

Young women chewed rice two or three times and mixed it in. Chewed-rice sake was the main ritual miki in the Ryukyu islands around the 14th and 15th centuries. Output: sweet chewed rice.

Flavour
Not documented
Texture
Not documented
Colour
Not documented

Microbes at work in this step

saliva amylase turns starch into sugar

Method

Measured measured in a studySet fixed by a specification or tested recipeReported one source reports itTypical a general value, not sourced for this fermentUnconfirmed not yet checked against a source

What makes this one different

Here the sugar comes from saliva (in the ancient chewed form) or raw sweet potato (in miki), not from koji or malt. Fresh miki is a lactic drink drunk within days. The Okinawan shrine miki also holds many alkaliphilic microbes, probably from seawater, unlike the commercial Amami and Ishigaki miki.

Related ferments

Variants

  • Unjami festival miki (Shioya Bay, Ogimi, Okinawa)Made by six districts the day before the festival from rice porridge, shredded sweet potato and raw rice.
  • Amami mikiRice flour, sugar and raw sweet potato juice; about ten makers on the island sell it.
  • Okinawan miki with barleyOkinawa uses barley koji or malt instead of sweet potato.

History and sources

Every number is labelled with how it is known. How this atlas is made

In the Ryukyu islands, chewed-rice sake was the main festival miki around the 14th and 15th centuries, even when distilled spirit was known. By the 18th century awamori was widely used in rituals too, but chewed sake and home-made miki were still offered. The Amami method appears in Nagoya Sagenta's Nanto Zatsuwa from the end of the Edo period.

  1. [okinawa2009] 常盤豊, 世嘉良宏斗, 豊川哲也, 上原真希子, 市場俊雄 2009, Microbes in the fermentation of the Ryukyu traditional drink miki (琉球地域の伝統飲料「ミキ(神酒)」の発酵に関わる微生物の特性), Okinawa Industrial Technology Center research report 12gov
  2. [okinawa2012] 常盤豊, 世嘉良宏斗, 市場俊雄 2012, Microbes in the fermentation of the Ryukyu traditional drink miki, part 2, Okinawa Industrial Technology Center research report 15gov
  3. [maff-miki] Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries of Japan, Nippon traditional foods, Miki (Kagoshima)gov
  4. [WP:Doburoku] Wikipedia, Doburoku, see also (outline only)wiki