Hirajima Yoshiziro sat in a street-facing tavern in New Wanjin, sipping on the slightly sour and lingeringly sweet "Bamboo Fruit Brew"—a fruit wine made from bamboo tubes, wild berries, and a small amount of yam. Since it used up very little grain and largely sourced wild fruit from the countryside, it served as a kind of disguised disaster relief, so it had been publicly commended by Harano, and was considered the "number one famous drink" in Wanjin these last two years.
Of course, the taste… well, you could only call it passable. In Hirajima Yoshiziro's opinion, it wasn't anywhere near as good as shochu or sake; at best, it could compete with cloudy rice wine.
