<figure id="attachment_371170" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-371170" style="width: 3024px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="e29079db"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2024/04/5d8b211f33f3b1cfe83ded45cd3ffb78.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-371170" class="wp-caption-text">Nigori sake mixed with hoppy &#8230;&#8230; See text for results. There is a bar where I stop by after a horse race in Fuchu. Of course, I order a hoppy drink, but if it&#8217;s a day when I win the race, I say &#8216;White Star Hoppy,&#8217; and if I lose, I say &#8216;Black Star Hoppy,&#8217; and drink both white and black,&#8221; said Watanabe.</figcaption></figure>
 Smart drinking (smadori) has been advocated, with commercials running and even bars and companies bearing the name &#8220;smadori&#8221; in their name. According to the official website of Asahi Breweries, the originator of the concept, &#8220;Smart Drinking &#8221; is defined as &#8220;a way of drinking in which each individual, whether a drinker or non-drinker, can smartly choose an appropriate alcoholic or non-alcoholic drink according to his or her physical constitution, mood, or occasion.
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 This time, we focused on &#8220;hoppy&#8221; as a strong ally of such smadli.
 With a history of more than 70 years since its birth, Hoppy, a &#8220;beer-tasting soft drink made with malt, hops, and yeast,&#8221; is a low-alcohol beverage with a content of approximately 0.8%. It can be drunk on its own, but the standard way to drink it is to mix it with shochu (distilled spirit). Hoppy Beverage, the manufacturer of Hoppy Beverage, also introduces a variety of other ways to combine Hoppy with other liquors. Hoppy is a drink that matches the diversity of drinking styles.
 In order to measure Hoppy&#8217;s potential as a smorgasbord, the author tried to verify it by combining it with liquors other than shochu. The navigator is Kazuhiko Watanabe, a founding member and current editor-in-chief of &#8220;Sake to Tsumami,&#8221; a magazine celebrating the life of a drinker (Sake to Tsumami Sha). Let&#8217;s give it a try.
<h2> The appeal of hoppy is &#8220;the fun of mixing it up.</h2>
 &#8211;Let&#8217;s toast the first drink with the standard way of mixing Kou-type shochu with hoppy.
 I usually mix it at a ratio of 1:5. I drink it in gulps every day without thinking, but I guess the fact that I can make adjustments like this is part of the Smadri experience.
 &#8211;Tell us about your first encounter with hoppy drinks.
 When I was a 23-year-old office worker, I was at a party in Jujo (Kita Ward) when my boss ordered hoppy. It was very easy to drink, so I went for it. On the train ride home, I started to feel sick, and it took me more than twice as long to walk home from the nearest station. I decided I couldn&#8217;t do it again, and I gave up hoppy drinks for about six years after that.
 &#8211;What made you start drinking again?
 I became a freelance writer after leaving the workforce and rented a room at a professional editing company I knew. Many of the senior freelance writers there liked to drink. They would often invite me out for a drink at Kagaya, a restaurant that served morotsuyaki (a Japanese dish of grilled fish and vegetables), and they would order hoppy drinks, my &#8220;natural enemy.
 At first I didn&#8217;t want to try it, but when they recommended it to me, I couldn&#8217;t refuse and tried it. I couldn&#8217;t refuse and tried it. And it didn&#8217;t make me feel sick. I have been drinking Hoppy ever since. By the way, many of the people I was drinking with at the time were founding members of &#8220;Sake to Tsumami.
<figure id="attachment_371171" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-371171" style="width: 2828px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="fa2604ba"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2024/04/be25eb664fc23890fa3dc8aaf3c800d2.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-371171" class="wp-caption-text"> The white and black Hoppy used for this verification (manufacturer: Hoppy Beverage Co., Ltd.). The low-calorie, low-sugar, purine-free product is a reassuring friend to the drinker who drinks every night.</figcaption></figure>
 &#8211;What is the appeal of Hoppy for Mr. Watanabe?
 What is the appeal of hoppy for you? For me, it was a new experience to be able to freely mix and drink it by myself. It was fun for me to be able to mix my own hoppy drinks, including asking for a &#8220;medium&#8221; or &#8220;extra. In the past, many places only had &#8220;white hoppies,&#8221; but when &#8220;black hoppies&#8221; were available, I tried them and they were also delicious. It&#8217;s fun to order a white hoppy and a black hoppy and make a half-and-half drink with the person you are drinking with.
