Another look at Nihonshu Stand Moto
Nihonshu Stand Moto! A must visit standing bar when you are in Shinjuku. They offer a very interesting selection of classic izakaya fare, and a revolving sake selection! The staff is very knowledgeable and will guide you through the ultimate sake tasting experience!
#sake #jikon #shinjuku #tokyo
#izakaya #tasting #Sony #ootd
#japan #日本酒 #じこん #東京 #新宿 #居酒屋 (at 日本酒スタンド酛)
Soul of Sake Amabuki Night
Flight of the Flowers sake flight at the fantastic #saikaidiningbar for #soulofsake hosted by @misssakeusa
#sake #amabuki #saga
#日本酒 #穴吹 #佐賀県 (at Saikai Dining Bar)
Shichihon Yari Junmai Hiyaoroshi
Shichihon Yari Junmai Hiyaoroshi is another reminder of how wonderful these seasonal sakes can be!
#sake #hiyaoroshi #junmai #shiga
#日本酒 #ひやおろし #純米 #滋賀 (at Shigure)
Dewazakura Junmai Ginjo
Dewazakura Junmai Ginjo has been a favorite for years, even tiny porcelain dinosaurs love it!
#sake #yamagata #rawr
#日本酒 #山形 #純米吟醸
#出羽桜酒造
Suigei Junmai Ginjo Koiku No.54
Suigei’s Tokobetsu Junmai was one of my first sake loves, so I was thrilled to try their new Junmai Ginjo Koiku No.54. Refreshing and crisp, I highly recommend giving this a try.
#sake
#suigei
#kochi
#kochisake
#日本酒
#純米吟醸
#酔鯨
#高知市
Blue Current Brewery Junmai Ginjo
Taking Blue Current Brewery’s Junmai Ginjo for a ride. Smooth yet complex with a fruity finish, this is a wonderful domestic sake. #kampai #sake #domesticsake #americansake #captainamerica #アメリカン酒
Otokoyama Hiyaoroshi Kimoto Junmai
Election got you down? We found Otokoyama Hiyaoroshi Kimoto Junmai to be the perfect distraction!
#adorableseals
#sake
#otokoyama
#hiyaoroshi
#hokkaido
#hokkaidosake
#kimoto
#itsnotover
#vader
#日本酒
#男山
#北海道
#純米
#decision2016
Amabuki Sparking Junmai Ginjo
We have been seeing more Sparkling Nigori in the US recently, this Junmai Ginjo from Kyushu’s Amabuki Shuzo was one of the more noteworthy additions.
#sake
#sakebar
#nigori
#kyushu
#amabuki (at SakaMai)
Jikon Tasting Flight at Ganko Oyaji Shinjuku
So much Jikon!
#sake
#jikon
#shinjuku
#tokyo
#sakebar (at 銘酒居酒屋 頑固おやじ)
Ninki-Ichi Brewery Sake Workshop
As part of a recent effort to bring attention to Fukushima’s award winning sake breweries, several events were held in the largest market for sake in North America, New York. This first event was held at Shigure in TriBeca and featured Ninki-Ichi’s Kuramoto, Yujin Yusa introducing a crowd of industry and media to his brewery’s offerings with a focus on the pairing possibilities for warmed premium sake!
Brewery Owner, Yujin Yusa with Chizuko Niikwawa-Helton of Sake Discoveries
Yusa San explaining the influence of temperature on flavor profile
Miss Sake USA, Jessica Joly assisted in presenting the pairings and providing translation for Yusa San
Shigure
277 Church St, New York, NY 10013
Hi-Collar Sake Masquerade
Sake slinging judoka, Sakaman Blue at Hi-Collar’s Sake Masquerade last Sunday night
#sake
#kuramoto
#gosakeman
#sakeman (at HI-Collar)
Hanagaki Usu-Nigori Junmai Daiginjo
Every once in a while, a label truly surprises me. I’m very familiar with the offerings of Nanbu Shozu’s Hanagaki line of sake, but I was completely unfamiliar with their Usu-NIgori Junmai Daiginjo. I was admittedly not even familiar with the concept of “Usu-Nigori,” which is a very light style of nigori that John Gautner describes in the following way:
There is also something known as usu-nigori, or thin nigori. This is nigorizake that has been pressed so that only a fine mist of lees remains within the bottle. Naturally this allows more of the original nature of the sake to come through, with only a bit of added acidity and big flavor coming through as a result of the remaining lees.
