THE ONTARIO SPRING WATER SAKE COMPANY
When Valvur finally decided to make sake
in Toronto, he was able to seek guidance and
advice from the Masumi team. “Masumi agreed
to be our consultants in setting up our new
brewery, introduced equipment suppliers and
one of their staff provided an introduction to
our first master brewer Takahashi-san.” This
counsel, in particular bringing in an experienced
sake brewer to start up the brewery, proved
critical to Izumi producing solid sake from
the very start.
Toji Yoshiko Takahashi relocated to Toronto
for over a year to help Valvur and the Izumi
team get started. With over 20 years of sake
making experience in Nagano at Tomono
Shuzo and Tsuchiya Shuzo, she is presently
one of a select handful of female toji (master
brewer) in Japan. She is recognized as the
first female to become a toji that comes from a
non-sake family, a remarkable feat considering
the industry is still dominated by men. She
is also an accredited toji with the Saku Toji
Kai guild and a graduate of the Advanced
Sake Brew Master Training program of the
Brewing Society of Japan.
Six months into the opening of the Ontario
Spring Water Sake Company, Greg Newton
joined the brewing team. Newton is a Canadian
who worked with Takahashi-san at Tomono
Shuzo and was key to introducing her to
Valvur. He grew up in Ontario and obtained
his Masters in Microbiology from the University
of Guelph. Later, he moved to Japan where
he studied sake making on an internship at
Daimon Shuzo in Osaka. Following this
experience Newton returned to Ontario to
train under Takahashi-san before taking over
the reigns of the brewery as Takahashi-san
prepared to return to Japan. Under Newton,
the brewery has continued Takahashi-san’s
legacy of crafting solid sake while continuing
to refine Izumi’s production methods.
THE INGREDIENTS
The key ingredients in making premium
sake are good quality, water, rice, koji-kin
(a micro-organism used to break down the
starches to sugars) and yeast. How these
ingredients are used in the brewery can greatly
affect the outcome. To make Izumi sake,
extensive effort went into sourcing high quality
ingredients. Consequently, I