Sake, From Rice Comes Love...I'm a Fan!
- David
- May 10
- 11 min read
I know, I know… it’s been awhile since my last blog post (found here), but our transition from Southeast Asia into Hong Kong, Japan, and South Korea has been a whirlwind. And as I sit here writing this post, I’m realizing that this might be the last time you hear from me since we are on the final legs of our round the world, year-long journey for… science, of course.
However, I have to say the data gathered here has really been worth it! In fact, there was sooo much data gathering required that I had to recruit some temporary help to assist with our deep dive into Japan. And, what better pool of talent to recruit from than some of my most enthusiastic blog fans!
After an exhaustive vetting, including some real world training scenarios, I selected M & E to assist with this phase. Of course, their real identities will remain anonymous to maintain anonymity and confidentiality.
We also decided to ship in a “expert” for our time in South Korea but more on that later.
Hong Kong
Similar to Singapore, Hong Kong is an island and therefore lacking in the land and agriculture necessary to support locally developed alcohols. Of course, there’s no shortage of traditional and custom cocktails as well as imported beer choices.
We did however, stumble across a Hong Kong Scotch which I enjoyed very much. It smelled of honey and oak on the nose, had slight smoke accents on the palette and was smooth and easy to drink.
Japan
With four highly trained professionals on the team we were able to dig deep and broad into the rich diversity of alcohols in Japan. It took a lot of effort with early mornings (it’s 5 o’clock somewhere, right?) and late nights during the two weeks we had the full team. But I’m proud to report that we did a great job, all for the benefit of you our faithful readers and of course, for science. We even assigned my editor a small side project (more on that below).
The first thing I learned after hitting the ground here in Japan is that the word “sake” actually means alcohol. So, any type of alcoholic drink beer, rice wine, liquor, etc. are all sake. That said, it is commonly (or maybe mistakenly?) used to refer to the rice wine that many of us are familiar with from Japanese / sushi restaurants back home. Even here in Japan that is the case. But, if you want to be that know-it-all at the table you can look to order "nihonshu" which is the proper name for sake.
As mentioned before Japan, has a rich set of Japanese specific alcohols. So, our data gathering in Japan had to cover the following categories in order of alcohol content:
Beer
Plum wine
Sake: traditional Japanese rice wine
Sochu: distilled rice alcohol
Whiskey
So, as the Japanese toast “kanpai” says “drink it up!”…
Beer
Japan has a number of homegrown beers all of which are designed to appeal to the Japanese palette and complement the cuisine. Most of the beers are a rice and malted barley brew with a light, crisp profile that balances the umame flavors in the dishes. Given the 4-5% alcohol content, they are also pretty easy to throw back at a baseball game!😉
The big brands are also the ones we see at home in Japanese restaurants, Asahi, Kirin, and Sapporo. Of these, I think Asahi may be the king of Japanese beers, at least from a distribution and availability perspective. Also, Asahi “dry” beers seem to be all the rage as we saw Dry, Extra Dry, and Super Dry marketed and on menus everywhere. There are also a number of local craft beers pretty much in every city which were fun to explore.
Plum Wine (my Editor’s side project)
Plum wine or “umeshu” in Japanese, is made from the Asian plums that are grown throughout Asia and Southeast Asia. These plums are used in a lot of culinary dishes or even pickled. Tasted straight, the wine is very sweet, syrupy, and a couple sips is more than enough. However, mix the plum wine with a little soda water and you have a nice refreshing sweet cocktail found on most restaurant menus in Japan. Since this drink is naturally gluten free, my editor was able to dig deep in this category to make sure we came away with all the data needed. And with an alcohol content of 10-12%, I’d say she enjoyed her project.
Sake
Next we come to the most important section of this blog… our exploration into the world of Sake, the common name for rice wine as mentioned above but properly named “nihonshu” in Japanese. First let me just say… WOW! I came away from our explorations of Sake in Japan with a whole new appreciation and understanding of the subtleties and breadth of Sake.
Previous to this trip I would have categorized sake as something closer to a distilled alcohol vs a wine. After all, who among us hasn’t had a cup of warm sake at a sushi restaurant in the US and felt that alcohol burn as it goes down? Turns out, they only warm up the cheap, crappy sake to make it more consumable!
In reality, sake is much more similar to a white wine even though the alcohol content is a little higher at typically 15-20%. It is meant to be served cold or at room temp and was often served in what we would consider a typical white wine glass or the more traditional sake glass cup. The flavors range from dry and crisp to sweet and syrupy. Similar to grape wines sake is meant to be paired with culinary dishes to either complement or balance the flavors. The dry sake will complement the subtle fish flavors of sushi where the sweet flavor might balance the deep umami’s of an udon or ramen or the sweeter taste of unagi.
