Anybody knows Sake?

[danmand]

Anybody know where to buy good Sake?

I have not been drinking much Sake. But I had a bottle of Sake I received as a gift 10 years ago from an visiting executive from a japanese company. A week ago I shared it with a japanese girl, and we both enjoyed it.

I then went to my local liquor store, where they only had one kind of Sake, and bought a bottle of the stuff, which appears to be made in California. It is vastly inferior to the bottle my japanese friend gave me.

Help!

 

[Goober Mcfly]

The Sake is not my girlfriend.

 

[danmand]

This is easy! Ask your LCBO folks to open their Catelogue, and see which brands they carry. They'll order it for you.

Any recommendations?

 

[raverboy]

Anybody know where to buy good Sake?

I have not been drinking much Sake. But I had a bottle of Sake I received as a gift 10 years ago from an visiting executive from a japanese company. A week ago I shared it with a japanese girl, and we both enjoyed it.

I then went to my local liquor store, where they only had one kind of Sake, and bought a bottle of the stuff, which appears to be made in California. It is vastly inferior to the bottle my japanese friend gave me.

Help!

Ah. Now youre talking.

The variety of sake available to the average consumer in Japan is immense. You can visit a modern, spanking LCBO-type liquor store or a rickety old family brewery generations or centuries old, whose ancestors have supplied the old clans. Unfortunately I am drawing a blank at this point, but I am sure that *almost* anything that you'd import from Japan on your own would be better than Hakutsuru or Gekkeikan, which are by far the main brands of Sake found in N. America (unfortunately as you have found out, brewed under licence).

A 0.02 sec search on google revealed this interesting link. Written by a gaijin, nevertheless.

 

[red]

have you tried Labatt's Red Cap Sake?

 

[Mingo]

dandmand

Call Ozawa Canada in Richmond Hill, they are on East Beaver Creek.
They carry some special types of sake or can order you some!
Good Luck!
Mingo

 

[Ol' Sodomy Sam]

I bought some Sake both to marinate and eat with the black cod and pickled vegetable salad that was listed in the Holiday 2004 LCBO magazine. I bought some Sake from the LCBO outlet on Bank Street South in Ottawa, but it was hard to find; the Geikkeikan and one other such "bar brand" was openly displayed alongside a suprisingly good Chinese Glutinous rice wine, but the "good stuff" was hidden in with the oddball things like Poire William and the grappas. What you want will be labelled "Ginjo" or "Dai Ginjo", and I have tried and enjoyed two of the three they offered, but I did not like the sparkling one I tried (too light).

If you are in a small town in Ontario, the LCBO used to bring in single bottles by request if their value was over a certain amount, or a case if the value was under that amount. At $15- $20 for a 300 ml bottle, you may be able to command one just to try.

 

[antaeus]

did you know that....

technically, sake is a beer, not a wine, as the rice first must be malted to convert it's starches to simple sugars.

interesting, huh?

 

[goodtime]

Good stuff

... the Geikkeikan and one other such "bar brand" was openly displayed...What you want will be labelled "Ginjo" or "Dai Ginjo", and I have tried and enjoyed two of the three they offered...At $15- $20 for a 300 ml bottle, you may be able to command one just to try.

I'm not much of alcohol person but sampled good Geikkeikan and Ginjo with Sushi, may have been Ema Tai near Queen/University or was it A taste of Japan in Markham. They had 5 to 8 brand for us to sample as my friends are regulars.