Sake Is Booming in America

Imports are way up, retail shops are proliferating and more sake breweries are opening.

Customers at Kuraichi, a sake shop

in Japan Village in Brooklyn, which
holds free sake tastings on Saturday
afternoons.
Credit...Nico Schinco for The New
York Times

By Eric Asimov
 Feb. 27, 2023
7 MIN READ

When Shinobu Kato first tried sake as a young man in Tokyo, it tasted harsh and sharp to him. He
hated it. But, he recalls, an older colleague told him that he was drinking cheap, poorly made sake.
As he was introduced to better styles, Mr. Kato grew to love it.

When he moved to the United States in 2004 to study business at the University of Maryland, he
could afford only the sorts of bad sake that had left such a terrible first impression. So he decided
to brew his own, steaming and fermenting rice in his kitchen. To his surprise, he and his friends
adored it.

Mr. Kato continued brewing sake after he moved to Nashville to work for Nissan. He grew so
passionate about sake that, in 2016, with the encouragement of his wife, Ayako, he moved to
Bushwick, Brooklyn, with the aim of opening his own sake brewery.

He equipped himself with small stainless steel vats from a brewery supply house, bought special
rice grown in California and ordered yeast and other necessities by mail from Japan. Finally, in
April 2020, just weeks into the Covid lockdown, Kato Sake Works opened in a tiny, 500-square-
foot industrial space in Bushwick.

It now sells four different kinds of sake, with numerous special batches. The brewery has done so
well, Mr. Kato said, that it will soon move to a new space five times as big.

Mr. Kato’s timing could hardly be better. Sake sales are booming around the world and in the
United States. Exports from Japan more than doubled in volume from 2012 to 2022, from roughly
14 million liters per year to nearly 36 million liters, according to the Japanese Sake and Shochu
Makers Association, a trade group. Exports to the United States in that period grew to more than
nine million liters per year, up from just under four million liters.

Sake Basics - A brief guide to some key terms, styles and things to keep in mind.
Paradoxically, as the popularity of sake rises elsewhere, it is declining in Japan. The population is
aging, people are drinking less in general and younger people have yet to take up sake, said
Chicako Ichihara, the New York liaison officer for the sake makers’ association. Still, she said, sales
of premium sake are stable. It’s the cheaper stuff, the sort of sake that Mr. Kato first tasted, that
fewer people are buying.

For years, sake proponents have proclaimed that it would be the next big thing in the American
alcoholic beverage market. But it never took off, even as other categories, like tequila and natural
wines, grew from niche markets to the mainstream. Now, though, evidence of a leap seems to be all
over.

Left, Rule of Thirds, a restaurant in Brooklyn, has made sake a focus and has also opened Bin Bin,
a sake shop, center. Right, Kato Sake Works is one of two sake breweries now operating in
Brooklyn.Credit...Nico Schinco for The New York Times

Brooklyn Kura, a sake brewery in the waterfront complex Industry City, is expanding in
partnership with Hakkaisan Brewery, a Japanese sake producer. Asahi Shuzo, which makes the
Japanese sake brand Dassai, is constructing an American brewery in Hyde Park, N.Y., to
produce Dassai Blue, a brand for the United States market. It is expected to open this year.

In Hot Springs, Ark., a 24,000-square-foot brewery for Origami Sake — almost 10 times the size of
Kato’s new brewery — is scheduled to open in May. Master brewers from Nanbu Bijin, a Japanese
brewery, will act as advisers, but the financing and ownership is American.

“It will be the largest U.S.-owned brewery, with a capacity of one million liters a year,” said Matt
Bell, the chief executive of Origami. “The goal, really, is to move sake into the mainstream.”

If Arkansas seems an odd place to put a sake brewery, the state is by far the leading producer of
rice in the United States, growing nearly 40 percent of the national production. As for the other
major necessity for sake brewing, Mr. Bell points out that Hot Springs is renowned for the quality
of its water.

While sake comes in any number of styles, the basic ingredients are few: rice, water, yeast and koji,
a rice mold also used for making miso and soy sauce that breaks down the rice starches into
fermentable sugars, just as malting does with grains in beer production.

The variables, however, are many. The freshly harvested form of rice is brown rice, and though
brown rice can be used to make sake, that use is rare. The husk and outer part of the grain
is usually milled away to expose the starches. The percentage of the grain that is retained after
milling, or polishing, will partly determine the style.

Many other factors also play into the final product. Is the water hard or soft? What strain of yeast
is used? Where does the rice come from, and where is the brewery? How long should fermentation
last? Brewers will sometimes add a small amount of alcohol, which can make a sake more fragrant.
Some sakes are infused with citrus or other flavorings. Most sakes are filtered and pasteurized, but
other styles exist, too.