I’m not sure if it’s that “original nature” coming through, but this label has that crisp freshness that reminds me of drinking fresh sake in Japan. Combined with its silky texture and smooth flavor, It’s quite a treat!
Hakkaisan Day at Ippudo Westside
Going through the photo backlog and came across some shots from the fantastic Hakkaisan Day event at Ippudo Westside. Making use of Miso Oil, Sea Water, and Hakkaisan Sake, Ippudo’s ramen master, Fumihiro “Foo” Kanegae, put together a truly fantastic blend of flavors that paired fantastically with their Tokobetsu Junmai.
Kurand Sake Market Wants to Conquer The World
It’s been said that Sake has an image problem.
In Japan, sake’s image has long been one of an “old man’s drink,” but there has been a quiet revolution brewing. In just a few short years, great strides have been made to broaden the appeal of Japan’s National Beverage and places like Liquor Innovations’ Kurand Sake Market have been leading the charge.
Kurand’s establishments try to provide an easygoing environment with informative labeling that appeals to the sake novice, while keeping a constantly rotating inventory of over 100 different labels to keep the seasoned sake drinker engaged. For 3240 Yen (about $30 USD), guests are welcome to try as many different labels as they wish, for as long as they like.
I was fortunate enough to have a conversation with Chris Hughes of Liquor Innovations to discuss his experiences and the future of KURAND.
The Sake Notes: What’s your role at Liquor Innovations? how did you get involved?
Chris Hughes: Just a quick recap if I may on how I ended up in Japan working in this industry.
In short, I discovered sake in London. I was working for a Japanese food and drink importer / supplier at the time and then one day I was told to take part in a sake training. The brewery who hosted the training, Nanbu Bijin, Iwate Prefecture, stole my heart with their amazing story and sake. I think it was the fact that sake is steeped in all the elements of Japanese culture which I fell in love with that hooked me. I spent the next 4 years selling sake to Japanese restaurants in London investing my time personally in the beverage. During this time I got to meet brewers face to face and learn from them all about their craft first hand. In 2014, I decided to come to Japan to learn more about the beverage and if possible get a bit of experience working in the industry. After visiting around 74 breweries and a year working for a Tatenokawa Shuzo in Yamagata as their Tokyo sales rep — which included a bit of experience brewing — a friend introduced me to the CEO of KURAND. From the moment we met, there was a connection. We both wanted the same thing. With the Olympics in 2020, we knew that the number of foreign visitors to Japan would increase and that there would be an opportunity we would never have again to promote sake far and wide. And so, I joined up, first as a full-time employee, later switching to freelance to allow me to take on other sake related projects. My current role is Inbound PR. My job generally involves producing English sake related media (keeping the English language site updated), PR via SNS and running events and lessons to create new fans of the beverage.
“This new youthful take on the beverage offers opportunities that were never there before”
TSN: Tell us about Kurand. What is your strategy? How did the idea come about?
Hughes: The company behind KURAND, liquor innovation Ltd — who’s parent company is themselves a sake supplier that has been around since the early 1900s — had already been developing a rich database of customers via their sake subscription service — a service which they still run with over 1000 members in tow — and regular events in and around Tokyo. They had also been creating special sakes together with the breweries. The idea for the bars came about from the desire to provide a stage for the boutique breweries that they had partnered with to promote their wares and gain a foothold in Tokyo; something which up until then only the bigger breweries had achieved.
The first bar opened as part of a crowd funding project and subsequent openings have followed suit. The key-point is that KURAND had already established a very strong media presence and a fan-base which allowed them to quickly meet their crowd funding target; it also gave them their first customer portfolio. The KURAND ethos is that to actually be able to hear the story of the craftsperson and see their face makes sake taste more delicious. But above all, KURAND is about providing an experience. Another motivation for the not just the bars but all everything that KURAND has done since the start, is the new interest in sake among young people and the new crop of brewers who are tapping into it. This new youthful take on the beverage offers opportunities that were never there before. For example: an opportunity to rid the beverage of its old man image and repackage it as something trendy and cool. This is what KURAND have been trying to do from the start. The bars are really just an extension of the same goal: to provide new added value to sake in as many forms as possible; to revolutionize the world through sake.
