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There are many hypotheses as to how sake originated and spread, and as is often the case, the origins of this alcoholic beverage are lost in legend.
According to some sources, the practice of fermenting rice is said to have originated in China around the fifth millennium B.C. and was then exported to Japan. Apparently, the first sake ever was called kuchikami no sake - sake chewed in the mouth - and was prepared by chewing rice, chestnuts, millet and acorns together and spitting the mixture into a vat, so that the enzymes in the saliva would allow the starches to saccharify; at the same time, the sugars would combine with the yeast found naturally in the air. Freshly cooked wheat was then added to the mixture, which would ferment naturally. The method of chewing, it must be said, is very ancient and is the basis of drinks such as chicha in Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador, Chinese millet wine and Native American pulque: as with these drinks, sake was also believed to be best derived from young women. In some cases, it was even the priestesses who chewed the rice, producing a drink that would be offered to the gods and then, in later times, to the imperial court. This early form of sake almost certainly had a low alcohol content, and was consumed like porridge.
The place of origin of sake is believed to be Nara, the ancient capital of Japan on the island of Honshu: in particular, the brewing technique known as bodai-moto was passed down in the Bodaisen Shoryakuji temple, which involved soaking uncooked rice in cold water together with a small amount of steamed rice. The bacteria produced from this mixture formed the leavening base.
In the Heian period (794-1185 A.D.), the Engishiki, a book on laws and customs, was written in which the production methods and ingredients for sake - rice, water and koji, i.e. rice mould - are stated. It is here, moreover, that one begins to speak of sake drunk hot - kan-zake.
The marketing of this beverage, which was initially only intended for sacred celebrations and the imperial court, began in the Kamakura-Muromachi period (1185-1573), during which the technique of parallel fermentation, in which saccharification and fermentation are combined to increase the alcohol content, was perfected.
Sake thus entered homes and spread throughout Japan, with brewing techniques becoming increasingly refined. By 1698, there were as many as 27,000 sake cellars throughout the country.
It is in the contemporary period, however, that the most decisive advances are seen: the identification of six yeasts for fermentation, new techniques for growing koji, the invention of the vertical rice refining machine, the use of temperature control tanks. After the Second World War, sake also slowly began to spread to other countries.
As mentioned, the ingredients that make sake are rice, water, koji and yeast - i.e. junmai-shu.
The rice for sake is different from what we know and use in cooking: it is called shuzo kotekimai or sakamai, and is light, larger and rich in starch.
Water makes up about 80% of sake, and is selected according to its chemical component: it must be rich in magnesium and potassium - to encourage the growth of koji yeast - and have as little iron and heavy metals as possible.
Koji is a natural enzyme that is grown as a kind of mould: it is indispensable for breaking down the starch chains in rice and releasing the sugar it contains. In general, koji is made from a part of cooked rice, functioning a bit like sourdough; there are various types:
Yeast (kobo) exists in two main types:
In some productions, alcohol is added to characterise the flavour. Sake produced in this way is no longer junmai sake, but takes the name honjozo-shiu.
After harvest and storage, the rice undergoes polishing, a fundamental process to remove elements that would give the sake an unpleasant taste. The degree of smoothing defines the types of sake, which are classified according to this criterion: a smoother rice will produce a more delicate and fruity sake with less acidity, while a coarser milling will lead to a stronger concentration of flavours.
Once smoothed, the rice rests for three days in a cool, dark place, then it is washed and steamed. One part of this is used, as mentioned, for koji; the other part, covered with aspergillus oryzae, sees the transformation of starch into sugar triggered when in contact with the spores of koji. The rice thus processed appears shiny, with a crumbly consistency and a sweet taste.
Shubo - i.e. the 'mother of sake' - is made by combining cooked rice, some koji, water and yeast. This leads to the fermentation process: the sake produced from a two-week shubo will be fragrant and refreshing, with a mild flavour, while the thirty-day sake will be rich, flavoured and complex.
The fermentation process is divided into three stages: on the first day a portion of koji, cooked rice and water will be added to the sourdough starter; on the second day it is left to rest; on the third and fourth days the rest of the koji is added. The mixture obtained on the fifth day will also contain alcohol and carbon dioxide, as the glucose in the rice starch is converted by the yeast.
The fermented moromi is then moved into bags and filtered using a modern pressure system with activated charcoal [gravity filtration + possibly filter with activated charcoal (not obligatory)]. It is then up to the cellar master, the toji, to decide whether to bottle immediately after the resting time of about 10 days, or to leave it in tanks or casks.
The last stage is pasteurisation.
First of all, one important thing must be kept in mind: when one speaks of sake in Japan, one must understand that one is referring to any alcoholic beverage.
The alcoholic beverage we know as 'sake' outside Japan is here called nihonshu - Japanese sake - and refers exclusively to that drink made from fermented rice. We then have seinshu - refined sake - and futsu-shu, i.e. common, table sake.
Today's sake renaissance starts with the recognition of Pure Sake - i.e. Junmai-shu: this is sake made from pure rice, koji and water with no alcohol added. This method is in stark contrast to the general market trend in the immediate post-war period, when this practice was permitted to limit rice consumption. Pure Sake that is unfiltered, unpasteurised and without the addition of alcohol and water is called junmai muroka nama genshu.
The junmai category is further subdivided according to the decreasing degree of smoothing of the rice: thus we have junmai daiginjo, junmai dinjo and junmai.
Sake made with the addition of alcohol are instead called, again according to the degree of smoothing, daiginjo, dinjo, honjozo and finally futsu-shu, which has no indication of the degree of smoothing.
The term shochu comes from the Chinese shaojiu, meaning 'burnt liquid'. Shochu is a distillate that can be produced from different raw materials depending on the origin: thus, we have rice (kome), sweet potatoes (imo), processed [refined] sugar (kokuto), chestnuts or buckwheat (soba).
There are two categories of shochu: honkaku shochu, produced from a single distillation, which is more traditional and in which the flavour of the raw material is more perceptible; and ko-rui shochu, produced from several distillations, mostly from raw materials that are very rich in sugar, leading to a neutral product more similar to vodka.
Distillates have different alcoholpercentages. So, we have defined a parameter allowing you to better understand and compare different prices. This parameter is calculated by dividing the bottle price by the alcohol content. The alcohol content (or strength) is the amount of pure alcohol (ethanol) contained in the distillate.
This parameter indicates the price of a single 4cl dosage of distillate. It is calculated by dividing the price of the bottle by its quantity (expressed in cl), then multiplying by the centilitres of the recommended single dose, as average in cocktail recipes.