Image

Rice is steam-heated for brewing sake at Kato.

Credit...Nico Schinco for The New York Times

Image

Stirring the rice during sake brewing at Kato.

Credit...Nico Schinco for The New York Times

Sake produced in the United States accounts for a small fraction of the sake sold domestically.
Most is imported from Japan, and wine importers have gotten in on the act. In New York City, Zev
Rovine Selections, a natural wine specialist, and Skurnik Wines, a national importer and
distributor, have added sake to their portfolios. The upward trajectory of sake sales has been
mirrored at Skurnik, said Jamie Graves, who manages its Japanese beverage lineup.

The jump in the last few years has been particularly noticeable in retail, as you might expect, given
the restaurant shutdowns during the pandemic.

“Retail sake exploded in 2020 and never went away,” Mr. Graves said. “It went from 15 to 20
percent of our sake sales to 40 percent, staying steady even after restaurants reopened.”

At Sakaya, a retailer that opened in the East Village in 2007, sake sales took a huge jump during
the pandemic, said Rick Smith, who owns the business with his wife, Hiroko Furukawa.

“Interest in sake has increased,” he said. “You can see it in more importers and the proliferation, at
least in New York City, of all these sushi omakase restaurants.”

When Yoko Kumano and Kayoko Akabori opened Umami Mart in Oakland, Calif., in 2012,
specializing in Japanese goods and ingredients, they did not sell sake. But they got a license in
2014, and now, Ms. Kumano said, sake is their No. 1 seller.
Image
 Sake has become the main business at Umami
Mart in Oakland, Calif., which also sells
Japanese barware and other goods.

Credit...Kelsey McClellan for The New York

Times

Image

Kayoko Akabori, left, and Yoko Kumano, the

proprietors of Umami Mart, behind the bar.
They have seen a rising interest in sake.

Credit...Kelsey McClellan for The New York

Times

She has also seen an evolution in her clientele. In 2014, customers would ask for a dry sake and
maybe for a daiginjo, a common style.

“Now, people are waking up to the fact that sake is much more versatile than people thought,” she
said. “They are trying sake with foods other than sushi, and now, they are asking for nama —
unpasteurized sake — or nigori — unfiltered sake.”

If any individual could take credit for the rising interest in sake in New York, it might be Tadao
Yoshida, the entrepreneur behind Japan Village, a complex of Japanese food stalls, groceries and
other goods in Industry City. He also owns Kuraichi, a sake store at Japan Village.

Mr. Yoshida, who goes by Tony, has for years sought to introduce Americans to the pleasures of
Japanese food and beverages. Over the last 50 years, he built and owned a Japanese-oriented food-
and-drink empire in the East Village, including the original location of Sunrise Mart Grocery;
Village Yokocho, a restaurant; and Angel’s Share, a renowned cocktail bar.

All are now gone, and he is putting his efforts into Japan Village. He especially wants people to
understand the many shades and subtleties of sake.

“It’s sometimes mild, sometimes sweet,” he said. “Some are good for eating with steak.”
Customers at a Saturday tasting at Kuraichi.Credit...Nico Schinco for The New York Times

Since Kuraichi opened in 2018, it has offered Saturday afternoon sake tastings to introduce its
clients to the many types of sakes.

“We try to ask them, ‘What is the difference?’ ” he said.

Each of Kato Sake Works’ four flagship sakes illustrates a different major style. Mr. Kato makes a
bold, clean, fruity and lightly sweet but balanced junmai (a term indicating that nothing else has
been used in the production beyond the four key ingredients, and that no more than 70 percent of
the rice grain remains after milling). He also makes an intense, complex, milky white nigori, which
is unfiltered.

His nama, or unpasteurized, sake is fuller and wilder, almost in your face with a lightly raspy
texture. Kimoto, made with an old, labor-intensive process for kicking off the fermentation that
Mr. Graves of Skurnik likens to sourdough starter, seems fuller and more complex. Though Mr.
Kato also makes smaller batches of other styles, these four are the focus.

“I understand the esoteric nature of sake, so I just want to make things simple,” he said.

Richard Geoffroy — who was for 28 years the charismatic face of Dom Pérignon, overseeing the
production of the luxury Champagne and traveling the world to promote it — was so drawn to sake
that, in 2019, he left the company to create, with Japanese partners, his own sake. Though
impeded by the Covid pandemic, they built their own brewery and made their first sake, IWA, in
2020. It was released in New York and California last year, and, now past the depths of the
pandemic, Mr. Geoffroy has resumed his globe-trotting, proselytizing the beauty of sake and IWA.

Image

Richard Geoffroy, right, the founder of IWA

sake, tasting with Yasunari Okazaki, the chef of
L’Abysse in Paris. Mr. Geoffroy formerly
oversaw production of the luxury Champagne
Dom Pérignon.

