The Sake Revelation
The Food Programme
BBC
4.4 • 977 Ratings
🗓️ 7 March 2016
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
If your experience of sake has been limited to simply 'a hot cup of alcohol after a meal' like Sheila Dillon it's time to listen without prejudice. With thousands of breweries each producing dozens of varieties there is more range than most of us understand.
After a slump in sales in Japan young people are now returning to sake and in the UK interest is growing rapidly with top restaurants listing more choices, plans for specialist bars and more people in the drinks trade now qualifying in sake expertise.
But how do you know where to start? A lack of Japanese can make bottles hard to understand and when do you drink it hot or cold? What food can you pair them with? How do you avoid the really bad ones?
Sake samurai and sommelier Natsuki Kikuya explains how different varieties should be drunk and how the novice can gain confidence . She's joined by passionate sake convert, drinks writer Anna Greenhous and Techno DJ Richie Hawtin aka Plastikman fell so in love with sake he's now taking it to a new generation of young clubbers around the world. Meanwhile the race is on between 2 breweries to produce the first sake in the UK. Will it be Scotland's Arran brewery or the Japanese Dojima brewery which is investing in a multi-million pound operation in Cambridgeshire?
Produced by Anne-Marie Bullock.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello you've downloaded a podcast of BBC Radio 4's The Food Program. |
| 0:05.0 | Welcome to our world, from cooking to culture, politics to pleasure. |
| 0:10.0 | We hope you enjoy it. |
| 0:12.0 | Are you a sake fan? |
| 0:16.0 | Well, I'm not, or I haven't been, |
| 0:19.0 | though I hope to be by the end of this program. |
| 0:21.0 | It was the 1970s, my first Japanese meal and I relished |
| 0:26.2 | everything except that charmingly served porcelain cup of warm chemical tasting clear liquid that accompanied the food. From that day to this |
| 0:37.2 | sake has been on my no-thank-you list but my narrow-mindedness is being challenged. It's a growing interest in the UK, the latest |
| 0:46.7 | addition to a host of many Japanese things being absorbed into our lives. |
| 0:52.0 | Though in 2016, |
| 0:54.0 | Sakke doesn't always come warm |
| 0:56.0 | and I'm assured none of it |
| 0:58.0 | tastes like it was produced on my GCSE chemistry bench. |
| 1:02.0 | Because Sakke comes in many varieties, thousands of varieties, |
| 1:06.7 | produced by hundreds of Japanese breweries, which can surprise other Brits who like me have had unfortunate restaurant experiences. |
| 1:17.0 | It's vaguely citrusy isn't it? |
| 1:22.0 | But yeah, maybe something more like |
| 1:23.8 | elderflower or some kind of I think it's more like hair okay number two bottoms up |
| 1:29.9 | time it's more of a berry flavor than a citrus flavor. |
| 1:34.4 | That is a bit more elderfary. |
| 1:36.4 | If it was cold, it might be like a non-alcoholic champagne. |
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