Arlington resident Reiko Hirai started her online shop, DC Sake cō, with a grand plan to introduce the DMV to the wide world of sake. “I have a personal mission to bring sake to everyone,” she says. “My dream would be for everyone to one day say, ‘Honey, are we having beer, wine or sake tonight?'”
The Kyoto native sells all sorts of hard-to-find sake and Japanese beverages at DC Sake cō, and she loves to explain the nuances of Japan’s favorite alcoholic beverage. Here are a few things you might not know about sake.
Sake is more akin to wine and beer than spirits. The drink is brewed rather than distilled, and is made from rice, water, yeast, and koji, also known as Japan’s national mold. (Koji is also used to create fermented foods like soy sauce and miso.) Because of the starches in the rice that transform into alcohol, there’s no need to add sugar. “Everything is natural,” says Hirai. And it’s not as strong as liquor: Sake is just 1% or 2% ABV higher than wine.
Sake is the national beverage of Japan. “Sake is Japan packed in a bottle,” Hirai says. It has major cultural significance and is often used to commemorate major milestones. Sake is used to bless newborn babies, in marriage ceremonies and funerals, and it’s poured on the ground during new home construction. Sake even makes its way into beauty products like sheet masks. Hirai’s grandma used to add leftover sake to her hot tub.
It comes in all different colors, flavors and aromas. Sake isn’t always clear. Some varieties have an amber or Chardonnay-type look, while others have a light or dense cloudiness. There are even rosé sakes made from a black rice that creates a pink tone. In terms of taste, you can find sakes that lean floral or savory and dry or sweet.
You can drink it cold or hot. The brewer may provide notes on suggested ways to drink a specific sake. (“Maybe this is very aromatic sake, but if you heat it up, you might lose the aroma you paid for,” Hirai says.) But it’s truly your preference. If you really want to nerd out with it, there are ten different words in Japanese for 10 different sake temperatures.
Tiny ceramic cups aren’t required sakeware. A lot of aromatic sake is actually served in a wine glass, according to Hirai.
Price points are often tied to how the rice is milled. A lot goes into the price of a bottle, but one big component is the rice milling rate. “When you make sake, all the good starches are concentrated in the center of the rice,” Hirai says, “[so] they mill down the surface of the rice. This is one of the elements that affect the flavor of the sake. When the rice is milled down to 30%, then the tendency is that the sake becomes very clean, sort of aromatic. However, if you just shave off 20% and keep 80% of the rice, it tastes more like a savory sake.” Because milling to produce that clean flavor is more labor-intensive and time-consuming, that process affects the price point. Hirai stresses, however, that like anything else, a higher priced item doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the best.
New innovations are still happening with this 3,000-year-old beverage. Awa sake, or “sparkling” sake, is a new category that emerged in 2016. Hirai says it’s been very popular in her shop. “It’s made with exactly the same method that Champagne is made, with secondary fermentation within the bottle,” she says.
You can pair sake with all types of food, not just sushi. “In Japan, we eat pasta, we eat pizza, we munch on potato chips, and sake will go with those things,” she says.
Want a crash course in sake? Head to DC Sake cō’s Kanpai! to Sake Day in D.C. on October 5. The special event held at downtown D.C.’s Love, Makoto presents an opportunity to try more than 100 different sakes and meet sake brewers, sommeliers and experts. The ticket price is $102 for general admission to the sake hall from noon to 4 p.m. Two VIP lunch options are also available for $180 to $222, which include talks from either IWA representative Brenton Blanchard or First Miss Sake USA Jessica Joly-Crane. Bottles of sakes from the event can be purchased through D.C. Sake cō with a special 10% discount.