Strong traditions flow through Iwate sake
Talk about a late bloomer. From its location in the northeastern corner of Honshu, Iwate Prefecture exerts a tremendous influence on the sake world. Yet, sake was not even produced there on any real scale until well after 1678, long after Nada, Itami and ...
Recalling the toil of winter in the rites of spring
It's May, and for almost all of the nation's 1,700 or so sake brewers, this means brewing activities are over for the season. There are a handful of larger breweries that have climate-controlled factories, and do brew year-round (known as shiki-jozo). But everyone else ...
Nigorizake puts the fun back in sake drinking
It is all too easy to get all too serious about sake all too often. Ginjo this and ginjo that, highly polished rice, double-secret yeast, fancy fragrance, full palate, clean finish, yada yada yada. Sake in the end should be fun, and nothing reminds ...
Fish, sake and crowds come together at Uoshin
Like the indigenous beverages of most countries, sake developed along with its national cuisine. Indeed, there are great differences in Japanese cuisine from region to region, small country though Japan may be, and these differences are reflected in the subtle differences in the sake. The ...
Sake fans these days are quite often inundated with information (much of it extraneous) about how a sake was made. The rice, yeast strain, water quality, nihonshu-do (specific gravity) and acidity are commonly found listed on the labels of most decent bottles of sake. One ...
Ryohana: brilliantly competent, and proud of it
The late Jerry Garcia, former Grateful Dead lead guitarist, was once asked in an interview if he would like to be considered a great musician. With characteristic modesty, he waved the idea off as something in which he had no interest. After a moment ...
The go-mi system of sake tasting
Describing and conveying the flavor of sake has always been problematic. How does one explain a gustatory experience in words alone? It certainly isn't easy. And, as sake flavor profiles become more complex and subtle, it is bound to become even more difficult. Long ...
Back streets in not-so-far towns
One of the great joys of sake tippling, especially after having searched the town for a while, is finding a new gem of a place. Just when you think you've seen just about any manifestation a sake pub could take, you stumble on something ...
It is finally beginning to get cold, which must bring a collective sigh of relief from sake brewers all over the country. The unseasonably warm temperatures of late are not good for brewing sake. Since just about now is when brewers dig in and ...
Happy Holidays to all Japan Times readers. There are sure to be, among all you merry-makers, a few last-minute shoppers. Perhaps a sake accouterment would be perfect for that one last gift. In this, the last Nihonshu column of the year, century and millennium, let's ...
Plenty to imbibe on the Internet
Sake has slowly seeped through the Internet, having reached a fairly saturating presence there. Any search on the word sake will yield intoxicatingly broad results. A lot of it is good information, some of it is a bit light and some of it is ...
A toast to you, the brewers, and all the hard work you do
There are at present about 1,700 sakagura, or sake breweries, in Japan. This number is dropping somewhat quickly, with several kura going under each year. But for those 1,700-odd kura brewing again this year, just about now is when the brewing season begins. As ...
