sake

Junmai
Brewed only with rice, water, koji, and yeast. Regarded as the height of the brewer's craft.
Taste: Full body and may be slightly acidic.

Ginjo
Saké made with rice polished to the extent that 40% of each grain has been ground away.
Taste: Smooth, fragrant, and complex.

Daiginjo
Saké made with rice ground to at least 50% of its original size.
Taste: Even lighter and more fragrant that Ginjo.

Honjozo
Saké to which brewer's alcohol has been added. (Shudder).
Generally lighter than Junmai and can sometimes be very nice at room temperature or warmed. However, brewer's alcohol can also be used to hide cheap saké and mask the impurities associated with a low quality manufacturing process.
Taste: I'd rather not comment.

Nigori
Often called "antique" or cloudy saké, Nigori is saké that has been roughly filtred so that some of the rice and koji rice in the fermenting tank make it into the bottle. Prior to modern filtering technology, all sakés were Nigori. Home made! Yay!
Taste: Very sweet and often served as dessert sake. These bottles need to be shaken to blend the rice lees that have settled to the bottom.

Taruzake
A saké that is aged in a cypress barrel.
The wood imparts a spicy flavor that is similar to the familiar wooden box, the masu. Taste: The taste is not unpleasant but can hide the true flavour.

Often erroneously called "rice wine", sake being based on a cereal, is actually a beer, though its strength of 15% to 20% alcohol by volume makes it taste wine-like. Unlike wines sake doesn't age well - it should be drunk within 7 to 8 months.

As with all beers, the chief production challenge is how to convert its unfermentable starches into fermentable sugars. Barley is malted to render it fermentable; with sake, 'koji' is used.

Grains of special sake rice (Shinpaku-mai) with a high starch content in the core of each grain, are washed, soaked, steamed and cooled. Koji (Aspergillus oryzae), a fungus, is then sprinkled on. When left in a warm damp room for a few days, enzymes are produced which convert the rice starch to sugars. The final product created by adding water and yeast and leaving for 3-4 weeks.

In addition to the quality of rice, the climate and water in the production area are crucial factors. Water comprises as much as 80% of the final product hence Sake breweries in Japan are located near some of the best spring water in the world. Pure water leads to a sake full of rich flavour.

This is a description of the traditional method of sake production, but the Second World War created an inferior brewing technique. Rice shortages forced brewers to add pure alcohol and glucose to small quantities of rice mash, which increased the yield by as much as four times. This method now accounts for 95% of today's sake. This is why European and American people think sake should be drunk warm - but high quality sake is best consumed cold, or even on the rocks.

Sake is falling out of favour in Japan - it's association with the older generation means many young Japanese prefer drinking red wine to going to their local Izakaya (sake bar) nowadays - an effect of westernisation. It's high alcoholic strength counts against it too: "If drinking sake, too much drunk. Cannot play TV game," commented Mr Kohiyama of Takasago sake brewery.

A fifth primary taste, recently identified by researchers known as umami is found in sake. There were previously thought to be only four primary tastes, detected on different zones of the tongue: sweet, salt, sour and bitter. Umami is also found in soy sauce and miso, both of which are made using the same koji techniques.

Japan still has 1,800 sake breweries - most are micro-brewery sized and family-run; the sakes produced by all but a handful have never been exported. Throughout May, however, as part of the Japan 2001 celebrations, Selfridges will be selling 34 sake varieties from 18 different breweries up and down Japan.

Kanpai! (cheers!)

Sake (?), n. [OE. sake cause, also, lawsuit, fault, AS. sacu strife, a cause or suit at law; akin to D. zaak cause, thing, affair, G. sache thing, cause in law, OHG. sahha, Icel. sok, Sw. sak, Dan. sag, Goth. sakj strife, AS. sacan to contend, strive, Goth. sakan, Icel. saka to contend, strive, blame, OHG. sahhan, MHG. sachen, to contend, strive, defend one's right, accuse, charge in a lawsuit, and also to E. seek. Cf. Seek.]

Final cause; end; purpose of obtaining; cause; motive; reason; interest; concern; account; regard or respect; -- used chiefly in such phrases as, for the sake, for his sake, for man's sake, for mercy's sake, and the like; as, to commit crime for the sake of gain; to go abroad for the sake of one's health.

Moved with wrath and shame and ladies; sake. Spenser.

I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake. Gen. viii. 21.

Will he draw out, For anger's sake, finite to infinite? Milton.

Knowledge is for the sake of man, and not man for the sake of knowledge. Sir W. Hamilton.

⇒ The -s of the possessive case preceding sake is sometimes omitted for euphony; as, for goodness sake. "For conscience sake." 1 Cor. x. 28. The plural sakes is often used with a possessive plural. "For both our sakes." Shak.

© Webster 1913.