Essay on Japanese Sake

The appearance is clear and clear during the flow, and turns into colorful brilliance during the rotation. As soon as you enter the mouth, the taste is refreshing, and layers of fruity, woody, rice, and floral aromas spread in your mind... …This is sake (also known as Japanese sake), the representative work of Japan’s ultimate refined spirit, “phantom wine”. Japanese people often say that sake is the best gift God has given them. Sake can be seen at large banquets, wedding ceremonies, in bars or at ordinary people's tables. It has become Japan's national quintessence.

Sake is one of the traditional Japanese cultures. In ancient times, the Japanese added charcoal to the turbid wine, and after it settled, they drank the clear liquid, hence the name of sake. The Japanese regard drinking as work. They must report to the bar after get off work every day. Important decisions are not made in the office, but in the hotel where people drink and drink. Job changes and other matters require drinking. Bars have become a paradise for Japanese men. After get off work, they have to enjoy themselves there before dragging their drunken feet home. The reputation of Japan's favorite sake is indeed well-deserved. Its inherent refreshing taste, profound meaning and diversity are being recognized and understood around the world.

Sake is made from rice harvested in autumn and fermented in winter. In other words, sake is a perfect combination of rice, water and koji. High-quality rice is a prerequisite for the production of fragrant sake. Japan's large forests breed abundant water resources, providing a good environment for the production of high-quality famous sake. The Tohoku and Hokuriku regions of Japan are the main producing areas of sake. The Kobe Nada district in Kansai is home to Japan's largest sake manufacturer. The traditional brewing process initially uses rice koji, then yeast culture and breeding, followed by fermentation. Japanese sake is fermented in an open state because this is necessary for good yeast to thrive. The substance produced after mass reproduction and cultivation of pure yeast is called sake yeast. Mix water, rice koji, and steamed rice in a small pot, then add yeast, and it takes 1 to 4 weeks to brew the sake. Then water and steamed rice with rice koji are added to the sake brewer in three batches, and the resulting substance is called mash. It takes another 3 to 5 weeks to ferment the mash. After the fermentation is completed, the mash is pressed, filtered, heated and sterilized, and stored. The alcohol content is adjusted before leaving the factory, then heated and sterilized before bottling.

Sake is a grain liquor, so it should not be stored for long periods of time and is easily affected by sunlight. If white bottled sake is exposed to direct sunlight for 3 hours, its color will deepen 3 to 5 times. Even if there is astigmatism in the store, long-term exposure will have a great impact. Therefore, it should be stored away from light as much as possible, and the wine warehouse should be kept clean and dry. At the same time, low temperature (10~12℃) storage is required, and the storage period is usually half a year to one year.

Japanese food is mainly fish and seafood. Whiskey is too strong and will easily destroy the deliciousness of Japanese food. Some people like to drink beer when eating Japanese food, but they always feel that drinking beer is “not flavorful enough”. In fact, the brewing of sake and beer is very similar. The alcohol content of sake is 16% to 20%. Rice koji is used to convert starch into sugar, while beer uses malt. The saccharification process of beer is carried out separately, while the saccharification process of sake is carried out separately. Fermentation and fermentation are carried out at the same time in the same large tank. This method is called "parallel fermentation". Sake has the highest alcohol content among undistilled alcoholic beverages in the world; in addition, sake is brewed using only rice, while beer is brewed using barley, wheat, and possibly other raw materials.

That’s why mellow and refreshing sake is a perfect match with Japanese food. The Japanese later used the "core" of rice to brew "Ginjo", which became very popular and was the best sake.

Sake can be used as a table wine or as an after-dinner wine. There are various ways to drink sake. When drinking sake, you can use a shallow flat bowl or a small ceramic cup, or you can use a brown or purple glass as a cup. Sake is generally drunk at room temperature (around 16°C). In winter, it needs to be blanched before drinking. It is usually heated to 40-50°C and served in a shallow flat bowl or a small ceramic cup. You can also put it in the refrigerator to cool down before drinking. The man raises the glass and drinks it one sip at a time, while the woman holds the glass with her right hand and puts her left hand under the glass to taste slowly.

