Sake is the Japanese word for alcohol, although Westerners often understand it to mean rice wine, the traditional liquor of Japan made from fermented rice. The drink has been around for hundreds of years, with the first mention in Japanese going back to around 712 AD.
Centuries ago, Japan was an island far away and there was virtually no contact with Europe. Dutch traders discovered the drink and got the word into English in a very roundabout fashion. The Frenchman Jean de Thévenot travelled extensively in Europe and the Middle East in the second half of the seventeenth century, as well as in India. He wrote about his experiences in a book published in 1687 The Travels of Monsieur De Thevenot. Archibald Lovell translated this work from French into English.
It was here that sake made its entrance into the English language. Thevenot described the Japanese as idol worshippers with good sharp metal swords which can easily cut a man in two. He also noted that they love sugar and that a Dutch man gave him what the Japanese drink. “Their ordinary drink is a kind of beer (which they call sake), made of rice, they put sugar into it”. Thévenot liked it!
Despite this, sake did not find its way to Europe as a drink. One hundred years later, the Encyclopaedia Britannica described sake in great detail as “rice beer as clear as wine…it intoxicates for a few moments, and causes head ache”.
At that time, sake was all the rage in Japan and there were over 30,000 producers. Today, however, there are only about 1,000 and the sake industry has been officially classified as depressed. Sake is virtually unknown outside Japan with only 2% of total production being exported.
Sake can be consumed either hot or cold and when it is warm the alcoholic fumes certainly do feel intoxicating. Here are a couple of tips when drinking sake: it is always sipped and never consumed quickly or in shot and, as always in Japanese drinking culture, it is polite to top up the drink of your drinking partner who will, in turn, top up your cup.
Sake can be found in all izakayas across Japan with cheap and high-end versions available.