Once found only in sushi bars and Japanese restaurants, Sake now lines the shelves of gourmet food shops, supermarkets and restaurants of all persuasions, listed alongside the customary wine selections. Written by a Sake brewmaster, this book shows how to select a good sake and how to match an evening's selection with food. Once found only in sushi bars and Japanese restaurants, Sake now lines the shelves of gourmet food shops, supermarkets and restaurants of all persuasions, listed alongside the customary wine selections. With demand on the rise, the timing of The Book'

An American sake expert takes you to a whole new level of insider knowledge and expertise

**2021 Gourmand Cookbook Award Winner for Japan in Spirits and Other Drinks** The Japanese Sake Bible is the ultimate book about Japan's national drink--from its history, culture and production methods to how to choose the best sake and recommended food pairings. Author Brian Ashcraft--the author of the popular guide Japanese Whisky--has put together lively commentaries based on dozens of interviews with master brewers and sake experts across Japan. His fascinating stories are accompanied by over 300 full-color photographs, maps and drawings. A unique feature of this book is that it includes reviews, tasting notes, scores and a buying guide for over 100 of the leading sake brands, written by respected Japanese sake expert Takashi Eguchi. These include all the sakes most commonly found outside Japan. Each sake has a photo of the label, tasting notes, a score and recommended food pairings. Information on the leading brewers is provided, and the sakes are grouped by flavor profile. Japanese sake is brewed worldwide today and is winning over many converts. A foreword by sake connoisseur and world-renowned DJ Richie Hawtin addresses the spread in global popularity and the shared mission of making this specialty beverage as accessible as possible. With the help of this book you'll soon become an expert in selecting, serving and enjoying Japan's favorite drink.

Japanese cuisine.

This introductory handbook to sake presents over 100 brands for all tastes and budgets, tips for beginners and connoisseurs, and an explanation of the brew-master's skills. The history and intricacies of sake are revealed as well as a list of producers, restaurants and retail outlets in Japan. Anyone who has ever been to Japan has probably fallen under the spell of a soothing cup of sake at one time or another. An encounter with Japan's favorite libation is bound to be memorable, yet despite its growing popularity worldwide, information on this eminently drinkable

SAKE: The History, Stories and Craft of Japan's Artisanal Breweries is a compendium of the most important generational sake breweries in Japan, featuring profiles of and interviews with the passionate families who run these operations, along with luxurious photography of the small batch processes, landscape and people involved. The 75 profiles include 60 sake breweries, 10 shochu distilleries and 5 awamori distilleries from Okinawa all the way to Hokkaido for geographic and stylistic diversity. For over 2000 years, sake has been a uniquely Japanese product in some shape or form. Today, Japan even hosts a National Sake Day. However, despite 21st century globalization, it remains an industry that is little understood by outsiders, regardless of the fact that there is growing interest. In addition to the colorful, deeply personal stories behind the owners and brewers, the book will serve as a guide to Japan's most unique generational sake, helping to enlighten a new drinking audience on artisanal alternatives to the popular mainstream offerings. To ensure a well-rounded approach, the book will also provide an introduction to unique shochu and awamori distilleries, two close relatives of sake. Beautifully illustrated with full color photography by one of the world's top travel photographers (Jason Lang), the book will appeal to a broad audience but is intended for readers outside of Japan. For novices, it will open a window to the world of sake and the stories of the passionate people who make it. Well initiated enthusiasts will benefit from a curated list of sake, shochu and awamori breweries and distilleries they can further research, buy and taste. Because many of these breweries and distilleries do not actively export their products outside Japan, beverage professionals will discover many brands that they wish to contact and consider importing for their menus.

