The Hitoyoshi plateau in Kumamoto Prefecture, blessed with ideal conditions for rice cultivation, has been a shochu center for over five hundred years. Here, in the town of Yunomae near the headwaters of the Kuma River, Jiro Toyonaga and his fellow workers produce a rice shochu like no other, gently fragrant, elegantly smooth and with a sweet meadowland flavor reminiscent of Speyside single malts. At 50 proof, Toyonaga can be sipped straight but is usually blended at a 70/30 ratio with water. Equally delicious warmed, at room temperature or over ice.