Takayama--Sake crawl

Sake is to Japan as bier is to Deutschland. I've always been a bit impartial to sake with its crisp clean taste and no bloating side-effects.

In Japan of course, the varieties and types of sake are mind-boggling. Hot or cold? How to tell one from the other? We decided to conduct our own sake crawl to find out (for gastronomic research purposes of course).






Sake slushees. Try getting that installed at your local 7-Eleven!


Eating sake jellies.



We ended up sampling sake jellies, sake slushees, hot sake, cold sake and cloudy sake. Cloudy sake was certainly unusual with quite a strong aroma and flavour present in the white clouds.

The most important lesson we learnt was that cold is good! Cheaper sakes are often served warm to disguise harshness of flavour. The best sake stands on its own two feet ice cold and delicious. Sake is often served warmed in winter for maximum heating effect, although with most of these alcohol contents, some would call it overcaution! Sakes are also graded by quality and most supermarkets in Japan indicate the quality level and advised drinking temperature.


Street of local sake breweries in Takayama




Crates of sake


...and the Mama Bear said "Who's been sitting in MY chair?"