2/5/2007

Do you know what is the no. 1 drink in Japan? It’s beer, not sake. :P I was quite shocked, I always thought it’d be sake because growing up I was taught to think that sake is synonymous to Japanese food and beer is mainly a westerner’s thing - think Budweiser. But anyway, sake is the second preferred drink after beer and I am going to talk about it :)

Sake is actually made out of fermented rice. Now, if any of your have ever seen rice that has gone bad, you’d wonder how that could turn into sake because it is as disgusting as it smells. Ugh. Another name for sake is called nihonshu, which basically translate to Japanese wine. Sake is widely referred to in English as “rice wine”. However, this designation is not accurate. The production of alcoholic beverages by multiple fermentation is more characteristic of beer than wine. Also, there are other beverages known as “rice wine” that are significantly different from nihonshu.

Sake is a clear liquid and has about 15% alcohol in it. It is made from rice and water. Water is very important to make good sake and that means the type of water is important too. Water that is heavy with minerals might give a different taste to the sake so it is definately preferably to use water that has the least minerals in it. Sake breweries in Japan are located near some of the best spring water in the world. After rice is washed, soaked, steamed and cooled, fermentation starts by adding koji rice.

Sake is served in a ceramic flask called tokkuri, and you pour sake into a small cup called o-choko and drink from it. It is polite to pour sake into each other’s cup when you are drinking with others. You always need to know whether your company’s cup is empty or not. (Check out Japanese etiquettes for dining). O-choko actually looks like those Chinese wine cups to me as well. Very interesting indeed. In fact one theory suggests that the brewing of rice first started in China, along the Yangtze River around 4800 BC and was subsequently exported to Japan. Another theory traces sake brewing back to 3rd century Japan with the advent of wet rice cultivation. The combination of water and rice lying around together would have resulted in molds and fermentation. Regardless, the first sake was called kuchikami no sake, (口噛みの酒) or “chewing-in-the-mouth sake,” and was made by people chewing rice, chestnuts, millet, acorn and spitting the mixture into a tub.

No matter what, I like chowing down sashimi with sake because it cleans off the fishy smell after and prepares me palate for the next piece of fish. But of course, I can’t be sipping sake after every bite unless I want to start dancing naked on the table…:P 15% is not THAT potent but it’s potent enough. The last time i tried sake, I was 16 at my uncle’s birthday dinner party and I didn’t really know that sake would be that potent since I kinda liked it. After about 6 O-chokos, the tatami mats were talking to me. I didn’t dance naked on the table though. The funny thing is when you’re drunk with sake, you don’t usually feel anything except being real light, up in the head. The feeling of bloatedness only hits you after a long while and it hits hard - which explains the puke smell in my dad’s car the day after. Sorry dad!

Anyway, read more about sake HERE.

Source: About.com;wikipedia.