I have heard of non-alcoholic beer, but non-alcoholic rice wine?
Amazake is a traditional, sweet, low-alcoholic drink made from fermented rice. This is very different from the popular Japanese rice wine, sake. Amazake is cloudy and slightly sweet, unlike the clear and highly-alcoholic sake.
Take a drink and any connection with sake will be completely erased from your mind. Amazake, especially this non-alcoholic version, is sweet and does not burn your throat. In fact, it looks and taste closer to the other popular drink from Japan, Yakult.
The taste of fermented rice is not very strong but prominent enough that it takes some getting used to. It’s an acquired taste. For me, I enjoyed it at the beginning but towards the end, the taste felt a bit weird in my mind. Perhaps it would have been better if it had alcohol – I would have been too drunk to notice the change in taste!
I bought this with my own money on Don Don Donki, Singapore.