Akashi Tai Tokubetsu Honjozo Sake, 72 cl

Product Information

The real pleasure of drinking warm sake is in savouring the complexity of the rice-derived flavour brought out by the heating.

The different temperatures provide a changing array of flavours for the palate to appreciate. Warm sake is rather unusual in the world of alcoholic beverages, but it has a long history. Given the region’s reputation for producing sake, it’s no surprise that the brewery is dedicated to deep-rooted brewing traditions and heritage. Akashi-Tai is true artisan sake, handmade in small batches by the toji (or master brewer) Kimio Yonezawa and his close team of trusted craftsmen. But to Akashi-Tai, respecting tradition also means keeping it alive, in an unending quest to challenge and improve throughout every step of the sake-making process.This cookie is set by Rubicon Project to control synchronization of user identification and exchange of user data between various ad services. Akashi-Tai Honjozo Sake, is a medium-bodied sake with hints of citrus and straw, this is the drink the brew masters reach for at the end of a working day So, let's settle an age-old debate – should you drink sake warm or chilled? Well, it depends. "All sake used to be consumed warm or at room temperature," says Sebastian Lemoine, a Tokyo-based sake expert and teacher at Le Cordon Bleu culinary school. "However, in the post-war period, consumers started to associate warm sake with the drinking experience of cheap, soon industrial, sake, which was required to feed a booming market." Japan's signature drink has been brewed for around as long as hanami celebrations have existed, with historians dating its invention to the Nara period (710-794), although booze of various forms has been drunk on the island from at least the third century. Helpful as these categories are, they offer only a vague sense of the breadth and variety available, even within each category. The only way to really find out what you like is to taste broadly and see what lights up your palette.

A step up lies junmai sake, which is polished to at least 70% (ie 30% of the rice has been stripped away). These tend to have more umami, savoury flavour profiles. Rather confusingly, 'junmai' also refers to unadulterated sake; non-junmai sakes have distilled alcohol added, to add new notes and smooth out flavours. Honjozo is non-junmai sake polished to at least 70%, and often is well balanced and a good companion for food.

Strength

Even the hushed sounds of natural fermentation at work can be heard in the cool, quiet rooms of our brewery." I have featured Akashi-Tai sake before as I quite like it. However, it’s the first time I tried Akashi-Tai Tokubetsu Junmai. I asked Miho san, who represents the brewery here, what her favourite temperature for drinking this sake. “Make it really hot!” she replied. So I started with 50C and wasn’t disappointed. The most interesting part of the sake’s name is “kijoshu”, which refers to a special brewing technique when instead of water a brewer adds sake to the fermenting mash at the final stage. It gives the resulted sake a luxurious feel, deep flavour and distinctive viscosity. Normally, kijoshu sake is very sweet, but not in the case of Kanpai Tsuki, which is rather dry.

Though sake is a drink steeped in ancient Japanese tradition and history, it’s a category that’s not always easily understood outside of Japan. Fortunately, quality, craftsmanship and taste are universal – and Akashi-Tai places all of these at the forefront of its production to create elegant, balanced but characterful sakes. Keeping tradition alive Still, 'sake' will get you what you want both here, and in the bars of Tokyo. The drink is crafted from four ingredients – rice, water, yeast, and the fungus koji-kin (more on which later) – and although it falls in a similar ABV range to wine, it's brewed more like beer. However, when you start heating it up, the profile magically changes. It becomes very mild with dryness and acidity almost going away. The texture gets more buttery and the body – more mouthful. It pairs nicely with any food due to its umami and higher acidity. I had it with a beef stew and at 30-45°C it was the best. With lighter dishes, I would recommend it at a room temperature of even chilled. Usu Nigori means a cloudy sake with very fine rice particles remaining after pressing. They give the sake a nice mouthful texture. Kanpai Tsuki is also genshu sake, undiluted with an ABV of 17%. Overall, all these characteristics make Kanpai Tsuki a perfect sake to drink warm.Mr Yonezawa’s tireless attention to detail results in a sake that is as expressive as it is delicate. Every drop stays true to the unique character of the rice it’s made from, resulting in an impressive depth of flavour and aroma in everything from Akashi-Tai’s Honjozo The drinking of warm sake spread from the aristocracy to the common people during the middle part of the Tokugawa Period (1600-1867), when the drinking of sake itself became popular with the masses.