Kougin No Sasayaki is a ginjo mugi shochu. You’re probably more familiar with “ginjo” being used to describe sake (nihon-shu), which is the term referring to a sake polished to at least 60% of the original grain size. This shochu claims to polish to 50% of the original size, which would qualify it as a daiginjo under sake designations. However, shochu does not actually have these requirements so the polishing of the barely, presumably to get to a cleaner, more pure part of the grain, is simply a choice by the distillery to lighten up the flavors you’ll often find in barley shochu.
