Its quality

Dassai “Beyond” because its quality goes beyond rice polishing, even high polishing ratio.

In recent years, we believe that our Dassai 23 has achieved its goal in terms of highly refined, polished ratio.
However, it goes further than that.

Its character

The best sake crafted by Asahi Shuzo.

This sake has been created to surpass our Dassai 23. The quality aimed for is not in order to complete what Dassai 23 could not, but rather to integrate it so as to go a step further.

Behind the scenes

A sake against the World.

In recent years, as exports for sake increased, it consequently meant to compete with the wine world. As you know, wine is the product of a very sophisticated and speculative marketing in the West, with prices in the hundreds and thousands of dollars per bottle.

As long as sake is to compete with wine in the future, both abroad and in Japan, the challenge for sake will be to break into this high price range.

A Japanese, Luxurious Sake

An Italian company in the leather industry has bought a fabric developed in Japan, put a price well above the market price and although it was the same product, it got way more popular than the original, japanese producer.

This, we cannot possibly do. We will not allow the same sake to be priced higher just because of some marketing strategy. With this sake, Asahi Shuzo is aiming for a true Japanese-style premium sake with true content.

Next step?

The work for “Dassai Beyond” is never truly finished, and we will continue our quest to take Dassai – beyond even further past the limits of perfection.

The backstory

We have received many requests from people highly educated in distribution and marketing, asking us if I could offer an expensive sake. The point behind these requests was that, for example, in order to sell a 3,000-yen lunch course at a restaurant, there is a need for a higher, 7,000-yen course menu. Therefore, in order to sell Dassai 23, the best way would be to craft a sake in a higher price range.

Such requests were for us, unacceptable.

Perhaps this was true, perhaps there was a need for an expensive Dassai. However, our motto at Asahi Shuzo is to not manipulate or inflame the market just to make profits. Indeed, it would be easy to put high price on a product, just by naming it differently or having a particular packaging. Still, we just could not. And after a decade, we finally was able to answer these requests in a proper manner.

To our customers

We believe it might be challenging to fully grasp the flavor profile of Dassai Beyond on its own.

For this reason, we recommend that you first enjoy Dassai 23 before moving on to Dassai Beyond: this will help it better show you its charms.