We also learned a critical element to sake making is the rice polishing process where the outer layer of the rice is polished away to be left with more pure rice which is then fermented. The polishing % dictates the type of sake and is therefore controlled and required to be printed on the label. These fall into three categories 1) Honjozo (70%), 2) Ginjo (60% or less), or 3) Daiginjo (50% or less). The lower % is more costly because it requires more rice and more labor. But higher price doesn’t mean better taste rather just a different flavor profile. There are also many other factors that influence the process including the water in the region, the fermentation process (Junmai being more natural), pasteurization, and filtering. For those who would really like to geek out on the detailed differences of sake varietals here is a presentation from a sake tasting in the Hiroshima area.
Just to give you a better sense of the diligence our team goes through in our pursuit of data gathering, We don't don't just stop at a glass or two and we certainly don't take the wineries word as truth. We know our fans deserve more... so, we roll up our sleeves and dilligently taste every bottle! We put on our lab coats and dig into the back rooms. We even sit through presentations about sake making all for our fans and for science, of course.
Another interesting fact... the idea of aging sake really doesn’t exist. Sake doesn’t typically change flavor profile in the bottle unless it is unpasteurized (a rare thing to find). So, people look to drink the freshest as it becomes available rather than letting it “get old”.
One of the best things about ordering sake at a restaurant is the overly generous pour that often occurs. This is where they bring you a sake glass placed inside a small wooden box and proceed to fill your glass until it overflows into the box. No need worry about not getting a “California pour” here… after all, what kind of restaurant would want to be seen as being cheap with their pours.
All of this is my way of explaining, there are sooo many variations of sake the only way to know what you’ll like is to go out and experiment. So… Kanpai!
Side note: We’ve since learned that our data gathering assistants have been missing their high quality sake since their return to CA. Luckily we learned there is an importer in San Francisco named True Sake that brings the good stuff straight from Japan. If you are in the area I suggest grabbing a few bottles (or cases) and here are a few of our favorites from our time in Japan:
"Kazuhiro Usunigori Namazake" Nakazawa Shuzo (Higashiomi, Shiga): One of David's favorites, it is slightly cloudy sake. Mildness and acidity nicely mixed with freshness. Very well-balanced.
"Kagura Black" Matsui Sake Brewery (Kyoto, Kyoto): This was one of Ilene's favorites and is an unfiltered, unpasteurized and undiluted sake. Made from very finely polished rice, its sweet and fruity flavor lingers on the nose.
"Banshu Ikkon Extra Dry" Sanyohai Shuzo (Shisou, Hyogo): Extra dry with full of richness of rice, which goes very well with fish. While the flavor is delicate, its aftertaste is refreshing without lingering in the mouth.
"Kasa Ichiyou" Ikeda Shuzo (Maizuru, Kyoto): This sake is crisp, well balanced. Good with any Japanese food but especially tempura.
Kamoizumi, Junmai-Sake: sweeter, rice forward flavor
Kamotsuru, Ginjo-Sake: very dry, a little alcohol forward with a sharp/clean taste
Nishinomon-Yoshinoya: we came across a "gravity pressed" sake from this winery that was amazing!
Sochu
To me, sochu seems like Japan’s answer to vodka. Coming in between 25% to 35% alcohol it packs a little more of a punch than sake. However, in true Japanese fashion it is fairly mild on the pallet with various subtle rice flavors coming through in the after taste. This makes sense given it is a rice based distilled alcohol designed with Japanese refinement. Though just like vodka, the premium shochu can be very smooth and likewise the cheaper stuff can burn a bit on the way down.
Is it high on the toe warmer scale for distilled alcohol? Not exactly. Sochu is a drink made to be sipped and is good on the rocks or it’s often found as the basis of a cocktail. Most sochu is gluten free. However, we did come across one that was barely based. So, keep an eye out if this is a concern.
Here are some notes on a couple of the ones we sampled, all in the name of science, of course:
Heizo (Miyazaki): a lot like vodka, smooth but very little taste and a little higher on the alcohol content
Yaezakura (Miyazaki): a little bit like a sake with rice flavors, just slightly stronger and a bit sweet
Tominohozan (Kagoshima): comes across the palette like a citrus flavored vodka
Nakamura (Kagoshima): a barely sochu with slightly smokey and scotch like tastes
Whiskey
Ok, last but far from least is Japanese whiskey. By now, you’re probably thinking… “is this another rice based whiskey like the ones he mentioned in Laos or Vietnam?” Nope!
