Recently I sat down with a group of people to conduct my first-ever sake tasting. The event was hosted by SakeOne, a craft sake brewer that's based out of Oregon and known for producing award-winning and fun-flavored sakes.
The tasting paired 15 sakes with different artisan cheeses also from the beaver state. As I took my first sip of the grassy, smooth, vanilla-ish Momokawa Diamond, I realized that I didn't know very much about sake.
Here are 10 facts that I learned from the experience.
- Contrary to what I was taught in college, the appropriate way to sip sake is not hot and dunked into a mug of beer, but rather, cold. In Japan, sake is served chilled. Because heating it will mask the flavor, if sake is offered hot, that means it's poor quality, bad-tasting sake.
- All sake needs a special mold to ferment. It's called the koji mold. At SakeOne, they hand-mix the koji into the rice to help break down the starches.
- The water that's used to make sake is more important than the rice. Only the purest of water can be employed, as it directly affects the taste and quality of the sake.
- Although sake is known as rice wine, its production is more similar to beer than wine.
- To make a batch of sake, the entire process of brewing, fermentation, and maturing takes three weeks.
