The Upside of Rice

Despite my very best attempts at self-sabotage, something I've been very good at recently, I am now officially a Certified Sake Professional.

I don't need the gods to be any more pissed at me than they already seem to be, so I will try to fulfill my karmic obligation by teaching something here.

While you will not be able to Good-Will-Hunting the next douchebag foodie who laughs at your order of warm sake at Sushi Samba, the following is a basic general set of skills for self-defense:


Sake, pronounced Sah-Kay, is made exclusively from rice, water, and a moldy rice called Koji, with yeast and some decision on lactic acid. Alcohol levels are generally a touch higher than that of wine but not always. The top-end of sake is Ginjo and Daiginjo. These terms, generally, are designated based on the milling rate of the rice. If a rice has been milled to 60% of it's original size, that's a good thing. 50%, even better. This number might be on some labels in the middle of Japanese characters. It's not the alcohol percentage.

The word "Junmai" refers to a sake that contains no added distilled alcohol. At the Ginjo and Daiginjo level, distilled alcohol is not a bad thing. It's added for technical reasons and not as a fortifyant. (Pretty sure that's not a word.) Therefore the highest price point can be shared by Junmai Daiginjo and regular Daiginjo.

Taste mostly comes from the rice. Smell mostly comes from the yeast. So, come Valentine's Day, if someone says you smell like Aiyama, (rare sake of rice from "The Love Mountain") you probably smell like Strand-901 foamless industrial yeast.

The cloudy sake is nigori. It can be dry or sweet. It's usually less pricey than Ginjo and Daiginjo.

Sparkling sake is what you serve to people who are nostalgic for Zima.

Sake can be enjoyed at various temperatures to accompany different occassions. Yes, you might not want to boil a Daiginjo. It's delicate nature would likely be crushed. But there are plenty of fun things you can do with a bottle labeled "Junmai" or even "Ginjo."

So, the other night after dinner, we had some sake left, and I found myself staring at a pint of Asahi...
It's OK. I'm a Professional!