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Sake and ceviche at Makoto in Bal Harbour.

Get to Know the Ancient Secrets of Sake

Japan’s national beverage teaches us that rice can be nice

by

“First, the hot stuff is the cheap stuff. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.”

The teacher was teaching, a small bottle in her hand, gesturing for her companion to put his glass on a saucer. She filled it until it overflowed.

“Second, the cup runs over, because generosity counts,” she said, handing him the bottle and pointing toward her own glass, as wide-mouthed as a wine glass and already safe on its saucer.

“Third, you don’t pour your own. You pour other people’s, and someone else pours yours.”

And fourth?

“Stop talking and enjoy your sake,” she said, lifting her glass. “Kanpai!”

A provincial drinker might get annoyed at the weird fluff they want you to wade through before getting to the good stuff. But Miami is where different cultures show off “how we do it.” For the Biscayne Tippler, this is the good stuff.

It is a curious fact that wherever you go in the world, people drink to unwind, relax and forget about the rules – and yet somehow elaborate principles of behavior somehow always spring up around drinking. In Cameroon, you might be offering the last sip of palm wine to the oldest person present. On the Amalfi Coast, you could find yourself placing not two, not four, but three coffee beans in each shot of sambuca. And in Japan, you overpour your sake (though you might want to catch the spillage) and you never fill your own glass.

Most of all, you enjoy it, either as a drink in its own right, like a single-malt whisky, or paired with a meal, like a fine pinot.

“As you would with wine, sake should be chosen based on what you are eating for dinner with the goal of the sake complimenting the food and vice versa to create a balance,” explained Anthony Ramonas, general manager of Makoto, Bal Harbour’s elegant Japanese eatery featuring sushi, robata, wagyu steaks, and one of the county’s most extensive sake lists.

“For example, our wagyu robata should be enjoyed with more full-bodied junmai sake while our sushi or sashimi would go great with a cleaner, dry daiginjo sake. Of course, it is traditionally paired with Japanese food but next time you have a slice of pizza, grab a bottle of ginjo sake and enjoy.”

Sake Varieties

Junmai? Daiginjo? What does all that mean? It’s not as complicated as it might seem at first.

There are three basic ways sake is made. Junmai sake is made only with rice, water, yeast, and koji (a kind of fungus also used to ferment soy sauce). Honjozu is made like junmai, but has a little distilled alcohol added at the end of the fermentation process, in much the same way as a port, sherry or other fortified wine. Junmai tends to taste earthier, while honjozu feels lighter but is often more flavorful, with vibrant aromatic and fruity notes. Honjozu’s simplicity means it’s more suitable for warming than junmai, whose more subtle complexities get lost in the heating process. Honjozu is not, contrary to what you might expect, more alcoholic, although it does tend to have a longer shelf life.

The third variety is nigori sake (literally “cloudy” sake), which is also called doburoku in Japan. The drink is cloudy because it’s filled with rice particles, having either been filtered through a larger mesh than junmai or honjozu sakes or not filtered at all. As you might guess, it’s a heartier, rustic beverage with a sweeter flavor profile, making it a good companion to an extra spicy tuna roll or that last plate of red bean ice cream. It’s often shaken before serving, and best consumed quite cold.

Nigori sake used to be treated a bit like moonshine – it was a farmer’s liquor that was outlawed in the Meiji period – so nearly all premium sakes today are either junmai or honjozu. The top-shelf stuff is most commonly categorized by how thoroughly the rice bran has been polished away from the grains before fermenting.

A ginjo sake will have at least 40% of the outermost rice grain polished away. A daiginjo (or “big ginjo”) will have at least 50% removed. The resulting drinks are far smoother and more expressive in flavor. The polishing is not the end of the story, of course. The more polished the grain, the more care is taken along every step of the process.

A daiginjo sake might be brewed in a much smaller vat, with a special room set aside for cultivating its own daiginjo koji. The very finest daiginjos will not be pressed out of the rice mash, but instead allowed to drip slowly from a mesh bag, a process known as “shizuku” (literally, “droplets”), and then aged for several years at near-freezing temperatures.

“A ginjo sake will be more medium-bodied and fruity, while a daiginjo is more delicate, smooth and lighter bodied,” explained Ramonas.

Enjoying Sake

The little porcelain jug and shot-sized cups (or ochoko) are the traditional way to serve a heated sake.

“Not that there’s anything wrong with that,” as the teacher said.

For a higher-quality chilled sake, many modern drinkers prefer a wine glass or snifter to better appreciate the aromatics. A wide, flat sakazuki is a traditional option.

If you’d like a more hearty, authentic experience, seek out a place that serves sake in a masu, or square wooden cup. These can also be used as saucer to catch the overflow from that generous pour into a smaller glass placed inside it. You either tip the contents back into your glass, or sip directly from the sides of the vessel (never the corners).

To get to know sake, it’s best to experience a few different varieties straight, at first. Mixologists, of course, are happy to use sake as a key ingredient in cocktails. At Makoto, the Summer Sangria and Sake-tini both rely on sake – “not as much for the flavor, but more for the mouth feel, creating a smoother, cleaner drink,” said Ramonas.

At home, you can try mixing a tamagozake, a traditional cold-weather treat (and cold remedy) based on whipping egg with sugar and sake that’s been heated just enough to cook it. Think of it as Japanese eggnog.

TAMAGOZAKE

INGREDIENTS

  • 6 oz. junmai sake
  • 1 egg (pasteurized, if you worry about that sort of thing)
  • 1-2 tablespoons sugar
  • 1 pinch fresh grated ginger, optional

METHOD

  • Heat sake on stove or in microwave until just shy of boiling.
  • Whisk egg and sugar together until well-blended; while whisking, add a little bit of hot sake at a time to egg mixture – it should foam and become creamy, but not turn into egg-drop soup.
  • If egg does start to coagulate, double-strain before serving.
  • Garnish with fresh grated ginger.

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