The Japanese believe that drinking sake is conducive to confidential communication and strengthening of friendship. This is one of the oldest alcoholic drinks, it began to be made about two thousand years ago. We will look at the features of the use of sake and the ceremony of serving it.
Sake (jap. 酒 Sake) – a traditional Japanese alcoholic drink with a strength of 14-16% vol. greenish or yellow-amber in color with a bitter aftertaste, obtained by fermenting coarse-grained rice with a special type of koji yeast. The taste of sake stands out notes of apples, bananas, grapes, cheese, fresh mushrooms and soy sauce. At home, this alcohol is called “nihonshu”, since in Japanese the word “sake” means any alcoholic drink, but due to inaccurate translation, this particular term has entered international use.
The common people consider sake to be rice vodka, but this is fundamentally wrong, since the drink does not undergo distillation or rectification, and in our understanding, it is closest to filtered rice mash. There is also the name “rice wine”, which can only be considered partly correct, since fruit and berry raw materials are used in winemaking. According to organoleptic properties, sake has no analogues.
Sake appeared about two thousand years ago at the court of Japanese emperors and Shinto shrines. In the Middle Ages, the village communities adopted the recipe. The ancient production technology was different from the modern one: at first, rice was chewed in the mouth and spit into fermentation tanks, it was a long and laborious process. Later, the Japanese learned to use the type of mold fungus Aspergillus oryzae – “koji” to start fermentation. In the XNUMXth century, sake began to be exported to other Asian countries.
sake production technology
Sake requires coarse-grained rice with a high starch content. First, the rice is polished to remove the grain shell and germ, which, during fermentation, introduce an unpleasant aroma and flavor into the sake. Ceteris paribus, the higher the degree of polishing of rice, the better the quality of sake, the acceptable range of polishing is 30-70%. This means that for expensive varieties of sake, up to 70% of the grain is ground, using only 30% of the core of the grains in production.
The polished rice is washed, soaked for 2-24 hours (the higher the degree of polishing, the less time is required), then steamed. The rice must be softened, but not overcooked, otherwise the fermentation will be too fast and the sake will not have time to absorb all the flavor notes.
Pre-activated koji molds, water and yeast are added to steamed rice. For successful fermentation, rice in starch needs to be broken down into simple sugars. In the production of whiskey and other grain distillates, malt is used for this – germinated grain, and in sake, starch is processed to sugars by “koji”. This is the main difference between sake and other grain-based alcoholic beverages.
Rice must ferments at a temperature of 15-20 ° C (expensive varieties at 10 ° C) for 18-40 days. The longer the fermentation period, the higher the quality of the finished drink. The fermented wort is first filtered, it turns out an elite sake. The wort is then pressed to extract the remaining liquid from it, thus obtaining the usual varieties.
According to Japanese law, sake can only be called a drink that does not contain sediment, so all types are filtered, sometimes activated charcoal is used for this purpose. Also, most sake is pasteurized to kill any leftover yeast that can cause re-fermentation in the bottle. The sake is then placed in special aging tanks for 6-12 months. Ultimately, the strength of sake is 18-20% by volume, but the drink is usually diluted to 14-16% before bottling, as the Japanese do not like strong alcohol.
Ways to drink sake
Sake is drunk chilled or heated. The choice of method depends on the quality and price of the drink. Indirectly, the quality of sake is determined by the degree of polishing of rice; for elite varieties, this figure should not be lower than 50-60%. The essence of grinding is that the surface containing essential oils is removed from the rice grain, due to which an unpleasant aftertaste appears in the drink. Quality is ultimately determined by price.
Expensive premium sake is served cold (5°C) in wine glasses. The participants of the feast bring a glass to eye level, without clinking glasses, pronounce the word “kampai” – a universal Japanese toast, literally translated as “Drink to the bottom!”. Then a small sip is taken. As an appetizer, traditional Japanese dishes such as sushi and rolls are served. Good sake should not be served with spicy dishes, as they distort the taste.
Sake of lower quality is drunk warmed from a ceramic jug (tokkuri) and small cups (choko), the capacity of the latter is designed for 2-3 sips. Heating solves two problems at once: it allows you to warm up in the cold and hide the shortcomings of the drink itself.
Sake is heated in a water bath, the optimum serving temperature is 15-30°C. The cup is filled before each toast. It is considered indecent to pour sake to yourself, this should be done by another participant in the feast. Hot sake is eaten with seafood, sandwiches, meat, vegetables and other dishes. The choice of food is not as strict as in the first case.
