SLEEPY BEAR 22
The original SLEEPY BEAR 22 begins with a honkaku sweet-potato shochu matured in cask for twenty-two years. It is a liqueur so that its deep amber colour and cask aroma can remain in full view, without turning the product into another spirit category.
One long-aged sweet-potato base
The original SLEEPY BEAR 22 is made from honkaku sweet-potato shochu matured in cask for twenty-two years.
Cask time without category confusion
Long cask ageing brings a deeper amber colour and a settled, wood-led character. The expression is correctly a liqueur because a small amount of dietary fibre preserves that colour; it remains grounded in a sweet-potato shochu base.
Four directions from a 22-year sweet-potato shochu
SLEEPY BEAR 22 begins with a genuine sweet-potato shochu that spent 22 years in the barrel — a single thread of long aging followed from start to finish. Using its recorded traits of deep amber color and quiet barrel character as a guide, four directions for pairing are read out below. These are not pairings the brewery has officially presented; they are readings drawn from the recorded characteristics.
This pairing rationale draws on the following reference book: The idea of aligning a dish’s weight and aromatic direction follows the “harmony” perspective set out in Motohiro Okoshi’s Logical Pairing. Pairing barrel aroma with nuts and dried fruit draws on food-pairing theory’s focus on shared aromatic compounds.
Makurazaki, Kagoshima — Satsuma Shuzo
Satsuma Shuzo was founded in 1936 in Makurazaki, Kagoshima. Its long-aged programmes are supported by an in-house team of coopers, a cooperage and cask warehouses—an infrastructure that lets the house care for shochu across long spans of time.
For current-lot specifications, availability, storage requirements and trade terms, please contact Bacchus Global.
