Sake on Vice?

-from Munchies YouTube

A fellow SPC Alumni shared this link with me:

Exploding Sake for Breakfast in Japan- Al-Kee-Hol - YouTube

With "sake" and "breakfast" in the same sentence, of course I was going to have a look.

Hasegawa Saketen and Ishikawa Brewery look like great places to visit and sample sake. Hasegawa Saketen is one of the places that I tried to fit into my visit to Tokyo earlier this year, but I just ran out of time. This video certainly finds these sake newbies are certainly in the right spot.


Commenters on YouTube  mostly seem too focused on these young ladies in the video, I however was much more interested in the brews!


I saw some new sake to keep an eye out for: Reisen Sparkling Nigori from Gifu's Gyokunsendo Shuzo.

Ugo no Tsiuki's Tokubetsu Junmai was also poured and according to Mr. Hasegawa won the blind taste testing he held in his shops.  What a cool idea! This sake is made by Aihara Shuzo of Hiroshima.

Hakura Kusei Zankyo Super 9 also made an appearance. It was crazy to see those tiny little beads of rice. Seimaibuai of 9%?!  It does seem extravagant indeed. 

I also had not heard of Ishikawa Brewery. Something to look out for.

Aside from the new brews, watching these women visit Ichibe Izakaya was especially vexing for me.

 I am not sure how I feel about the process of spraying sake all over the place for pure theatrics. Especially good sake like that Tensei.

 Seems like a waste.

I wonder about that: the izakaya's owner was insistent that they had such a great selection of sake, in a proud way. It seems strange that they would do this to a bottle, no? It seems they leave namazake in a warm place to get the yeast going again. This must impart some affect on the flavor, no?

Is a common thing, I wonder?

Nice to see this video from Vice. And not all of the comments are so puerile:

 One person posted : "I can't believe they edited out any explanation of the big bottle of Jyuondai!"

Goo catch, that. Encouraging to know there are other sake folks out there. 

Out of curiosity-


 Is that Philip Harper sitting next to the girl on the right @ 6:23?