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 &#8211;Speaking of hoppies and sake and snacks, one cannot talk about the famous &#8220;Hoppy Marathon,&#8221; in which participants get off at each of the 32 stations on the JR Chuo Line and search for a restaurant near the station where they can drink hoppies. He would get off at each of the 32 stations on the JR Chuo Line, find a restaurant near the station that served hoppy drinks, and drink up at least one set of hoppy drinks. The project was so popular that it was later published as a book.
 From the first issue (released in October 2002) to the fourth issue (released in January 2004), it took over a year and a half to complete the project. At the first planning meeting, we decided to call it the &#8220;Hoppy Ekiden&#8221; instead of a marathon. We thought of it as a &#8220;hoppy ekiden,&#8221; with each of the 32 stations on the Chuo Line as about 3 stations per section, for a total of 10 sections. We asked the editors and writers we knew to drink hoppy drinks in the section they were in charge of, and then pass the saskis to the next &#8220;runner.
 However, in order to actually do this, we would have to ask a number of runners and coordinate their schedules. So, the first editor-in-chief said, &#8220;Well, instead of a &#8216;relay race,&#8217; I&#8217;ll run a &#8216;marathon. We would start at Kagaya Yaesu in Tokyo Station and continue drinking all the way to Takao Station. Of course, we accompanied him as much as possible.
<div data-friday-nextpage-lead=" Matching vodka, plum wine, and five other drinks"></div>
<figure id="attachment_371172" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-371172" style="width: 2514px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="0c7b8497"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2024/04/b45eb7ca5bd4d54dd35da3bad2fa0868.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-371172" class="wp-caption-text">Five types of alcohol were used for the matching verification. From left to right: vodka, plum wine, nigori sake, whiskey, and Campari.</figcaption></figure>
 In the third issue of the magazine (released in August 2003), we conducted a project titled &#8220;22 Raging Hoppy Split Studies in a Row. At that time, the editorial staff verified what kind of taste it would have by mixing 22 kinds of liquors, from gin, red wine, and happoshu to habu-shu, with hoppy drinks. But at that time, we verified only white hoppy. This time, we heard that they were going to test it with black hoppy as well, so we really wanted to try it.
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 &#8211;Mr. Watanabe&#8217;s request, we prepared plum wine, vodka, Campari, and nigori (nigori sake). We added whisky to the five types of sake and mixed them with white and black hoppies to see how they tasted. By the way, what was your intention in selecting these four types of sake?
 I simply chose the best three and the worst one in the project at that time. I won&#8217;t say which ones they are (laughs).&#8221;
 &#8211;(Laughs) &#8211; I guess we&#8217;ll have to wait and see after the tasting, won&#8217;t we? Now, let&#8217;s start the verification. Let&#8217;s start with [whiskey with hoppy distilled spirit], which is a distilled spirit like Kou-type shochu, so the taste shouldn&#8217;t be blurred. I put ice in it, so I don&#8217;t know how much to add. The ratio is 1:5.
 The ratio is 1:5. Both of them are distilled liquor, so it is not so different. When I try the black hoppy wari, I find the black one tastes better because of the flavor.&#8221;
 -I am originally a black hoppy drinker, so it tastes even better. Let&#8217;s compare the same spirits again next time. Let&#8217;s try a vodka hoppy.
 Compared to shochu, it smells a lot like alcohol. But both white and black are easy to drink. It is more comfortable than the whiskey we just drank. When I compare them, I feel that the whisky hoppy wari is a little more assertive in its own taste.
 &#8211;By the way, what rank did the &#8220;Sake to Tsumami&#8221; editorial team give the vodka?
 Second place. It was also highly rated at the time. However, you can drink vodka with hoppy liquor, but the alcohol content is 37.5. The alcohol content of ordinary Kou-type shochu is 20 or 25. It would be dangerous to drink such a strong drink at the same pace as shochu (laughs).
<h2> What are the best drinks that go well together, and which are the worst &#8220;don&#8217;t mix&#8221;?</h2>
 &#8211;Next, let&#8217;s try [Umeshu with Hoppy]. We know that plum wine tastes best when drunk straight as it is. &#8230;&#8230;
 It&#8217;s also delicious when mixed with hoppies. Both the white and black ume sake tastes come afterwards. It&#8217;s easy to drink and has a great affinity with hoppies. I think there could be a cocktail like this, and in a test 20 years ago, plum wine came in a very good third place.&#8221;
