Recipe
🥤 DRINK
Amazake
A naturally sweet, milky rice drink fermented from rice and koji, with no alcohol and no added sugar, served warm at New Year or chilled in summer.
Japanese · easy · serves 4
prep 15 min · cook 480 min
~278 cal · 5g protein · 61g carbs · 1g fat · 1g fiber · 0g sugars · 0g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Amazake, meaning sweet sake, is one of Japan's oldest drinks, but the everyday version is not sake at all: made from cooked rice and rice koji (steamed rice cultured with the mould Aspergillus oryzae), it is completely non-alcoholic. The koji's enzymes slowly break the rice starch down into sugar, so the sweetness is the grain's own, with nothing added. A separate style made from sake lees does carry a trace of alcohol, but the koji version here does not, which is why it is given even to children.
Thick, milky, and lightly sweet, amazake is a winter fixture, ladled out hot at shrines over the New Year and drunk at the Hina Matsuri doll festival in March, and it turns up chilled and thinned as a summer cooler too. It is so rich in B vitamins, amino acids, and fibre that it is sometimes called a drinkable IV.
The one thing that matters is temperature: the koji enzymes work best held around 55 to 60C for several hours. Too cool and it turns sour, too hot and it never sweetens. Grated ginger on top is the classic finish.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally vegetarian, vegan and gluten-, dairy-, egg-, nut- and pork-free. No swaps needed.
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
🐖 Pork-Free
Dietary labels are a cooking guide, not allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish; we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, read the label on every product you use, and note that a kitchen can cross-contaminate in ways a recipe cannot control.
Ingredients
US
Metric
Serves 4
300 g (about 1 1/2 cups cooked) cooked short-grain white rice
200 g rice koji (kome koji), fresh or dried
400 ml water
1 tsp grated fresh ginger, to serve, optional, but the classic topping, especially in winter
Instructions
1
Cook the rice a little softer than usual, then let it cool to about 60C, warm to the touch but not hot.
✎ Chef’s note
Leftover fridge rice works too; just warm it back to around 60C before mixing.
2
Stir the water into the rice, then crumble in the rice koji and mix thoroughly until even; the mixture should look like a loose porridge at 55 to 60C.
✎ Chef’s note
If dried koji is used, letting it soak in the measured water for twenty minutes first gives a livelier ferment.
3
Hold the mixture at 55 to 60C for six to ten hours, stirring every couple of hours, using a yogurt maker, a thermos, or a rice cooker on keep-warm with the lid propped ajar.
✎ Chef’s note
Below 50C it sours instead of sweetening; above 65C the enzymes die and it stays starchy. The lid ajar keeps a rice cooker from running too hot.
4
Taste after about eight hours; when it is distinctly sweet and the grains have gone soft, it is done. Blend it smooth if you prefer a drinkable texture.
5
Warm gently to serve without going above 70C, or chill and thin with a little water, and top with grated ginger. Keep refrigerated for up to a week.
Japanese fermented-rice tradition.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Osaka (Kansai). Osaka is Japan's kitchen and street-food capital, the birthplace of octopus-filled takoyaki and the home of the Kansai style of okonomiyaki (Hiroshima cooks a rival layered version, and the savory pancake's exact origin is still argued over). Its motto, kuidaore ('eat until you drop'), captures a city obsessed with cheap, delicious food.
🗺️
Japan. Dashi does the quiet work in a Japanese kitchen. Kelp carries one savoury compound and dried, smoked skipjack carries another, and combining the two multiplies the effect well beyond either alone. The taste was named umami in 1908 by Ikeda Kikunae of Tokyo Imperial University, who went looking for it after eating tofu simmered with kelp.
🌍
Asia. Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, and its food spans the delicate seasonality of Japanese washoku, the chili-fired curries of India and Thailand, and the wheat-and-lamb traditions of Central Asia. Rice, noodles, soy, and fermentation recur across its regions, while ancient spice routes and religious traditions shaped distinct grammars of flavor. Whether from a street-cart wok or a monastery kitchen, eating is deeply communal and ritual-rich.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Japan
Osaka-Style OkonomiyakiA crisp-edged cabbage pancake griddled with pork belly, painted with sweet-savory sauce and mayo.
Goya ChampuruOkinawa’s signature stir-fry of bitter melon, firm tofu, pork, and egg, humble food from the island of long life.
Sapporo Miso RamenSnow-country ramen: a rich miso broth with wok-seared vegetables, springy noodles, and butter melting on top.
Browse all Japan recipes →
Good to know
You’ll need: Blender.
Storing it: Cool leftover rice quickly and refrigerate within an hour. Keep up to 2 days and reheat until piping hot all the way through.
Make it a Japan meal
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Drinks
Frequently asked questions
What is Amazake?
A naturally sweet, milky rice drink fermented from rice and koji, with no alcohol and no added sugar, served warm at New Year or chilled in summer.
Where does Amazake come from?
Amazake is a Japanese dish from Osaka (Kansai), Japan.
Can Amazake be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Amazake recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions, including several at once such as gluten-free and dairy-free together. Treat them as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Amazake safe for people with food allergies?
Our dietary labels and substitutions are a cooking guide, not medical or allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish, but we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, always read the label on every product you use, and remember a home or commercial kitchen can cross-contaminate ingredients in ways a recipe cannot control.
How long does Amazake take to make?
About 495 minutes total (15 minutes prep, 480 minutes cooking), serving 4.
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