sparkling sake | Michael Weening: a few pictures

Narda has been taking cooking courses in Japan and become friends with a sake expert.

Personally, unlike many Japan expats who embrace the “after work” culture, alcohol does not make up a big part of our lives. But I have started to really enjoy sake and sparkling sake, especially during the 40C Tokyo summer.

A favourite is an all natural sparkling sake, Suzune Sparkling Sake, best described in this review:

Several years ago in Japan, I tasted a sparkling sake. At the time I was saying to my dinner partner who happens to be an owner of a sake brewery that I thought sparkling sakes were sort of like wine coolers – a novelty to get people to drink sake. Well, I wasn’t far off base, as I will touch upon in a second. The first sip of Ichinokura’s “Suzune” was an eye-opening experience. I was completely taken aback by the refreshingly light and flavorful sake. What impressed me most was the fact that it was very “Champagne” like but in an honest to goodness sake sense. It was so unique that I found myself trying as many sparkling sakes as possible on that trip and subsequent visits. I immediately approached my exporting contacts in Japan and urged them to start sending sparkling sakes to the US, because I felt that they would speak to a large portion of established and new sake drinkers.

The problem is that Suzune is a limited run and many sakes do not have the same shelf life as wine. In Japan you can pick it up at Meida-ya (A higher end grocery store) for Y750 or Amazon.jp, and if you are lucky, you can find it in North America for about 4X that cost.

We will enjoy it while we are here.

The other day I wanted to see something different, so I walked a different way home. The best sight was this wall, covered in flowers; Canon 5D Mark III with 50mm f/1.2 in hand.

Up close.

I made a quick stop to pick up some sparkling sake at this shop. I have become a big fan of sparkling sake over the last couple weeks. It is a very light summer drink and perfect for sitting out on a deck or in a backyard with a low alcohol content (5%ish).

Reminds me of the wonderful sparkling cider that we happened across in Normandy.

To get to the cider I had to walk down this stairwell which was a case of the “old” and the “new”. On one side was a gleaming metal wall (protecting a construction site), on the other an old wall with a very old stone stairwell. It wasn’t until afterwards that I noticed the mirror at the top … in case you were walking around the corner too fast (smile).