Sake is a typical representative of Japanese culture. The family sat in the exquisite and elegant Japanese garden, holding refreshing Japanese sake. How pleasant it would be to drink sake while enjoying the gentle breeze. Sitting in a Japanese restaurant, listening to the crisp sound of the curtained waterfall falling into the water and being stirred by the rocks, tasting sashimi, and drinking a bottle of sake, the comfort is intoxicating just by imagining it.

Every year on the Coming of Age Day (in January), Japanese men and women over 20 years old put on gorgeous and solemn clothes, go to the shrine with their friends of the same age to worship, and then drink a cup of light sake (according to Japanese law) (You are not allowed to drink alcohol if you are under 20 years old), take a photo of drinking in front of the shrine. This coming-of-age ceremony continues to this day, which shows the status of sake in the hearts of Japanese people. After work, have a cup of "Shangshan Rushui" or "Nanshan", or have a cup of "White Crane", hoping to be able to wander to the beautiful places in your heart like a crane, which is a kind of cultural enjoyment.

China’s sake-making culture has a profound influence on Japan, and the refinement and continuous improvement of Japanese customs has created today’s Japanese sake culture. Not only does it have a special brewing process, drinking etiquette and preservation methods, but the labels of various sakes also have their own characteristics, which contain Japan's millennium-old brewing history and the ingenuity of the manufacturers. This is also similar to the label of red wine, which has high collection value. Since the wines produced by each winery have many brand names, and the same brand has different wine types and wine names, a unique wine label style has been developed.

The trademarks of traditional wineries often combine calligraphy and art expression techniques in wine label design. From this, we can see the profound influence of ancient Chinese culture on the cultural character of the Yamato nation. The label of sake combines its unique style and product features. It is visually beautiful and has a full semantic space for chanting and playful imagination. It shows the Japanese people’s spirit of seriousness and devotion to any matter, just like the two names of “ginjo”. The word means to savor slowly and carefully. The manufacturing process of Japanese sake is very sophisticated. What needs to be emphasized here is that the rice used to make sake is specially used for brewing sake and is different from the rice that is commonly eaten. That is to say, the newly harvested rice must be polished and turned into polished rice before it can enter the brewing process. This polishing process also determines the type and grade of sake. The more brown rice is polished, the more complex and refined the process, and the higher the quality of the wine. Sake can be divided into three types: among them, ginshu is the highest grade, followed by junmai sake, and honjozo sake is the last.

Ginjo is the "ginjo" brewed by the Japanese later using the "core" of rice. This is the best sake. Ginjo is further subdivided according to polishing and raw materials into junmai daiginjo (polishing less than 50%), daiginjo (below 50%), junmai ginjo (below 60%), and ginjo (below 60%); same as above As mentioned above, junmai liquor can also be subdivided into special junmai liquor and junmai liquor; honjozo sake is divided into special honzozo sake and honjozo sake. There are many sake brands in Japan. "Etsuno Hanmei", "Kubota Manju", "Shangshan Rusui", etc. are the first choice of successful people, so the price is also higher; "Asaka Daiginjo" and "Kikugenji" are moderately priced and are very popular among white-collar workers; "Kikoku Masamune", "Ozeki", "Nihonsheng" and others are popular and are usually respected by ordinary families. In 1975, in order to establish a distribution network that can provide satisfactory high-quality sake to consumers who pursue delicious and delicious sake, and to make Aoi sake popular overseas, Japan established many private alcoholic cultural organizations such as the Japan Famous Sake Club. The Japanese sake information network has been strengthened.

Japanese directors have frequently won international awards for films praising Japan's harmonious coexistence with nature; fashion designers are also constantly updating kimono styles; and Japanese sake brewers have proved that Japan Sake is comparable to Bordeaux wine. Japanese sake, known as "phantom sake" - so clear and transparent, so fragrant and pleasant, and so pure in taste. Speaking of which, do you also have the urge to fly to the country of cherry blossoms, relax beautifully in the hot spring water when snowflakes are flying in the sky, then put on a loose Japanese kimono, and sit lazily on the tatami? How about tasting a table full of gorgeous Japanese food and drinking two cups of warm Japanese sake?