🌟 Level Up Your Knowledge of Japanese Sake Culture 🍶

In recent years, more and more people have developed a love for Japanese sake. We often find ourselves in Japanese restaurants, unsure which sake to choose to pair with seafood and sushi. With thousands of sake brands on the market and prices all over the place, it can be quite confusing. 🍃Just recently, I had the chance to visit the Dassai Blue Sake Brewery in upstate New York. Today, I’m here to share some knowledge about a few popular Japanese sakes. 🌟 DASSAI “Daikoku-mai” is brewed and sold by the Yamaguchi Prefecture-based brewery “Asahi Shuzo Co., Ltd.” It uses the Yamada Nishiki rice, known as the “King of Sake Rice.” 🍃This sake is a pure rice daiginjo, characterized by its fruity flavors and elegant aroma. It’s sophisticated, very fragrant, and easy to drink—truly a high-end sake that appeals to both young and old. The DASSAI Blue in New York is locally produced, using local rice. 🌾 Their brewery wasn’t very well-known before, but its current popularity can be attributed to two key events. First, after the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake, many local sake rice fields were contaminated by nuclear radiation, leading many countries to ban the import of Japanese sake. 🎢 Second, Daikoku-mai’s origin, Yamaguchi Prefecture, is the hometown of then-Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. He hosted Vladimir Putin with this local sake, and Putin praised it highly, even taking some back with him. 🌸 After media coverage, “Daikoku-mai” quickly became famous, sought after by people both in Japan and abroad. 🌍 #NewYork #SakeKnowledge #DassaiBlue 🌃🌟