Christmas Miku was eyeing my sake flight
Got this at a Kyoto bar
A sake journey starts with a single bottle...
Our journey started a few years back when I bought a random bottle of sake to have at a great little sushi spot nearby. Prior to this purchase, the only sake I'd experienced was squirted from a condiment bottle while food got flung past my head at hibachi grills. Needless to say, that sake was just.....awful. An unholy array of flavors similar to what one would think drinking turpentine is like. As this was the only way I was being exposed to sake, my take was pretty much, sake = terrible, beer = good when enjoying some mackerel sashimi.
On my first trip to Japan after seeing so many people choose sake as their drink of choice, I started wondering if everyone in Japan lacked taste buds or was I missing something here. Coming from a wine background, I knew there were types of wine that I did not enjoy. Maybe what the hibachi chef loaded into that squeeze bottle was the sake equivalent of a Sutter Home's pinot grigio.
So, I bring this bottle to the sushi joint and it was lovely! I remember it had a great nose of green apple and rice. The light flavor of creamy fruits went perfectly with our sushi selections. This was what I'd been looking for and I didn't even know it. I took a somewhat blurry picture of the label and figured I'd buy this again and again. Or so I thought. I go back to the store and while there are sake available, I cannot find this particular one again. I go to other stores and for the life of me, I can't seem to match this label to anything. So I Google it: "Dassai 50". A few hits and I see the dreaded word – Discontinued. Well, F me.... Now what?
Ganbaru!
Shortly thereafter, during our second Japan trip I made sure to try as much sake as I could. Sake flights at some bar. Buying bottles from a matsuri. Sake at the restaurants. Still, at this point I have no idea about sake but I know I'm starting to enjoy some of them. But now I'm like, "how can I tell which ones are good?" "Why are some $100 and some $6.99?"
Let's party with sake!
Back in America, I bought one bottle of everything that the largest liquor store in our area had just to try them all. Then I invited friends over for a day of BBQ and drinks. We had a blast tasting each one, discussing what aromas and flavors each person noticed (or didn't notice). For each bottle we tried, I gave a little presentation; I read off the back label or did a quick Google search to find a bit of information to share. I figured I might as well educate others while learning myself!
Our very first sake tasting
It was everything the liquor store had
We all wanted to do it again with more sake but the world had different plans for us. The first lockdown of 2020 came.
Nevertheless, I was determined to continue on with our sake journey; I just had to figure out how to do it safely. I purchased a ton of new sake online (I probably put Tippsy's staff's children through college) and bought 4oz mason jars. I labeled them 1,2,3,etc., and poured the sake into them. Our friends, who have become known as our sake group, came by on Friday night for a curbside pickup of a sake tasting set. Then, on Saturday, we'd all get online and I would do a presentation on each bottle, the brewery and region, and we'd all taste and share our opinions from the safety of our homes.
Kotyo sake tasting
Tasting sets during the lockdown
We learned a ton and had a blast doing it. More importantly we kept the group engaged and made a difficult time much more bearable.
I would research all these breweries, regions, sake types and brewing methods. I kept going further down the sake rabbit hole. We continued tastings every couple weeks, 4-6 bottles a session, until we were able to safely enjoy in-person gatherings again. And when we did, we continued with more sake tastings just together now, on my patio.
Let's get the word out!
Soon other people started to hear about what we'd been doing, and they were curious (and slightly jealous) about all the sake we've tried. I was finding more and more people who were saying exactly the same thing I was in the beginning: "Sake is terrible, or at least the ones I've had" or "I have no idea about sake. I wouldn't know what one to buy" and that made me realize that if sake is ever really going to gain traction outside of Japan, people need to be educated.
So, with some slight coaxing, I decided to create a place where we can take our love for sake, our new-found knowledge, and our continuing journey into the world of sake and share it with as many people as possible. Who knows, maybe we can make some more sake friends along the way.
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