Incidentally, our strategy to entice non-Japanese has been to take advantage of the power of word-of-mouth really. We have spent hardly any money on advertising; nearly all the PR has been done online, via SNS or through word of mouth marketing. This we believe is the modern way of setting up a business from scratch.
“A lot of the sake we stock are made by young brewers who can reach out to their age group with the sake that they brew”
TSN: The crowd at Kurand tends to be younger than what we often see in sake bars and izakayas in Tokyo. We also see a lot of women at Kurand. what have you done to reach out to these non-traditional groups so successfully?
Chris: We have designed the selection of sakes around our target audience which is indeed young people. We have purposefully gone for sakes that tend to fall into the fruity sweet category and they are easier to palate than more traditional sakes. A lot of the sake we stock are made by young brewers who can reach out to their age group with the sake that they brew. We have also designed the bars to be trendy, cool and fashionable and designed a system which appeals to the complete sake beginner as opposed to the aficionado; although I think it appeals to both. I think it would be fair to say that even now there are still very few bars / companies that are doing the same thing.
TSN: Kurand has grown rapidly, going from one location to four in just over a year. Has Liquor Innovations had a road-map for this sort of expansion or did success take you by surprise?
Hughes: To an extent. The crowd funding strategy allows us to open bars quickly at little cost with a guaranteed customer portfolio from the outset. We don’t take this success for granted though. We are always trying to find new ways to reach out to new audiences and keep things fresh. The contents of our fridge are refreshed on a bi-monthly basis and new sakes are constantly devised, procured. The other important point is that we listen to feedback from our customers, so that we are always providing what they want.
“We are always trying to keep the events fresh and interesting.”
TSN: Kurand also sponsors SET (Sake Exchange Tokyo). Please tell us about SET, what goes on and what someone would expect from attending.
Hughes: SET is run via MEETUP. It currently has over 500 members who meet every Sunday and relax over a sake or two. The events are really just an extension of our all-you-can-taste setup but with a lecture and games and things thrown in. Sometimes, we switch the venue to the sake brewery and sometimes brewers themselves attend. We are always trying to keep the events fresh and interesting.
To cater for two different audiences: those which want to study about sake seriously and those which just want to have fun, we now run two separate strands: one which is basically just an international exchange party with sake… and a spot of bingo, and one with is more like a workshop with a professionally guided tasting of sake that are procured specially for the event.
JAPAN TIMES wrote a really good article about the [SET] events.
TSN: Liquor Innovations has an offshoot of Kurand, located in Shibuya, called Shugar. What is Shugar’s concept?
Hughes: SHUGAR’s concept is simply to provide a different route to sake through sweeter fruitier beverages that are cunningly made with a base of sake. The strategy appears to be working; we have seen an influx of new fans to KURAND who all started with the liqueurs at SHUGAR.
TSN: What’s next for Kurand and Liquor Innovations?
Hughes: We hope to expand outside Japan and conquer the world through sake.
Kurand Sake Market has branches in Shinjuku, Shibuya, Ikebukuro, and Asakusa. For more information including addresses and reservation details, go to https://kurand.jp/en/sakemarket/
Imanishi Sanshitsu Junmai Ginjo Yamada Nishiki Nama
A few years ago, I had an outstanding experience at Donjaca Nishiguchi, a late night (though considering they are open until 3am, the appropriate term is closer to “all night”) Izakaya in Shinjuku. The waiter, served me a glass of Sanshitsu Junmai Ginjo. It was just opened and was so fresh that it was almost sparkling. The taste was nothing short of amazing and nearly perfect for my tastes. I was very saddened to hear that the label was made in very small quantities and was very hard to get.
Flash forward to just a few weeks ago in Tokyo, where I saw a very familiar bottle. The very same label, but the unpasteurized version of it.
I wish that I could say that i love this nama as much as the original. It’s still exceptional, with a light, fruity, refreshing taste, it has a bolder flavor that I feel takes away from the delicate balance of the original. Make no mistake though, this nama tastes almost juicy and is an outstanding sake in its own right. Imanishi has something special on their hands with their Sanshitsu line and all i can do is hope that they export to the US someday!
