As described in Aromas and Flavors to Describe Sake Page, you can roughly describe the characteristics of sake by using 4 words (rich & clean, and moderate and fragrant) to explain the strength of aromas and the strength of flavors.
Now, what kind of words should we use to describe the sake more concretely? The easy […]
This is one of the questions most frequently asked by sake beginners. The answer is NO!
How should cheap Sake be served?
Sake can be served roughly in three ways, hot, cold or at room temperature. Actually, even many Japanese believe that cheap sake should be served hot to gloss over the sake’s off-flavors. Heating sake can […]
The price of sake ranges from a few hundred yen (2-3 USD) to 20000-30000 yen (200 – 300 USD). BASICALLY, expensive sakes TEND to taste great, but that’s not necessarily the case.
So what makes some sakes expensive? There are roughly 3 main determinants of the price of sake.
Rice Polishing Ratio / Sake Classification
In the sake […]
Ever wondered whether a Sake you are looking to buy is sweet or dry? If you can read the label, you could be able to tell if it’s sweet sake or dry sake.
Some Sake bottles have a label that says ‘Dry (辛口)’, or ‘Sweet (甘口)’. But this is not the case for all the Sake. […]
With the worldwide sake boom, a selected collection of sake is available at local large liquor shops, some Japanese grocery shops or local Japanese restaurants. If you find your favorite sake at a Japanese restaurant, you can ask them its distributor and contact the distributor to find out where you can buy the sake in […]
What do yeasts (Kobo) do to Sake?
To summarize the sake brewing process very briefly, starch in rice grains is converted to glucose by Koji while the glucose is converted to alcohol and carbon hydrate by yeasts (simultaneous fermentation). Thus, yeasts, or Kobo (酵母) in Japanese, are required to be active throughout the Moromi fermentation process. […]
Rice used for Sake is different from those we normally eat.
One of the three main ingredients of Japanese sake is rice. However, rice used for sake is different from the one we normally eat. Sake breweries use what is called “Sake Rice (Sakamai / 酒米)”.
How is Sake rice different from the ‘normal rice’?
In the brewing […]
4 basic words
There are 4 basic words to describe the taste of sake; rich (Hojun / 芳醇)and clean (Tanrei / 淡麗) for flavor, and fragrant (Hanayaka / 華やか)and moderate (Odayaka / 穏やか) for aroma. ‘Rich’ is used for heaviness, thick texture, savoriness, full-body, high acidity and sweetness, whereas ‘Clean’ is used for smooth texture and […]
Rice
Rice grains are polished to get rid of protein and fat that attribute to off-flavors of sake, leaving the inner center that is close to pure starch. Basically, the more rice is polished, the cleaner and lighter-bodied the sake tends to become. Rice polishing ratio (Seimai-buai / 精米歩合) measures the degree of rice polishing. For […]
The beauty of Japanese Sake is that you can enjoy it at various temperatures. When you take a first step into the sake world, you will probably encounter the question, “Should this sake be chilled or warmed?” Before we get to the nutshell, let’s have a look at the effects of temperatures on the sake.
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