Takara Sake USA Inc. — Attraction in Berkeley

I didn't know what to expect when my gf suddenly decided one sunny afternoon we couldn’t live another day without a tasting flight at Takara Sake USA. I hadn't even known the swill is manufactured in the US, much less so close to home in Berkeley! I was really going along just to please the woman, you know how it goes. GPT thinks “Takara" (宝) means “treasure” or “precious thing”, and, spoiler alert, a precious treasure indeed was about to unfold. Noting the thoughtful xeriscaping, we entered the elegant building no sooner than we plunged into an altered reality I can best describe as, how bout, a modern aesthetic industrial style with Japanese sensibilities.

A distinctive sweet aroma permeates the air, as its alcoholic vapors lifts you up the floating staircase, as if into the clouds. As you ascend, your changing viewpoint reveals surprises: massive hardware installations (well, it’s a factory—what had I expected?) and then, a very large and riveting painting in subtle shades of bronze and brown, a sophisticated modern Japanese take on the Lichtenstein-pioneered paintbrush single-stroke style. You know, the just-drag-the-dripping-brush-across-the-canvas style, only tastefully.

We arrived at the tasting area, a sophisticated bar in a voluminous room large enough to contain an A-frame polished wooden structure—try to imagine an indoor gazebo. An airy design with such beautifully crafted beams could only have been made in Japan.

Then the surprises really began. We met the lovely Reiko, the resident sake scholar and firecracker who greeted us with a disarming smile and a charming Japanese lilt. We pleasantly exchanged our pleasantries, and then followed her down the rabbit hole. Between us were, oh, half a dozen petri-like covered dishes captioned with the various extents to which their grains of rice had been polished.

At first I turned my nose up at the 30% polish and made eyes only with the 70%, until learning that it’s all good. Different applications, different price points—there’s an occasion for it all. But speaking of price points, this tasting menu is clearly a loss leader. By the time we arrived at the most polished sake, we were sipping the contents of an $800 bottle. You couldn’t help but emerge with a good understanding of sake’s sophisticated brewing process, unless of course you had instead devoted your attention to staring dreamily into Reiko’s eyes, also good.

Reiko opens the dishes and gives you individual grains of rice to caress, grains in various stages of polishing. Polishing apparently is just a euphemism for skinning them alive. As Reiko explains, the grain’s protein is concentrated at its surface, around the starchy center. So the more that’s removed from the periphery, the sweeter the sake gets. As Reiko narrated, we powered through our sake flight, beginning with sake brewed from the least polished rice and moving down the array of glasses to the most polished.

Highly polished rice for a distinctly unpolished taster, you say—like pearls before swine? Fine. In such matters, it’s true, I rely upon my highly polished gf. But even your friendly cretin loved the sake, and left knowing that Reiko’s splendid spiel would be echoing through my mind with every future sip of sake. Yes, the physical plant was beautiful and the sake was great, but Reiko made the day. In her capable hands, it was not just a tour, It was a...

Very nice tasting room, and very knowledgeable staff made for a pleasant tasting event. The sake was also very good, and I found a new favorite. For our tasting event with about 8 people, we stood around the host for the entire tasting of 6 item, which would have been better if there were seating. They have seating, but it looked like it was set up for a catered event (so plates and silverware - unusual for a tasting room). But it was a good experience, and seems to me to be a good value too. The hostess was delightful, and we were treated to an additional “bubbly” sake, which I didn’t even know existed, but is now my new favorite. The whole event is worth doing. Expect to have a craving for sushi afterwards. There is a nice Japanese restaurant in walking distance, so that was a bonus. When I want on Sunday afternoon, there was plenty of free street...

I've been to several wine tastings in Napa, Sonoma and elsewhere, but never been to a sake tasting room and museum before. It's a nice, bright minimalist space with high-ceilings. They did a good job of having an instructional video on the sake making process. It is interesting that they have the option to show the video in Japanese as well. At the tasting room, which is a very small standing area, you start by choosing from a short menu list of different sake tasting flights. Besides the flights, they also give you a couple of additional samples to taste as a way to promote their new products. So it's a pretty generous sampling of different sake. We tried the (A) Variety course and (C) Ginjo Course. The Premium Ginjo was very good. I really liked their new Mio sparkling sake and the Hana Lychee flavored sake. It was a good, low-key mini-trip...