Japanese whiskey is made from malted barely and is made exactly like Scotch whiskey. Those of us who enjoy Scotch are aware that Japanese whiskey can rival some of the best in the world. Though Japanese whiskeys stay away from the extremely smokey or peaty flavors. So, you’ll never sip a Japanese whiskey and feel like you just licked an ash tray. However, this doesn’t mean you are losing the complexities in the whiskey. It just means your significant other might still be willing to kiss you after you’ve had a glass of Japanese whiskey.
The flavor profiles are definitely designed with a more sophisticated subtle palette in mind. I’ve never been accused of being sophisticated, but I have always enjoyed a good single malt whiskey and something a little on the smoother side. We encountered a number of whiskeys, both single malt and blends that were really enjoyable. High on the list of those were the Yamazaki 12yr and the Hakushu 12yr.
That all said, I don’t think you can go wrong with any Japanese whiskey. Here are a few you might consider:
The Yamazaki 12yr: Very smooth lighter color with slight hint of vanilla and I could see why this leads the pack of Japanese whiskeys! the
Hakushu 12yr: Also very smooth, with stronger hints of oak and a slight hint of smoke. Interestingly, the smoke came through on the nose more than the palette which made an interesting contrast
Hibiki: a blended whiskey with good balance between clear oaky notes (vanilla, pepper) and fruity sweetness
The Chita Single Grain Whisky: so smooth with citrus on the nose with tastes of honey and vanilla. Could almost be desert by itself.
South Korea
As we added South Korea to our itinerary, our advanced scouting team who also happen to be some of our biggest fans gave us a heads up regarding the drinking culture in South Korea. So to make sure we were properly prepared, we decided to fly in one of the foremost California drinking experts (at least from our family). This “expert” referred to simply as “R” (to maintain anonymity) has honed their drinking skills through many nights of college bar crawls and music festivals. Our expert was a significant help with the data gathering though they did significantly increase our team’s expenses for this phase of our project.
Here in South Korea we definitely found a big drinking culture with a focus on drinking heavily at dinner or later in bars. Which may be one of the reasons things come alive pretty late in the evening and why every convenience store sells hangover cures right up front near the cashier. These cures take the form of drinks, gels, or pills and by the way there is a law that requires the manufacturers prove these are effective before labeling them. It’s possible I might’ve picked up a few of these myself, all in the name of science, of course!
That said, the locally relevant drinks of choice really come down to beer and soju. The beers are pretty good and are a little more robust than the rest of Asia we’ve explored. This makes sense as they are paired with the massive variations of fried foods here. However, the star of the show is really the soju which is basically the same as what the Japanese call sochu but with much higher alcohol content.
As it turns out, the soju we see in the states is often what was referred to here as “green bottle” soju. Because, pretty much all mass manufactured soju comes from one distiller and is commonly in a green bottle. And here in South Korea this stuff is cheap! A bottle the size of a beer costs around $1-$2 at a convenience store. It also comes in various added flavors because by itself it doesn’t have a lot of taste. But at 15-20% alcohol it is 3-4x stronger than a beer!
That said, the premium soju is really where things start getting interesting. Let me just say… this is how South Koreans make it through a cold winter! It is high on the toe warming scale for sure, coming in at around 50% alcohol.
We did a premium soju tasting at a distillery in Seoul and learned a ton about the process and the 900 year history of soju making in Korea. Apparently, the matriarchs of the Korean families were responsible for making soju and would hand their recipes down through the daughter-in-laws in the family. Private soju making was also banned for about 80 years starting with the Japanese occupation of Korea in the early 1900’s. However, due to industrious criminal activities (likely in the name of cultural preservation or science) some of those recipes survived!
The sojus we tried were pure single distillations and if you could get past the burn (some of us couldn’t) it had various subtle flavors. The three components that go into soju are rice, yeast, and liquid and when they want to add flavor, they simply vary the liquid a bit. Such as, grape juice instead of water, or mandarin peel infused water, or tea flavor. All of these were interesting and some balanced the alcohol content better than others and though we were just “sipping” we walked away with a warm and cozy feeling for sure.
So, as the Korean’s say… gunbae! Or “drink it up”!
With that, I won't say this is the end as there is always a chance we discover hidden pockets of greatness in Indonesia or Taiwan (the next stops on our list). But, the probability is low.
As this phase of TuckerzTravel "Project 2025" comes to an end, all of the data has been entered, the model has been updated, and the AI is set to autopilot with the ability to write it's own code so who knows where that will lead next.
Here is the latest output and as noted above sake is officially categorized as wine in the updated model below:
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