Credit...Joann Pai for The New York Times

Image
 IWA Sake’s brewery in Tateyama,
Japan.Credit...Nao Tsuda

He hopes to bring IWA to a wine-

drinking audience. IWA is terrific,
smooth and light in the mouth, with a
floral, lightly fruity aroma but savory,
too — fresh and crystalline, with a sense
of tension and energy. The only
problem? The Dom Pérignon prices.
IWA retails for roughly $200 a bottle.
(Most mainstream bottles will fall into
the $25-to-$50 range.)

What accounts for the rising interest in the United States? Mr. Graves suggests it’s fueled by a
rapid increase in American tourism. From 2010 to 2019, the number of Americans visiting Japan
rose from roughly 900,000 per year to about 2.2 million, according to JTB Tourism Research and
Consulting, which tracks tourism in Japan. Many of these travelers return home with heightened
interest in Japanese culture, food and sake.

One restaurant that has made sake a focus is Rule of Thirds, a sleek Japanese restaurant in
Greenpoint, Brooklyn, that specializes in izakaya fare. It sells roughly three dozen sakes, along
with natural wines, cocktails and shochu, a Japanese distilled spirit.

“We now have two local sake breweries in Brooklyn,” said George Padilla, an owner. “Having local
entry points is really important. People can make personal connections with the product and meet
the people behind it.”

Image

At Rule of Thirds, sake takes a prime place with

cocktails and natural wines. Credit...Nico
Schinco for The New York Times

Image

Small cups are a traditional vessel for sake, but it

is equally at home in larger glasses and even in
wine glasses.

Credit...Nico Schinco for The New York Times

During the pandemic, the restaurant opened Bin Bin, a sake and natural wine shop around the
block.

“Sake is definitely the leading seller,” said Sophia Sioris, who manages Bin Bin. “People enter the
shop expecting to see sake, and sales are great.”

Mr. Kato says he is encouraged that sake will continue to grow in the United States.

“I see more money coming into the industry. The investment is way bigger than what I had seen
before,” he said. “People are no longer hesitant.”

Sake Basics - Feb. 27, 2023

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A version of this article appears in print on March 1, 2023, Section D, Page 2 of the New York
edition with the headline: Sake Moves Into the American Mainstream. Order Reprints | Today’s
Paper | Subscribe

Sake Basics
A brief guide to some key terms, styles and things to keep in mind.

Kuraichi in Brooklyn, which sells a wide variety

of sakes.

Credit...Nico Schinco for The New York Times

By Eric Asimov
Feb. 27, 2023

2 MIN READ

A version of this article appears in print on March 1, 2023, Section D, Page 2 of the New York edition with the
headline: A Quick Intro To a Complex Beverage. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

When we learn of a mistake, we acknowledge it with a correction. If you spot an error, please let us know
at nytnews@nytimes.com. Eric Asimov is The Times’s wine critic. @EricAsimov

Sake is the fermented product of rice, with its own character, body of knowledge and vocabulary.
Here are some sake basics worth knowing.
Types of Sake
Before the rice is fermented, the outer layer is polished away, leaving the grain’s starchy core.

Junmai Rice is polished until no more than 70 percent of the grain remains.

Ginjo No more than 60 percent remains.
Daiginjo No more than 50 percent remains.

All sakes designated junmai contain only rice, water, yeast and koji, a mold that converts starch
into fermentable sugars. Some other sakes are made with small amounts of added distilled alcohol,
to heighten body and aromatic appeal. If the sake is junmai, however, no alcohol will have been
added. Ginjo and daiginjo sakes may also have added alcohol, unless they are labeled junmai ginjo
or junmai daiginjo.

Most sakes are pasteurized and filtered. But other styles exist, too.

Nigori Unfiltered sake.
Nama Unpasteurized sake.
Kimoto An older method in which a labor-intensive form of yeast starter is used to begin
fermentation.
Honjozo Sake with a small amount of added distilled alcohol.

How to Serve, Drink and Store Sake

Serving

Small ceramic or glass cups are traditional, but modest wine glasses work well, as do tumblers.

Storage

Before and after opening, sake should be kept cool and out of the light. Refrigerators are fine. Once
opened, bottles can last from a few days to a few weeks.

Temperature
Sake is great served cool, but it can also be delicious gently warmed, depending on the season,
mood and type of sake. Yoko Kumano of Umami Mart in Oakland, Calif., recommends yakitori
with warm sake.

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updates from New York Times Cooking, with recipe suggestions, cooking tips and shopping advice.
A correction was made on Feb. 28, 2023
An earlier version of this article reversed the definitions of nama and nigori sake. Nama is unpasteurized
and nigori is unfiltered.