With rice as its soul, sake offers endless possibilities for food pairing due to its gentle, delicate, and umami-rich nature, as well as the wide spectrum of styles. Here are our top tips for navigating the diverse expressions of sake for those beginning their journey with the category.
Choosing sake for food: The advantages
Compared to wine, which Decanter readers may be more familiar with, sake is naturally low in acidity and lacks tannins, but tends to have a slightly higher alcohol range.
Rice as its most crucial ingredient brings the beverage a mellow, umami-rich backdrop and usually, a touch of sweetness – which is the key to its potential to ‘blend in’ with a wide range of flavours. Meanwhile, sake can enhance the depth and richness of foods abundant in umami, such as mushrooms, tomatoes, cheese, soy sauce and miso, as well as cured meats.
‘Sake contains up to five times the level of umami found in wines,’ says Sarah Stewart – head of sake programming at West London Wine School – who is working with The Japan Food Product Overseas Promotion Centre (JFOODO) on its ‘Sake Seafood Sensations’ campaign this year.
‘It’s the only alcoholic beverage with naturally high levels of the fifth taste (in addition to sweet, sour, salty and bitter),’ says Stewart. ‘This sense of “savoury deliciousness” that coats the palate and synergises with umami-rich foods to create a truly moreish combination.’
Common sake styles and their typical flavours: A recap
Junmai ?? – Literally means ‘purely rice’. Sake made without added alcohol, tends to exhibit a richer mouthfeel and more savoury and complex flavours. This term can be appended to premium categories Daiginjo and Ginjo.
Daiginjo ??? – Super premium sake with a 50% rice polishing ratio (broadly speaking, the lower the ratio, the purer flavours tend to be). Tends to showcase elegant fruits and floral perfume. If labelled without ‘Junmai’ that means it contains additional alcohol.
Ginjo ?? – Premium sake with a 60% polishing ratio, tends to be fragrant with a slight hint of savoury complexity. Also contains additional alcohol if no mention of Junmai on the label.
Honjozo ??? – Made using rice polished to 70% and a small amount of alcohol – tends to yield an easy-drinking, ‘ricey’ and less aromatic sake.
Futsushu ??? – ‘Basic alcohol’. A wide range of flavours and styles can be found in this category.
Other styles:
Namazake (??) – Unpasteurised sake (need to be refrigerated), known for its fresh, zesty taste.
Nigori (??) – Unfiltered sake. Cloudy with creamy, rice-forward flavours.
Sparkling sake – Fizzy sake, typically vibrant and light, sometimes has a touch of sweetness.
Koshu (??) – Aged sake, often showcasing nutty, oxidative flavours, resembling sherry.
Kimoto (??) & Yamahai (??) – Produced with slower, traditional methods. Usually displays exceptional complexity, richness and earthiness, even some funky characters.
The ‘staple go-to’ choices
Even if you’ve completed the one-day WSET sake Level 1 course and learned the basic styles by heart, the sake list at a restaurant can still be difficult to decipher – even for those who speak Japanese.
What if you’re just mildly tempted to give the category a try? Are there any relatively ‘failure-proof’ choices for beginners?
‘Yes,’ is the short answer. Generally speaking, styles with a more mellow mouthfeel, umami-rich flavours and lower alcohol levels are more likely options as ‘all-rounder’ choices, said sake experts we interviewed.
Credit: LAW Ho Ming / Moment via Getty Images
Junmai
Junmai sake, made solely from rice, water, koji (a mould that helps convert starches in rice into sugars), and yeast, has ‘the highest potential for food pairing,’ says Vicky Vecchione, head of bars at Danish-Japanese restaurant group, Sticks’n’Sushi.
‘It is full-bodied, starchy, quite savoury, making it…
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