Brooks Anderson

“Takuya has such a deep understanding of the nuances of flavor, not just with food, but also with sake and shochu.

When he told me that he and his lovely wife, Takae were founding Hakko Craft Co., I told him that as soon as he was comfortable with his processes and recipes, I wanted some!

And did he ever deliver.

To me, the star of the show is the Serrano Yuzu Koji. The flavor explosion of salty, spicy, citrusy, and incredibly vibrant, this is as versaIle as condiment as any food lover could ask for.

It is great spooned over soft-scrambled eggs with cheese.

Put a healthy portion into your sous vide bag filled with bone-in pork chops and after you take them out and sear them off, spoon more of the green deliciousness over the pork as a finishing “sauce”.

Just a touch on fish tacos is simply amazing. And you might not believe me, but while I’m cooking with it I just drop small spoonfuls into my own mouth … mind-blowing flavor! Wow!

Finally, I have lost about 40 pounds by making many changes to my lifestyle. One of the most important changes has been to adhere to a very low-carb diet, which helped me knock off the last 10 or 15 pounds of unwanted weight. My favorite snack? A hard-boiled egg topped off with Hakko Craft Serrano Yuzu Koji! It adds incredible flavor with basically no carbs and no calories.

I can say without hesitation this is my favorite new flavor of 2025 … and there really is no competitions.”