For the Japanese, "sake" is a generic term covering all alcoholic beverages, the first of them being "Japanese sake," which the Japanese call "nihonshu" or, administratively, "seishu" (respectively, Japanese alcohol or clear alcohol). Sake, as we conceive of it here, is therefore "nihonshu," a traditional Japanese alcoholic beverage, usually translucent, colorless and containing 15-17% alcohol, resulting from the fermentation of rice. It should not be confused with baijiu or meikueilu, distilled 40% alcohols presented in shooter glasses with suggestive drawings in many Asian restaurants, or with shochu, a (great) Japanese distilled spirit. Easy-to-read yet scrupulously precise, this book is the fruit of more than 6 years of research, a season of sake-making in Japan and countless exchanges with industry professionals. It meticulously unveils all the mysteries of sake. This book is intended for anyone who wishes to understand sake, its ingredients and its production method, whether they be neophytes, amateurs or professionals. Four themes are covered: raw materials, fermentation, fining and tasting. "An extremely detailed but approachable bible [of sake]" SommelierS International "The reference book on Japanese sake" Mikael Rodriguez, Head Sommelier, La Mamounia Palace, Morocco "A dense, rich and complete book that allow you to better understand and become familiar with Japanese sake." Philippe Faure-Brac, best sommelier of the world, RIO 1992 "One of the best explanatory book for Sake in the world." Toru Akita, Toji "5 stars, A bible to always keep by your side, one of the best books on the subject. Treated with scientific knowledge and in a structured way, I warmly recommend!" Adrien Nonameuh Facebook rating "This book is above and beyond what I hoped to find.The informations provided and the level of detail is fantastic." Paolo Tucci, Reader

"The main purpose of this book is to provide the reader with accurate information to aid in translating, determinig the origin, value, and history of the Japanese military Sake cups"--Page 2 of cover.

'Witty and highly entertaining; a fascinating insight into the lives of ordinary Japanese people' - Helen Arnold, 1001 Escapes 'Jocular and candid; essential reading for backpackers and Japanophiles' - Ginny Light, former online editor, The Times 'Really evokes that excitement of 'discovering' Japan for the first time. I thoroughly enjoyed it'- Jan Dodd, Rough Guide To Japan 'A fascinating journey and call to action' - Mark Hodson, writer, Sunday Times Far from the high-tech, high-rise of the super-cities, there lies another Japan. A Japan where snakes slither down school corridors, where bears prowl dark forests and where Westerners are still regarded as curious creatures. Welcome to the world of the inaka - the Japanese countryside. Unhappily employed in the UK, Sam Baldwin decides to make a big change. Saying sayonara to laboratory life, he takes a job as an English teacher on the JET Programme in a small, rural Japanese town that no one - the Japanese included - has ever heard of. Arriving in Fukui, where there's 'little reason to linger' according to the guidebook, at first he wonders why he left England. But as he slowly settles in to his unfamiliar new home, Sam befriends a colourful cast of locals and begins to discover the secrets of this little known region. Helped by headmasters, housewives and Himalayan mountain climbers, he immerses himself in a Japan still clutching its pastoral past and uncovers a landscape of lonely lakes, rice fields and lush mountain forests. Joining a master drummer's taiko class, skiing over paddies and learning how to sharpen samurai swords, along the way Sam encounters farmers, fishermen and foreigners behaving badly. Exploring Japan's culture and cuisine, as well as its wild places and wildlife, For Fukui's Sake is an adventurous, humorous and sometimes poignant insight into the frustrations and fascinations that face an outsider living in small town, backcountry Japan. For more info see: ForFukuisSake.com

Saké, the Japanese wine distilled from rice and an essential part of Japanese culture for more than 2,000 years, is suddenly becoming one of the hippest alcoholic beverages in in the U. S. and abroad. The current rise of saké bars and saké-influenced drinks such as the sakétini are delicious evidence of this newly gained popularity. Despite this newfound buzz, most Westerners know very little about this traditional drink. There are more varieties of saké than there are of red and white wines combined. Saké is supposed to be served chilled. Only low-grade saké is heated, mainly to hide the inferior quality of the drink. In Japan, saké is rarely served with sushi, which is ironic as most Americans who drink saké only drink it with sushi. Rocky Aoki, the founder of the famous Benihana and Haru restaurants examines how the rice is grown and brewed, supplies fascinating background and history of saké in Japanese culture, describes the different varieties of saké, discusses which sakés should accompany different types of foods, and where one can purchase saké. With the same zest that he has brought to his phenomenally successful Benihana chain, which introduced the world to Japanese cuisine, Aoki will share the joy of saké. Also included is an extensive appendix guide to 100 brands of saké that are commonly found in the United States and are considered the most popular brands based on quality, price, and availability.