How to drink sake like a pro
Six things to know about Japan’s understated rice wine.
SAKE is mostly colourless and can easily leave most people underwhelmed. However, combined with the right food, it can be catapulted into a whole, complex new world of flavour – but there are a few things to know before getting into this Japanese beverage.
Here are six things you should know about sake.
1) Despite being described as a “Japanese rice wine”, it, in no way, resembles wine: The way sake is produced is more akin to beer.
To make sake, rice starch is turned into sugar. A fungus helps with the fermentation process, and a few days, you have fermented rice. This is mixed with freshly steamed rice and water, which forms the first mash. After several repetitions, and subsequent maturation, you have: sake.
2) Sake needs to be paired with the right food to let its flavour really shine through.
Motoko Watanabe is the owner of a restaurant in Berlin called Zenkichi as well as a sake sommelier. Zenkichi specialises not only in offering a wide range of sake, but properly combining it with food.
“The right dish is crucial to allowing the taste and aroma of the sake blossom,” says Watanabe, like a key fitting the right lock.
During a multi-course menu, Watanabe shows diners how this is done: The grilled black Alaskan cod dish is paired with a Tenranzan Koten sake from Japan from 2017, a mixture of several vintage sakes.
Together with the fish, it reveals itself as having a toffee taste.
3) Experts say that the best way for beginners to get to know sake, outside a restaurant atmosphere, is through sweet, spar
kling versions.
Yushiko Ueno-mueller is also a trained sake sommelier and runs an online shop. Most people, she says, already have an idea of what sake is when they come to one of her tastings. So to start them off,
she offers them a sweet, sparkling one – kind of like sparkling wine.
Watanabe also recommends beginners start with sparking sake: “If you love white wine, then I recommend sake with a fruity, flowery aroma.”
4) Sake goes with everything. Ueno-mueller swears that, unlike a red or white wine, sake goes with all types of food. “Sake doesn’t fight with food, but instead supports it,” she says.
If you’re eating seafood or sashimi, it’s best accompanied by a fruity sake with citrus notes. Sake also is a fine companion for cheese – it has umami notes that can mingle with those in cheese.
For meat dishes, sake in a Kimoto style is best. This type contains lactic acid, which creates a yogurt-like flavour in the mouth that pairs perfectly with the taste of meat.
5) Sake is experiencing a revival in Japan.
The Western world is just starting to discover sake as it’s also being rediscovered in its country of origin. Sake had a bad rep for a long time in Japan: “It was definitely not a cool drink, rather something your grandparents drank,” explains Watanabe.
That’s changed in the past few years, however. More and more young people are getting interested in sake, with several blogs emerging.
6) Sake can be enjoyed warm or cold – it just depends on what you like.
Watanabe says that she especially enjoys warm sake when it’s cold outside. Warming the sake up, preferably for a few minutes in a hot water bath, gives it an earthy smell and a slight mushroom taste.
Sake used to always be served warm, remembers Ueno-mueller. These days, however, that’s not necessarily the case. The perfect drinking temperature is between 5°C and 10°C – this lets it warm up in the hands and unfold its multitude of flavours.