Sake, yum yum yum

Last Sunday, we went up to Niigata for a sake tasting festival. Over a hundred different types of sake all from Niigata prefecture! It vaguely reminded me of the wedding expo Dustin and I visited this summer. I left the sake tasting festival feeling much less accomplished than when I left the wedding expo, though I did manage to drink more cups of sake in one day than I had ever previously drank. 

Before coming to Japan, I thought all sake tasted just about the same, like a watered down version of vodka. Now, I can certainly say that almost every sake tastes as different as every flower smells. I tried some very weak sake that tasted like water, some very strong sake that burned my throat, some sakura sake that had a slight hint of cherry blossoms, some lime sake that tasted very citrusy, some champagne sake that tasted like sweet sparkling wine. There was warm sake and cold sake, each with its own subtleties.

We took a break from the sake tasting to put some food in our stomachs and watch some fellow sake-tasters get roped into pounding the rice for mochi or perhaps future sake, I'm not sure which. I happened to sit next to a nice older man who had already consumed his fair share of sake. He asked me if I'd tasted "The Number One Sake." I didn't think I had, but I couldn't be sure. He pointed out which booth it was on the map of the festival. We made our way there by the end of the evening, with only a few minutes before the festival was to finish. It was definitely the number one sake. It was so crisp and refreshing. It had won the prize of best sake in Niigata prefecture the year before; Niigata is known throughout Japan for having high quality rice, thus high quality sake. Since the festival was over, the Number One Sake guy just kept pouring us cup after overflowing cup of really expensive sake. He was trying to finish off the bottles of already opened sake instead of tossing them out. We picked the perfect time to visit that booth. 

We even sampled cigars at the festival. We each grabbed a free cigar (actually, I just tried a puff of Dustin's) and headed outside to the special cigar tent. The tent seemed a bit crowded, so we tried our cigars outside. Kyoko's was mysteriously broken in half, but she puffed on it for a while before giving up and breaking off the useless nub. 

The speed in which the festival was cleaned up was amazing. The Japanese are truly efficient.  The festival ended at 5:00. We straggled out around 5:10 and they were half-way cleaned up by then. I imagine that this huge convention hall was spotless by 5:30.

The only regret I have about the sake tasting festival is that the sake flavored gelato ran out before I had a chance to give it a try. One of our friends tried it soon after arriving, because she is obviously much smarter than me. She said it was delicious. I believe her. I've already tried melon, green tea, and red bean ice cream since coming to Japan. All of which were quite interesting. Sake and black pepper are two flavors I'll be on the look out for!

p.s. There are a few pictures of the sake festival in the "Oh, Brother" album, which you can link to on the right hand side of the blog.