Introducing: Myshell - Sake Kohai
In 2012, my now-husband, John introduced me to sake.
Before that, I don’t believe I had ever even heard of Sake - which isn’t surprising considering my Kentucky upbringing.
Even so, I could tell he was a sake fanatic. His apartment walls were decorated with beautiful bottles he had found and conquered. I enjoyed pointing out various bottles that had interesting shapes or pictures which he would pick up and smile while he told me the name and type, who he shared the bottle with and where, followed by a few reasons why he liked this particular flavor and type.
Junmai, Daiginjo, Onna Nakase… I had no idea what any of the words meant, but I liked that the bottle was square and green, and I could tell this sake - like so many others lining the wall - was more than a drink. Sake is a vessel to new experiences, friendships, and a link to a historical culture. I was excited to steal a glimpse into this secret and so recently completely unknown world.
I’m almost sorry to say I don’t remember exactly what my first sake was or even where I was when I had it. I’m sure it was lovely and smooth, probably something floral (as that is John’s go-to introductory-sake profile) I do however, remember exactly the first sake I fell in love with.
Narutotai Ginjo Nama Genshu, first served to me at Decibel in New York City. This sake comes in a can-like bottle and makes no excuses. The flavor is strong and unforgiving, and yet somehow rich, creamy and drinkable all the same. Narutotai is still a go to favorite of mine, even 4 years later.
As I was introduced to more sakes and sake-culture events, I began to keep my own internal shelf of beloved sakes and their surrounding experiences.
This has of course, lead to an actual shelf of prized and favorited sakes.
Each new restaurant, sake bar, and tasting event provides a new opportunity for me to learn. Learn how the drink is made, about the people who make it, and their own sake experiences. I am continuously intrigued as I add each unique story and sake lesson to my internal sake shelf.
I hope that a perspective from a new learner will help make the vast and ever changing world of sake more accessible to those that are new to the sake world,and those that are trying to learn as much as they can, as I still am.
Yamatan Masamune Moon Light 1831 Junmai Daiginjo
Ever since 2011, I’ve brought a bottle of Yamatan Masamune Junmai Daiginjo home with me every time I’ve visited Japan. I find their take on the popular high-polish Yamada-Nishiki formula to be something special and well worth my time.
This year, I had the opportunity to meet Nobuki Yagi, the brewery’s Kuramoto, at the PIA Spring Sake Festival in Shibuya. We had a nice conversation regarding my enthusiasm for his labels as I lamented the fact that I need to travel to Japan in order to have his sake. This comment was met with good news, as they are currently working hard on working out a deal to export their selection to the United States.
We can only hope it happens soon.
In addition to the brewery’s usual selection, Yagi-san was also serving samples of a Junmai Daiginjo called Moon Light 1831. I was fortunate enough to buy a bottle when I was leaving the event.
This label uses Matsuyama Mii rice polished to 50% and features a clean, yet very bold and fruity taste. i doubt that this will be a regular offering, as i don’t see it listed anywhere on their website, but it’s nice to see them branching out and trying to do things with different kinds of rice.
In the meantime, i’ll continue to look forward to buying their labels in the US soon!
Shichida Junmai Ginjo Nama
Today we are having Shichida Junmai Ginjo Nama from Saga Prefecture
Zaku Prototype Code Name M Junmai Arabashiri Genshu
Zaku’s Prototype series is a very interesting, sparkling offshoot of their normal brand which for some reason does not make an appearance on their website.
The carbonation is not at all like a champagne or sparkling water, but instead is very subtle. I would not go so far as to call this “sparkling,” despite the multiple CO2 warnings on the label.
The taste is subtle and fruity, which is very impressive for a genshu sake, as they tend to be very aggressive. This one feels like it has more in common with light, welcoming labels like Dassai than powerful genshu labels like Narutotai.
Zaku continues to impress with their Prototype series and you would be well served to try a glass if you have the opportunity
Nanbu Bijin Tokubetsu Junmai Nama
Nanbu Bijin Tokobetsu Junmai Nama from Iwate Prefecture at Sushi Seki Hell’s Kitchen