Sweet rice cooking-wine, 14% ABV, 40% sugars. Glaze, tare base, and the gloss in teriyaki.
First appears in records in 1466 (Muromachi era) as 'nerizake,' a sweet drink at Hakata. Aichi's Hekinan (then Mikawa-province Ohama village) became the production center: in 1772 the shipping merchant Ishikawa Hachiroemon Nobuatsu began brewing mirin there and shipping it to Edo, where its quality earned the 'Mikawa Mirin' name. Distillers add shochu to glutinous-rice koji to halt fermentation early and lock in the sugars.
Hon-mirin is taxed as alcohol in Japan (sake-tax law, 1953). Mirin-fu chomiryo (sugar-water imitation, <1% ABV) sells in supermarkets to dodge the tax. Sumiya Bunjiro Brewery in Aichi has made hon-mirin since 1772; their three-year aged version is the chef's grade.
Pale gold liquid, syrupy not thick, with toasty rice and sake-lees aroma. Tasted alone: sweet-sake, gentle, no harsh alcohol. In a sauce it gives the lacquer shine — teriyaki, kabayaki, soba tsuyu, yakitori tare all need it.
Real hon-mirin: glutinous rice + rice koji + shochu, aged 60+ days. Koji enzymes saccharify the rice while the alcohol from the added shochu prevents yeast from eating the glucose. Result: dual-sugar (glucose + maltose) syrup with a clean alcohol carry.
Variations
Hon-mirin (本みりん, real, taxed, 14% ABV), mirin-fu chomiryo (みりん風調味料, sugar-water imitation), shio-mirin (塩みりん, salted version that ducks tax), Kyushu's Aizu jukusei mirin (3-year cedar-aged, dark amber).
On the Palate
Where Mirin sits in the Japanese flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 6How it's made
4 steps · 30 min active + 60 days 55 min waiting
- 150 min
Steam 1 kg glutinous rice 40 min; cool to 60 °C.
Watch outLet the steamed rice cool to warm-to-the-touch before it meets the koji — too hot and the heat kills the koji enzymes.
- 25 min
Mix steamed rice with 300 g rice koji + 1.5 L shochu (35% ABV).
- 386400 min
Pack in jar; macerate 60 days, stirring weekly.
Watch outStir weekly and watch it turn from cloudy to clear amber — that shift means the koji is saccharifying the rice on schedule.
- 430 min
Press; filter; pasteurize at 70 °C for stability; bottle.
