mijo imports
Chinese rice wine in New York City
We work directly with family-owned producers to bring high-quality rice wine (米酒, 6-20% ABV) from China to restaurants and retail stores in North America.
We are currently setting up licenses and logistics. If you would like to receive product updates as they become available, please join our mailing list.
what is mijo?
Mijo (米酒, mi3-jiu3), also known as mijiu or rice wine, is an alcoholic beverage made by the fermentation of rice starch.
The history of rice wine dates back 10,000 years, appearing in both the Yangtze region and the Yellow River region. By the time of Han dynasty, rice wine had spread to Japan (sake), Korea (cheongju), and even the Roman Empire (who preferred mijo over rice). The consumption of mijo in China peaked in the Tang and Song dynasties, with the poet Li Bai being an avid consumer (and a very happy drunk). Since then, mijo has become somewhat of a lost art in China, but domestic popularity has surged in the past few years as a new generation of producers combine traditional techniques with modern science.
Compared to Japanese sake, Chinese mijo has a lot more variety—in rice type, fermentation ingredients, brewing process, and flavor incorporation. This means that mijo is harder to classify and grade, but at the same time, there is more to experiment with.
Please drink responsibly.