 -That would mean that either nigori sake or Campari would be No. 1, and one of them would be the worst. I am very excited. Now, let&#8217;s start with the nigori sake with hoppy water. Oh, unlike the previous sakes, the color change is clear and visually interesting.
 It&#8217;s easy to drink too. If it&#8217;s black and white, I feel the black hoppy wari is sweeter. Unlike plum wine, it also has a strong acidity. As you can probably tell by now, nigori sake was the number one match for hoppy sake out of the 22 varieties I tried. It is the defending champion, but after drinking it again today, I can see that Umeshu is a good competitor.
 Originally, I was convinced that nigori sake would be delicious with hoppy drinks. A famous pro-wrestler I interviewed before the hoppy verification project told me that makgeolli mixed with beer is very popular among wrestlers and that they always have makgeolli in their dojo. &#8230;&#8230;&#8221;
 &#8211;Wait a minute. If nigori sake is No. 1, that would mean that the last remaining kanpari is the worst. Isn&#8217;t it the last boss?
 Yes, it is. But that was 20 years ago. I have a feeling that the result will not be the same this time.
 &#8211;What do you mean?
 In fact, the Campari we used for the verification at that time were leftovers that happened to be in the editorial office, and I don&#8217;t know when they were opened. This time, we asked him to prepare Campari that he had purchased just before this verification project. And since we will be splitting it with black hoppy as well as white hoppy, there&#8217;s a chance it will taste good.&#8221;
 &#8211;I see!　Then, with great anticipation, I try the [Kampari with hoppy]. The smell is not very intriguing. &#8230;&#8230; It&#8217;s mazy!　This is like drinking a chemical. Moreover, a strange taste clings to my tongue.
 Noooo, It doesn&#8217;t matter if it&#8217;s white or black. Maybe the combination with hoppy causes a strange chemical reaction. 20 years have passed and the result is still the same. So our taste buds weren&#8217;t wrong back then.&#8221;
 -Every element of appearance, smell, and taste is the worst. Everything is bad, even the aftertaste on the tongue after finishing the drink. I love Campari soda, but I can&#8217;t have hoppy Campari.
 I love Campari soda, but I can&#8217;t drink Campari with hoppy drinks. I&#8217;m really sorry to both Campari and hoppy for drinking it in such an inappropriate way.
<figure id="attachment_371174" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-371174" style="width: 2073px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="3a3bbaf4"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2024/04/7cd726e7dbe0fcd50fd3fda890400bd6.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-371174" class="wp-caption-text"> Sake to Tsumami&#8221; is popular for its silly projects related to sake and snacks, as well as for its &#8220;Drunken Manrai,&#8221; a roundtable discussion with famous people who love to drink. The stocked issues No. 11 to No. 14 and two books (&#8220;Drunken Passenger Banrai &#8211; Group Guess Hang-up Interview&#8221; and &#8220;Hoppy Marathon Across Tokyo on the Chuo Line&#8221;) are still on sale today.</figcaption></figure>
 The above is an examination of Hoppy&#8217;s potential as a smorgasbord. The best three for each are ranked as follows.
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<ul>
<li> Mr. Watanabe: 1, nigori sake w/ white hoppy 2, umeshu w/ white hoppy 3, nigori sake w/ black hoppy</li>
<li> Author: 1, White Umeshu with hoppy drink 2, Black Nigori Sake with hoppy drink 3, White Nigori Sake with hoppy drink</li>
</ul>
 This is my personal opinion, so please keep it as a reference. Enjoy your Smadri life by using hoppy drinks according to your mood of the day!

 Freelance writer. His main areas of expertise are business and the humanities, and he is active in reporting and writing articles for magazines, the Internet, and other media. He is the author of numerous books.

 Yutaka Sano

 Sake to Tsumami Editorial Department

 Hoppy is the perfect child of Smadri, low in calories, purine and carbohydrates. You can freely change the flavor of Hoppy by changing the way it is served. Mr. Watanabe, editor-in-chief of "Sake to Tsumami" and a veteran of the famous "Hoppy Marathon" project, introduces the profound world of hoppy drinks.

The editor-in-chief of &#8220;Sake and Tsumami&#8221; verifies!&#8221; Hoppy White &#038; Black &#8220;Best Matching &#038; Most Evil Pair&#8221; &#8211; &#8220;The Perfect Child of Smadli&#8221;!

The editor-in-chief of “Sake and Tsumami” verifies!” Hoppy White & Black “Best Matching & Most Evil Pair” – “The Perfect Child of Smadli”!

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