Why you should give the sake from Japan a go!

Maybe you were handed a plastic cup at a college party, half foam and half beer. From there, you either dropped anchor in the land of sky blue waters and never went to shore, or you moved on. Maybe the Blackberry Manischewitz your mom mixed with 7 Up was "it", until you found a Burgundy. Then you never looked back.

Most start drinking cheap when they start drinking and most climb the quality scale and stay true to category (once a wino, always a wino), but not to brand (Thunderbird then, Silver Oak now.) Younger generations don't want to consume what their dad had when he joined the bowling league, though father and son share a love of beer. (PBR is an emergency beverage for one generation. A microbrew or an import is what the son wants to drink.)

This is a problem for sake, because so few of us are Japanese or lived there, is that most think of sake as hot sake. But premium sake is often best enjoyed chilled and the hot sake you had at Benihana's is like comparing wine flips with Krug, Old Crow with Laphroaig. 

There are great sakes coming to the USA, far better than what the greatest samurai, shogun, or emperor *ever* had in their hey-day.

You may not know what you're missing when you pass up premium sake. It's very likely you happily moved up the quality category in beer/wine/spirits when you started to drink and if you moved around and experimented, you didn't find a quality sake to sample. Since you're satisfied, you're not compelled to move on. 


If all you had was Mad Dog 20/20, Thunderbird, and Boones Ferry you might refuse a class of fine wine because that's all you knew. So it is with sake. It deserves a second chance.


Let me tempt you with education, recommendations, and an on-going conversation about sake, or as I often refer to sake, nihon-shu (beverage of Japan). You may stay true to beer/wine/spirit; but you should be educated and informed. May my enthusiasm be contagious! If it is not, then try premium sake anyway. Sake will speak for itself.