What is BY?
Looking at the back label of a Sake bottle, you may find the word ‘BY’. This stands for ‘Brewery Year’.
This refers to the year when the sake was brewed. The tricky part of this is that the number followed by the word ‘BY’ is the year number in Heisei Era (the current era in […]
Origin of Sake
While it is said that wine originated before 8000 BC, the history of Sake started sometime during Yayoi-Period (between 6th century BC and 3rd century BC) when rice farming was introduced to Japan.
Sake was made by spitting steamed rice
At this time, people, ignorant of today’s Sake making process, chewed the steamed rice and spat it, […]
Just as vegetables and seafood, Sake has the season during which it performs the best. Basically, fresh Sake like genshu (原酒), Nama-zake (生酒), etc. is the best in spring, whereas the others are in autumn.
刈穂 (Kariho) / Spiegel
Why does Sake perform differently depending on the seasons?
The fact that spring is the best sake season for […]
How many Sake breweries are there?
According to Japan’s National Tax Agency, there were 1716 Sake breweries in 2011, 1251 of which made Japanese ‘Sake’ (while others made cooking Sake, etc.). The number has dropped over the past 30 years, from 2507 in 1984 when clean, dry Sake was at its height.Next, let’s take a look at […]
Browsing Sake bottles, you might have noticed that there are certain Kanjis (Chinese characters) that are frequently used for Sake names. The followings are the top 10 Kanjis used for Sake names.
1. 山 (Yama / San)
Number of Sake brands: 247
Meaning: Mountain
Famous Sake Brand: Hakkaisan (八海山)
Comment: Mountains have been objects of worship for Japanese people for […]
Sake is very sensitive. Even a few hours of sunlight would rapidly deteriorate the quality of Sake, changing its color. This would also lead Sake give odors.
This deterioration of Sake quality occurs when organic compounds like vitamins in Sake are affected by the ultraviolet rays. On top of that, Sake aromas deteriorate when Sake is […]
Some Japanese are hesitant to drink Sake because they think Sake is likely to cause hangover. It is sometimes said that brewed alcohol beverages like Sake and wine are more likely to cause hangover than spirits.
This however, is totally wrong. There’s no medical evidence that a certain alcohol beverage is more or less likely to cause hangover […]
Introduction
Kanpai. It’s a mandatory etiquette to make a toast in Japan. Don’t start drinking before saying cheers, or you’ll be considered rude. This etiquette of cheers applies to all types of alcohol beverages – Sake, beer, wine and all other sorts.
How to say Cheers in Japanese?
We say ‘KANPAI! (乾杯!)’. It literally means ‘dry the glass,’ […]
There are 5 key things that sake beginners should have in mind when choosing one sake from thousands of sake brands. According to their difficulty level, I have classified those 5 key points into “beginner,” “intermediate” and “advance.”
1. Rice Polishing Ratio (Beginner Level)
This tells you AROMA & FLAVOR of sake. In the sake brewing process, rice grains […]
A study
There was a study on Sumo wrestlers at Takasago Stable where the infrared theormography was used to study how their body temperature changed depending on different types of alcohol beverages. The result was that their body temperature after drinking Japanese sake was higher by two degrees for a longer time than other alcohol beverages. […]
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