In the early 2000, smaller sake breweries were breaking into the plum liqueur market which were dominated by big corporations until then. Several breweries came out with their own plum liqueur, but like the big corporations, they were made using distilled liquor. Daishichi wanted to make the best plum liqueur, so using sake, not distilled alcohol like the other plum liqueurs, was a given. They use a junmai kimoto sake, giving the plum sake a rich softness, and also solving the problem of balancing the extremities of the sour plums and the sweet sugar with the sake's rich umami. Using sake and high-quality plums doubled the price compared to other plum liqueur on the market at the time, but pricing wasn't on their minds, just making the best possible plum liqueur. And they did! First, sales rose by word of mouth, and soon they won multiple awards, year after year, cementing Kimoto Plum Sake's reputation as the best plum liqueur.