Can Cold Sake Get Warm Again
Sake isn't nearly as exotic or mysterious every bit it once was to American consumers. Not just have Americans become better educated about global food and drink traditions, including Japan's, but sake has become a more popular beverage in u.s.a.. Between 2011 and 2016, the category book of sake grew about xvi percent in the U.S., according to the market place inquiry firm Euromonitor . (And that'south expert news for Japanese producers because consumption has been steadily declining at habitation—information technology dropped xi percent during that same menses—and sake brewers now rely on export markets to aggrandize their businesses.) But despite this stateside success, the sake category is rife with misconceptions almost how to serve it, how to potable it, and even what constitutes good sake. Here, we tackle iv of the big ones.
Myth No. ane: Only the lowest-quality sake should exist heated.
Many consumers likewise every bit restaurants and confined nevertheless subscribe to the notion that "inexpensive" sake should be heated, and "good" sake should be consumed chilled. While information technology'southward true that some sakes benefit from being warmed and others are more than enjoyable cold, the serving temperature has little to do with premium versus subpremium sake. It'due south more than about flavour and aroma characteristics.
Yeah, the premium ginjo and daiginjo styles are usually meliorate chilled, but that's because the frail flavor nuances and fruity, floral aromas that characterize these styles vanish when they're heated. For most other styles, information technology really depends on the ascendant flavor and aroma notes. For instance, heating tin enhance the deep nutty and umami notes present in some junmai-course sakes (junmai proper, non junmai ginjo or junmai daiginjo, mind you).
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"Earthy or rich [sakes] are going to be very interesting [heated]," says Jamie Graves, manager of the Japanese portfolio at Skurnik Wines . "Merely if information technology's really fruity, or college in alcohol—above 15% [or] 16% ABV—those generally don't go as well [warm]."
A genshu that's undiluted and bottled at a full fermentation strength of effectually xviii% or nineteen% ABV, for example, is amend served chilled. (Heating information technology might negatively accentuate the booze smell.)
In add-on to agreement which flavour profiles (and ABVs) benefit from heating or chilling, it'southward of import to consider exactly how hot or cool to serve different grades and styles of sake. Equally a rule, cold sake should never be chilled below 41 degrees Fahrenheit (v degrees Celsius), and hot sake should rarely become much college than 131 degrees Fahrenheit (55 degrees Celsius)—and some sakes are best at room temperature.
Myth No. 2: Junmai daiginjo is the best sake.
While junmai daiginjo may often be the most expensive sake on menus, at that place are other comparably fine sakes. Junmai daiginjo fetches a high cost, in part, because information technology tends to be the well-nigh labor-intensive to make and it'southward the mode that requires the largest volume of rice to produce. In making junmai daiginjo, brewers fire through significantly more raw material because more of the rice kernel gets polished away—at least l percent of each kernel has to be milled off. Some brewers get much farther, polishing away seventy, 80, or fifty-fifty 90 percent of the kernel.
"It's very piece of cake for something in the [brewing] process to go wrong, and then if a brewery's making junmai daiginjo, they put more time and effort into it and they're more hands on," Graves says. "Non that they're not putting try into their other sakes, but [junmai daiginjo] just requires more attention and labor. In that location are definitely advantages to [drinking it], and yous get all of these really absurd subtleties out of it, but you can find great examples of really fine sake, beneath that [grade] within the junmai grade or even in the kind of forgotten honjozo grade."
Myth No. 3: Sake with added distilled alcohol is inferior.
In that location are two key defining features of honjozo-grade sake. The first is that at least 30 percent of the rice kernel must exist milled abroad (giving it a rice polish ratio, or seimaibuai, of lxx percentage or less). The other is that its recipe must include a modest portion of added distilled alcohol. And given the latter, at that place'southward a mutual misconception—even in Japan—that sake that includes added alcohol (across that derived from the rice fermentation solitary) is of a lower quality.
The practice of calculation spirit to sake dates back several hundred years. Initially, brewers discovered that adding some distilled alcohol to the brew helped prevent spoilage—long before the advent of pasteurization and modernistic refrigeration. In the years immediately afterward World War II, producers had another reason to fortify their products with distilled booze: A nationwide rice shortage forced them to supplement their sake with spirit. Just today, distilled alcohol is added by preference.
"It's a stylistic choice, really, as opposed to annihilation that makes [production] less expensive," Graves notes. "[The added spirit] makes the texture a lot slicker, giving information technology this lovely, silky, oily quality. And information technology concentrates the aromas and gives the sake a fiddling bit of weight, a lilliputian depth on the palate."
The fact that the term "junmai," meaning "pure rice," is applied to those premium-grade sakes that don't have added booze may also play a role in perpetuating this myth. Anything that's not "pure" is considered "adulterated" and therefore "substandard." But it's hard to accuse a brewer who makes a ginjo or daiginjo—the not-junmai-prefixed sakes—of doing anything "substandard."
Myth No. 4: Small sake cups are a single-serving size.
And speaking of things that are below standard, those small sake cups that are barely larger than a shot glass hold far less than a standard serving size of sake. Only some bars and restaurants make full them and serve them as a full pour when a consumer orders past the drinking glass. A full serving should be 180 milliliters, or roughly 6 ounces.
"It annoys me every bit a consumer," says Michael John Simkin, main of the sake marketing company MJS Sake Selections , "banging down $12 or $xiii for a glass and getting a cup that's got ii, maybe three ounces in it. They think they're serving a proper pour, but they're really ripping people off."
There's actually some history to that 180 ml size. It was the standard unit—or gō —of a single serving of rice typically measured in a small wooden box called a masu . The masu is more familiar now every bit a sake drinking vessel (it became such because dorsum in the day, Japanese drinkers needed cups and there were a lot of those boxes effectually). Many are still made of woods, but plastic ones are likewise common. You may exist familiar with the tradition of the overflowing masu . The server continues to pour fifty-fifty after the sake starts to spill over into a saucer beneath the masu —symbolizing the restaurant'south generosity and the owner'southward appreciation of your business.
Sake bottles themselves are based on multiples of 180. The standard container is 720 ml (180 times iv), not the usual 750 ml size that's common for near wines and spirits. The giant, magnum-mode bottles known as isshobin are 1.8 liters (180 times 10).
Those small cups that some venues try non-and then-generously to laissez passer off every bit individual servings are actually supposed to foster interaction among guests or business associates. Guests are meant to continuously fill up those cups for each other, never pouring for themselves.
As outgoing equally sake has become for a growing number of U.S. consumers, information technology remains one of the least understood beverages on the market. It's still a niche category where misinformation can often obscure actual information. Distinguishing the two could mean the difference between a thoroughly unpleasant consumer feel and ane that encourages further exploration amidst enthusiastic imbibers.
Jeff Cioletti is a former editor in chief of Beverage Globe mag and the author of the books The Drinkable Globe, The Twelvemonth of Drinking Adventurously, Beer FAQ, and the upcoming Sakepedia . He'southward a Certified International Kikisake-shi (sake sommelier).
Source: https://daily.sevenfifty.com/4-sake-myths-debunked/
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