What is Sake?
SakeSakePronounced sa-kay, not sa-keee, but we won’t correct you! is a riced-based alcoholic beverage, brewed like beer with complex aromas and textures like wine. Sake rice is milled (or polished) to release impurities, and categories are established by the milled percentage.
A combination of water, kojikojiFunctions like the yeast in wine or the barley in beer, a cooked cultured rice used in popular Japanese foods such as miso, mirin and sake. and rice allows the starches to be converted into fermentable sugars. Some categories add a small amount of distilled alcohol at the end of the brewing process to accentuate aromas and textures.
Our Categories
- Honjozo
Rice is milled 30% with 70% of each grain remaining, and a very small amount of distilled alcohol is added. Light, fragrant and easy to drink.
- Junmai
Rice is milled 30% with 70% of each grain remaining. Full-bodied taste with acidic tendencies.
- Ginjo
Rice is milled 40% with 60% of each grain remaining, and a very small amount of distilled alcohol is added. Light, aromatic, fruity and refined.
- Junmai Ginjo
Rice is milled 40% with 60% of each grain remaining. Complex, layered and fragrant. Lighter and more delicate than Junmai.
- Junmai Daiginjo
Rice is highly polished with more precise and labor-intensive methods, milled 50% with the purest starch of each grain remaining. Aromatic, generally light, complex and fragrant.
- Nigori
Nigori sakes fall into the same categories listed above, but are deliberately unfiltered and generally possess a white or cloudy appearance. Nigoris are usually the sweetest of all sakes with a fruity nose and a mild flavor, making a great dessert sake, or a complement to spicy foods.
View a complete list of our sakes here.